Hick, Unitarianism
Jesus being divine and human are 2 incompatible states. Divinity is infinite, humanity is finite, but not both.
Hick- to say that Jesus is god is like saying a circle is also a square.
Strengthened by OA ‘greatest conceivable being’, but Jesus has a start and end
Gospels
The earliest gospel mark has no written account on of Jesus inherited divinity,/ immaculate conception however in the last gospel which was written many years later, it mentions Jesus divine birth.
The more the historical sources go away from historical events, the less reliable they become. We should trust the 1st account more than the last one as it is more reliable and authentic.
Counter
If Jesus is living in he afterlife and is god, but we all will eventually ascend and live in heaven, that wouldn’t mean that we r god.
St Paul
The trinity is a statement of faith, it is in the nicene creed, every Christian’s needs to beleive in atonement and if Christ was not raised then Christianity would be futile. Without Jesus as the messiah, then Christianity would be Jewish.
John
‘I and the father r 1’
Jesus and god share a common essence. They r equals
Arianism
Interpret ‘1’ as shared goal not substance
Howver part 2
The fact that the gospels were written in different times and different authors, but the stories were similar points towards a divine essence that actually occurred as these authors had no means of contacting each other
‘The Doctrine of the Trinity does not make sense’ (15)
1) God cannot have a beginning or end, but Jesus does
Old Testament=‘no God was formed’ (Isaiah)
This provides compelling evidence to falsify the claim that Jesus is god as He was birthed, created,made and died (a view supported by Arianism’s
TIS as god cannot hv a beginning as He is an uncaused caused-His existence is not contingent on anything else.
Therefore, the Trinity doesn’t make sense as it seems inconsistent with the belief that God is uncreated.
However, this argument can be rendered unintelligible as the trinity is used to help strengthen faith and should NOT be understood thru logic- a view supported by Karl Barth. Therefore, it makes sense, because through the Father, the Son, and especially the Holy Spirit dwelling within believers, Christians can experience a personal relationship with God.
Nonetheless, this is still weak as it dies a death of 1000 qualifications as Christian’s attempt to qualify their belief in the trinity even though it has been disproven by scripture.
‘The Doctrine of the Trinity does not make sense’ (15)
2) mistranslations in relation to Jesus divinity
E.g. Greek word ‘hen’ in the Bible could be interpreted to suggest that Jesus was describing Him and His apostles being united in their shared goal- a view strongly supported by Unitarianists.
Moreover, the Greek word for lord ‘Kurios’ could be interpreted to mean sir/husband/owner
Because kyrios has multiple possible meanings, passages referring to Jesus as “Lord” do not necessarily constitute that he is on par with gods inherited divinity
Since scripture was translated by humans… (human fabrication to elevate Jesus’ divinity, when in reality he could just be an ordinary man who was great at teaching ‘the people were amazed at His teachings’
However, without belief in the divinity of Jesus e.g. resurrection, atonement, Christianity will fall apart.
TIS as Christianity stakes everything on an exclusivist view, therefore if its testimony in relation to Jesus miracles are not true, then Christianity will become a false religion
Nonetheless, this is still weak as to say that Jesus is god is like saying a circle is a square (Hick)
Conc- divinity and humanity r not compatible. Mankind is finite, god is infinite, one cannot be both
