Making Divine Simplicity Simple: Rediscovering Who and What God Is Chris Morrison, MA, MDiv © 2015 Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................... iii Part 1: Divine Simplicity: What It Is and the Argument for It Chapter 1: What Is Divine Simplicity? ..................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Is Divine Simplicity True? A Traditional Argument ................................ 6 Chapter 3: Is Divine Simplicity True? A Philosophical Argument: Part 1 God’s Existence .................................................................................. 13 Chapter 4: Is Divine Simplicity True? A Philosophical Argument: Part 2 God’s Nature ...................................................................................... 23 Part 2: Divine Simplicity: Considering Its Critiques Chapter 5: Divine Simplicity, Philosophy, and the Bible ........................................ 36 Chapter 6: Objections to Divine Simplicity God’s Attributes and Divine Complexity .............................................. 42 Chapter 7: Objections to Divine Simplicity God as Person or Property ................................................................. 51 Chapter 8: Objections to Divine Simplicity God’s Relationship to the Time ........................................................... 58 Chapter 9: Objections to Divine Simplicity God’s Relationship to the World.......................................................... 65 Chapter 10: Objections to Divine Simplicity God’s Relationship to the Change and Freedom ................................ 73 Chapter 11: Objections to Divine Simplicity God’s Sovereignty and Human Free Will ............................................ 77 Chapter 12: Objections to Divine Simplicity The Trinity........................................................................................... 84 Part 3: Divine Simplicity: Its Benefits — Answering “So What?” Chapter 13: Some Apologetic Benefits of Divine Simplicity .................................... 89 Chapter 14: Some Devotional Benefits of Divine Simplicity .................................... 97 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 107 ii Introduction There is a largely forgotten idea about God that the Christian Church has taught for the past 1800 years (at least). It is one that goes to the very nature of what He1 is and what He is not. It is so deep and profound that it has historically governed much, if not most, of what the Church has said or not said about Him. In fact, not only have Christians historically held to it, but so to have Muslims, Jews, and even a range of secular philosophers throughout history. And yet, even in the midst of this wide agreement on the matter, the chances are that unless you are an academic, a philosopher, or a seminary student, you have probably never heard of it (and even if you are one of those three, you might still not have!). This book is about that idea, why it is important, and why you should understand it. It is called Divine Simplicity (for the rest of this book, I may also refer to it as Simplicity or DS). Don’t let the name fool you. If you thought the Trinity is mind bending, let me assure you that this one is even harder. In short, there is nothing simple about Simplicity. Still, I am convinced that a good deal of our misunderstandings and arguments about God would go away—in fact, they would seem downright silly—if we understood what the Church has always said on this matter. So I’m going to try to explain it. I don’t expect it will be easy for me to do so, and I hope you don’t expect it will be particularly easy for you, either. Still, I’m going to try to make this as painless as I can. I’m going to avoid as much academic language and philosophy as possible. I won’t be quoting this scholar and that paper, so there won’t be many footnotes at the bottom of the pages. I won’t be throwing Greek and Latin terms at you, and on the very rare instances I have to use technical jargon, I’ll be sure to explain it as clearly as I can and get away from it as soon as possible. If it isn’t clear what the purpose and nature of this work is already, then, let me put it plainly now: I am writing this book in non-technical language for a non-technical audience in hopes of explaining and defending a very technical issue. This is not at all intended to be a scholarly account, so I ask my scholarly readers in advance for your forgiveness as there will be times that you can expect to want to pull your hair out (if you have any left after all those years of study) if and when I gloss over some issues. There 1 I will always use the capitalized masculine pronouns to refer to God (“He,” “Him,” etc.). I realize that such language makes some people uncomfortable, but beyond any theological arguments one way or the other, it is simply convention. Honestly, I get frustrated at reading “he or she”—it just makes for bad writing—and to be rather frank, I’m not going to spend the time writing the phrase out every time. If the language bothers you, I ask only for your patience and forgiveness on this matter of style. iii is a place for technical literature. This is not it. For those who want a more technical analysis of DS and its associated problems, I would point you to my thesis, which is available on my blog at http://cmmorrison.wordpress.com/papers. In short, if you want to understand DS and don’t want to spend hours or even years studying Aristotelian and Thomistic metaphysics (you could well be confused at the mere mention of those few words!), then this book is for you. I’m going to divide this work into three parts totaling fourteen chapters. Part One is a general discussion of what Simplicity is and why we should affirm it. So in the first chapter, I will offer a quick primer on what the doctrine actually teaches—its definition, what it does say, and what it does not. Don’t be surprised if you have more questions than answers at that point. You’ll probably first be struck at just how odd Simplicity is. You’ll probably then be surprised at how complicated this Simplicity turns out to be. And following that, you’ll likely find yourself wondering, “So what?” Try to hold off on the “So what?” question. Before we get to it, we’ll need to know why people believe it in the first place, which I’ll do in chapters two, three, and four, which complete Part One. I actually think those chapters are the most important of this book, because they get to the heart of the matter. In chapter two, I’m going to present the first argument for why we ought to accept DS, which will be based on traditionally accepted ideas of what it means to be God anyway. In other words, if you already believe in God, the chances are you already believe certain things about Him to be true. There’s not a ton of philosophy in that section, and if you are already a Bible-believing Christian, you’ll probably find it the most interesting. Chapters three and four together make up the second argument and are something of a unit in themselves. In chapter three, I’m going to present an argument for God’s existence. Please note that the purpose of this book is not apologetic—that is, I’m not writing to prove that God actually exists, so don’t get too excited about learning a new proof for God that you can use to win a debate. I actually teach apologetics (that is, how we know what we believe is true), so I’m quite a fan of arguments for His existence. I use many of them frequently. I think this one is pretty good, too, but I’m probably not going in enough detail for you to go out and use this to prove to your atheist friends that God exists. If you want to see this argument in that context, go get Edward Feser’s The Last Superstition. For now, just know that I’m going to use this argument precisely because it gives us some important language to talk about God’s nature so that we can see why DS must be true. In other words, my interests here are primarily theological rather than apologetic. That gets us into chapter four. There, I’m going to make an argument based on the argument made in chapter three. I can’t help but get into some philosophical ideas, but I’ll do my best to make it as easy as I can for you. So just get some coffee, find a quiet iv place, and enjoy the ride. The rewards are, I think, well worth the work! And, best of all, if you get a grip on that material, it will pay off major dividends not only as you go through the rest of the book but as you think about God in your own quiet time, study, and meditations. So ends Part One. Part Two is comprised of chapters five through twelve and takes up the bulk of the volume of this book. Here, we’re going to look at some of the major objections to Divine Simplicity. This section has two purposes. First, and most obviously, we want to take seriously the objections of very good and very smart men and women and consider their reasons for rejecting the doctrine. At the same time that we work to overcome those objections, though, we’ll also enjoy the benefit of getting to clarify just what DS teaches at a more detailed level. Getting started there, then, the fifth chapter is written primarily for Christians, and evangelical, Bible believing Christians in particular. They (or I should say “we,” as I consider myself an evangelical, Bible believing Christian) tend to want to make sure whatever is said about God is at least consistent with Scripture and even better that it comes directly from Scripture.