CHAPTER III
Comparison and Analysis of the Other Competitive
Conceptions of a Triune God
This chapter has two major concerns. The first concern is to present the arguments in favour of Swinburne’s concept of a triune God as well as to make a reasonable response to the challenges posited to Swinburne by two all time great Philosophers of the Christian world, namely Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. The second concern is to compare and analyze Swinburne’s concept of a triune God with other competing conceptions of the selected Christian philosophers of the present era. This second part examines only the three-self theories which advocate that three centres of self consciousness in the Trinity. It is to be noted at the very outset, these scholars
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There cannot be any coherent and meaningful discussion on the numerical identity of the divine persons. The only kind of identity available is the relative one, i.e., identity relative to a kind of a thing. According to Relative identity theories the Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct persons but they are the same God. If the divine persons have numerical identity, then there can be only one divine person in God and if there is relative identity, then the divine persons are not the same according to different perspectives. There is no question of numerical identity of persons, since it is meaningless and incoherent. The only kind of identity is the identity relative to a kind of thing. Thus according to this method, it is coherent to state that the Father is the same as the Son but not the same …show more content…
Social Trinitarianism is a concept that conceives God as a society of three persons who are perfectly united in their mutual love relationship . It follows analytic method, in the sense that it starts with the three divine persons and then tries to explain the concept of the unicity of God. It is typically believed that the Social Trinitarian view is inspired by the writings of the Cappadocian Fathers: Basil the Great (330-379), Basil's younger brother Gregory of Nyssa (c.332-395), who was the bishop of Nyssa; and a close friend of Basil, Gregory of Nazianus (329-389)