Great article Boniface! This part gave me pause: "[E]everything [God] does can be explained by logic." What would Thomas Aquinas say? Kurt Godel? I enjoy your stuff Boniface -- keep it up!
Thanks for the comment. I probably need to clarify that.
We might not know everything God does (again, because he is God). But God does nothing that is illogical. We might not see the logic initially (the way the people in the Christian movies always blame God when their spouse dies of cancer or something), but it has a purpose. When God became Man, it would not be initially apparent why he would step down to become a human person. But when you read something like Cur Deus Homo (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/019954008X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1) by St. Anselm, he goes step by step, logically, why God became Man.
One thing I know about Thomas Aquinas is that he himself is very Aristotelian, very logically oriented.
As for Kurt Gödel, I only know about him in terms of his Incompleteness Theorem. I understand it as there has to be a “oracle” or something outside of every logical system, like a computer program. Someone to “write the program”. The point of the theorem is that a “closed system” cannot exist. As I said, God is not bound to logic, he is the oracle. Logic answers to him. He is outside of logical systems, for he governs them.
Jun 17, 2022·edited Dec 22, 2022Liked by Boniface (Sunday)
Boniface,
Very interesting article, I really enjoyed it. In terms of the question why God became man, I really think Miracles by C.S Lewis puts it so beautifully and I highly recommend it.
"The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares the way for this, or results from this."- from the book.
In the book, Lewis challenges the rationalists, agnostics, and deists on their own grounds and provides a poetic and joyous affirmation that miracles really do occur in our everyday lives. He has at least 4 chapters on the incarnation, I could not have put it better than him.
Great article Boniface! This part gave me pause: "[E]everything [God] does can be explained by logic." What would Thomas Aquinas say? Kurt Godel? I enjoy your stuff Boniface -- keep it up!
Beowulf,
Thanks for the comment. I probably need to clarify that.
We might not know everything God does (again, because he is God). But God does nothing that is illogical. We might not see the logic initially (the way the people in the Christian movies always blame God when their spouse dies of cancer or something), but it has a purpose. When God became Man, it would not be initially apparent why he would step down to become a human person. But when you read something like Cur Deus Homo (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/019954008X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1) by St. Anselm, he goes step by step, logically, why God became Man.
One thing I know about Thomas Aquinas is that he himself is very Aristotelian, very logically oriented.
As for Kurt Gödel, I only know about him in terms of his Incompleteness Theorem. I understand it as there has to be a “oracle” or something outside of every logical system, like a computer program. Someone to “write the program”. The point of the theorem is that a “closed system” cannot exist. As I said, God is not bound to logic, he is the oracle. Logic answers to him. He is outside of logical systems, for he governs them.
I hope this answers your question.
Thanks,
Boniface
Boniface,
Very interesting article, I really enjoyed it. In terms of the question why God became man, I really think Miracles by C.S Lewis puts it so beautifully and I highly recommend it.
"The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares the way for this, or results from this."- from the book.
In the book, Lewis challenges the rationalists, agnostics, and deists on their own grounds and provides a poetic and joyous affirmation that miracles really do occur in our everyday lives. He has at least 4 chapters on the incarnation, I could not have put it better than him.
Thanks and keep on writing,
Saturday