This is the weekly Q & A blog postal service by our Enquiry Professor in Philosophy, Dr. William Lane Craig.

Question

I would like to ask a clarifying question, and also enquire you lot to consider some implications of your view on the Trinity.

For reference sake, here is the view to which I'g referring: "Suppose, then, that God is a soul which is endowed with three complete sets of rational cognitive faculties, each sufficient for personhood. And so God, though i soul, would not be one person but three, for God would have three centers of cocky-consciousness, intentionality, and volition, as Social Trinitarians maintain. God would clearly not be iii discrete souls because the cognitive faculties in question are all faculties belonging to just i soul, one immaterial substance. God would therefore be 1 being which supports 3 persons, just as our individual beings each support i person."

Clarifying question: I accept not seriously studied metaphysics nevertheless. Can you explain to me what exactly you mean by "soul" in this context? If "soul" isn't shorthand for "rational cognitive faculties," I don't know what it is. You lot claim that "God would not exist 3 discrete souls considering the cognitive faculties in question are all faculties belonging to just one soul, ane immaterial substance." What exactly is this immaterial substance to which these iii sets of rational faculties vest? To ask this from another angle: what would exist dissimilar if God were to have 3 souls? Aside from beingness unorthodox, what would it fifty-fifty mean for God to have 3 souls? I have a feeling you'd answer that information technology would involve God not being unified. Just I all the same feel dislocated: what exactly is this nebulous "thing" that unifies things these persons?

And as for its implications: have you ever considered how this relates to the doctrines of glorification and/or theosis? In what sense volition we, every bit Peter describes, "participate in the divine nature?" Is the "divine nature" equivalent to God's soul? And if so, will we be non-divine persons attached to this soul? Would we be vest to this soul in the same way the Father, Son, and Spirit do, the only difference being that we are non divine persons? I have a feeling the reply would be "no," only why?

Also: what implications would this view of the Trinity accept on the Incarnation? I understand that you hold to Neo-Apollinarian views of the incarnation. Would you say that Jesus' consciousness would in his incarnation belong to both the "God soul" and a "Human Jesus soul"?

Thanks for your fourth dimension skillful sir,

Over and out.

Jordan

United States

Dr. William Lane Craig's Response

Dr. William Lane Craig

By a soul I mean a living, spiritual substance. In characterizing God as a soul, I mean what Jesus meant when he said, "God is spirit" (John 4.24). A human soul has rational cognitive faculties but is not identical with its rational faculties, since faculties are not something that exist on their own in abstraction from the matter that has them. What is a soul? It's what yous are without your body.

Nosotros normally assume that a rational soul is identical to a person. Only that's considering we are familiar but with souls endowed with at nearly 1 set of rational faculties sufficient for personhood. My proffer is that we recall of God as a soul endowed with three sets of rational faculties, each sufficient for personhood, and then that God is tri-personal.

Your question, "what would information technology fifty-fifty hateful for God to have three souls?" is reminiscent of Cerberus, the mythological 3-headed dog, which might be taken to take 3 souls inhabiting one canine body. But obviously God is not like that, since God has no body. If you mean, "what would it hateful for God to be three souls?", then the answer is that God would be a group, like the Boston Crimson Sox. Obviously, that is polytheism, not monotheism, and therefore unacceptable.

"What exactly is this nebulous 'thing' that unifies . . . these persons?" It is the spiritual substance whose faculties they are. It is the immaterial entity or existence which has these faculties.

I am non enamored with the doctrine of theosis, the idea that we shall come to somehow participate in the divine nature. The divine nature is God'due south essential backdrop. Nosotros shall never come up to be omnipotent, omniscient, eternal, metaphysically necessary, morally perfect, etc. A creature ever remains a created thing. The Church building Fathers who espoused this doctrine didn't mean that nosotros shall literally become deified simply only that we shall exist glorified and shed our mortality and abuse. That truth should not be obscured by talk of deification.

When I spoke several years ago at a retreat of the Christian Medical Guild, one of the doctors took u.s.a. aside and said, "You should understand in speaking to this group that most doctors resent the fact that they were non made the quaternary member of the Trinity!" No fright that that might happen! So in respond to your question, "Would we be belong to this soul in the same way the Father, Son, and Spirit practice, the only difference existence that nosotros are not divine persons?", it is impossible for united states to become office of God, for we are created souls, distinct from the soul that God is. We shall come into closer human relationship with God, but the Creator/animate being distinction remains inviolate.

With regard to my suggested model of the incarnation, you could in a sense say that "Jesus' consciousness would in his incarnation vest to both the 'God soul' and a 'Homo Jesus soul'," then long as y'all understand that the model doesn't posit a "man Jesus soul" distinct from the "God soul." Information technology would be clearer to say that the ready of rational faculties of God'due south soul that are the Son's faculties are also Jesus' faculties, or more simply that the person who is Jesus is identical to the 2nd person of the Trinity.

This post and other resources are available on Dr. William Lane Craig'southward website: www.reasonablefaith.org

Learn more about Dr. Craig'south volume, A Reasonable Response.