It
had literally been a number of months since I last checked in on Dr. Dale
Tuggy's website, Trinities - Theories About the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This last weekend—almost as an afterthought—while
engaged in some online research for an upcoming post on the issue of polytheism
and the Church Fathers, I clicked on the Trinities link in the right side-bar
of AF. The first displayed item was 'Podcast 245 - Response to Branson
Part 3 - Dueling Definitions'. This immediately caught my interest given the
past conversations I have had with Dr. Branson. Turns out that Podcast 245 was
actually the seventh in series focusing on Dr. Branson. The following are the
links to all seven podcasts:
The
first four podcasts are edited versions of Dr. Branson's
presentation/PowerPoint series, "Monarchy of the Father". Links to
the original series HERE.
In
part 1 of Dr. Branson's presentation, he contrasts his definitions of
trinitarianism and unitarianism with those of Dr. Tuggy. Note the following:
MY
[Branson's] DEFINITIONS
●
(TB) A Trinitarian Theology says that:
●
(1) There are exactly three divine "persons" or individuals.
Nevertheless,
●
There is exactly one God.
●
(So, the persons can't all = the One God).
●
(Presumably each one bears some important relation to the one God or has a
"claim" to being called "God," but our definition won't
settle how that works.)
●
(UB) A Unitarian Theology says that:
●
(1) There is eactly one divine "person" or individual, and
●
(2) There is exactly one God.
●
(Presumably these will just be identical, or at least, "numerically
one," but again we won't rule on that point in our definition.
TUGGY'S
DEFINITIONS
●
(TT) "A trinitarian christian theology says that
●
(1) there is one God,
●
(2) which or who in some sense contains or consists of three
"persons," namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
●
(3) who are equally divine, and
●
(4) (1)-(3) are eternally the case."
●
(UT) "A unitarian Christian theology asserts that
●
(1) there is one God,
●
(2) who is numerically identical to the one Jesus called "Father,"
●
(3) and is not numerically identical to anyone else
●
(4) and (1)-(3) are eternally the case."
Running
the risk of over-simplification, it seems to me that the foundational
divergence between Dr. Branson and Dr. Tuggy concerns how broad and/or narrow
one is to define both trinitarianism and unitarianism. Branson believes that
Tuggy's definition of trinitarianism is too narrow, and that his definition of
unitarianism is too broad. Tuggy's assessment is just the opposite—he believes
that Branson's definition of trinitarianism is too broad, whilst his definition
of unitarianism is too narrow.
It
subsequent posts, I hope to offer some of my own musings concerning our topic
at hand (the Lord willing). For now, I am going to 'stick my neck out' by
stating that I believe history offers more support for Branson's views than
Tuggy's.
Grace
and peace,
UPDATE: On 12-10-18, Dr. Tuggy, posted another podcast in his series on Dr. Branson. This eighth installment—podcast 246—can be accessed via THIS LINK.