Klee highways and byways 1929
Analytic Theology and the Tri Personal God : the Trinitarian Renewal in Analytic Tradition
UCL - Louvain - Louvain-la-Neuve 12-14 September
Analytical philosophy of religion was in its early stages an examination of religious beliefs, religious language and the arguments pro or against theism. However many philosophers and theologians work recently on many other topics related to Christian doctrine, around the resurrection, Eucharist, and the nature of the God and the Trinity. This renewal is linked to analytic theology and the analytic philosophy of religion, which utilizes the tools and methods of the analytic tradition for the purposes of a Christian theology,
The traditional doctrine of the Trinity, a central and essential element of Christian theology, was a central topic in this recent renewal. Trinitarian doctrine considers that there are three distinct Persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and that each of these Persons is God. That is to say that the Three Persons are both distinct and identical but it seems to be logically incoherent. The difficulty isn’t just that the doctrine of the Trinity is mysterious. This problem is a serious philosophical problem. On the one hand we have the problem of material constitution. On the other hand, we have the logical problem of the Trinity, or, the threeness-oneness problem. Two traditional camps try to resolve these problems: Latin Trinitarians and Greek (or Social) Trinitarians. Analytical philosophers and theologians explore these main camps: from one side Alvin Plantinga, Richard Swinburne, James Moreland, William L. Craig, etc. defend the social trinitarianism and on the other side, Brian Leftow, William Hasker, and Dale Tuggy defend the Latin trinitarianism. Most recently, two news models defend: the Relative Identity Strategy (Peter Geach, Peter van Inwagen) and the constitutional model (Jeffrey Brower, Michael Rea).
The problematic question we would work on is: what is new in the Trinitarian Renewal in Analytic Tradition? We expect to analyze the analytical contribution to the traditional Trinitarian theology, but also, the problems raised by the analytical approach.
Financed by Universität Innsbruck, John Templeton Foundation, Institut Jean-Nicod
- Olivier Riaudel, UCL
- Dominique Lambert, UNamur
- Frédéric Nef, EHESS
- Alejandro Perez, UCL
- Olivier Riaudel, UCL
- Dominique Lambert, UNamur
- Frédéric Nef, EHESS
- Roger Pouivet, Université de Lorraine
- Cyrille Michon, Université de Nantes
- Alejandro Perez, UCL
- 12th September a.m.
Methodological and Historical Issues
Richard Cross (University of Notre Dame): Analytical Theology and Historical Theology: The Case of the Trinity
Jean-Baptiste Guillon (Collège de France): The Data, the Paradox and the Mystery
Annemarie Mayer (KULeuven): Trinitarian as Analytic Theology: Chances and Pitfalls
- 13th September a.m.
What is a Divine Person?
Richard Swinburne (University of Oxford): The Social Theory of the Trinity - its Historical and Philosophical Justification
Roger Pouivet (Université de Lorraine - Institut Universitaire de France): McCabe on the Persons of the Trinity
- 13th September p.m.
Main Models of the Trinity?
Thomas Schärtl-Trendel (Universität Regensburg): Moving beyond Social Trinitarianism - Metaphysics and our Understanding of the Trinity
Frédéric Nef (EHESS - Institut Jean-Nicod): Leibniz’s Logic of Relations and Connections
- 14th September a.m.
Relative Identity Theories
Peter van Inwagen (University of Notre Dame): Richard Cartwright on Logic and the Trinity
Cyrille Michon (Université de Nantes): Social Trinity: sic et non
All contributions should be submitted to Olivier Riaudel (<olivier.riaudel@uclouvain.be>) on 31st August 2018. Contributions can be in English or in French. Abstracts should be susceptible for blind-review and contain: (1) the title of your talk; (2) the section corresponding to your talk; (3) an abstract of the paper to be presented (500 words).
This Symposium aims at mapping the recent debates and controversies and to answer the question: what is new in the philosophical and theological renewal concerning the Trinity within the Analytic Tradition? We expect to analyze the analytical contribution to the traditional Trinitarian theology, but also, the problems raised by the analytical approach. The conference explores possible answers to this question in three sections.
- What is a Divine Person?
- Main Models of the Trinity
- Relative Identity Theories
We will consider questions such as (but are not limited to):
What are implications for conceiving God as a person?
What is a “person”?
There is exactly one God?
What is a mode?
Is God a self?
Is there a trope of deity?
How can we understand what is meant by saying that the Trinitarian Three are
hypostases?
Could there be more than one God?
Is God an Abstract Object?
What would be a solution to the Logical Problem of the Trinity?
What is the nature of the unity and diversity in the Trinity?
What is a “nature”?
How can we understand the “identity” in the Trinity?
Is there exactly one God?
There are exactly three divine persons?
The three divine persons can be not-identical but numerically the same?
Is standard logic of identity inconsistent with Trinitarian doctrine?
L'inscription est gratuite, il est cependant obligatoire de s'inscrire via le formulaire ci-dessous.