by jimwalton » Mon Jul 25, 2022 4:27 pm
Just for the record, "trinitarian," not "Trinidadian". Maybe that was an autocorrect problem.
To address your question, I'll quote from Joe Boot: "If God is not the triune Lord revealed in Jesus Christ, then the doctrine of creation is rendered impossible, and man is part of a cosmic chain of being. This is because a monadic conception of God as some kind of singularity leaves us with the emptiness and void of non-personality as ultimate reality. If there is no plurality within God’s being, then there is no subject-object relationship, no particularity, but instead only a blank unity. In such a view of God there can be no foundation for knowledge, love, morality, or ethics. Indeed, without an absolute personality, there is no diversity or distinction basic to reality at all; ultimate reality is a bare unity about which nothing may be said. This is why the Trinity is so important in tackling the philosophical problem of the one and the many."
In other words, it is necessary that God is a plurality. If we deny that, we deny absolute personality. Since God is necessarily a plurality, it is therefore necessary that God's nature of love is expressed between the persons of the Trinity. The Father and the Son and the Spirit love each other. In your manner of speaking, it is necessary that God loves Himself.
But if you mean in some kind of irrational or selfish narcissistic self-love, no, God is not involved in or guilty of that. God does not have an excessive preoccupation with Hiss own needs, and certainly not at the expense of others.
Just for the record, "trinitarian," not "Trinidadian". Maybe that was an autocorrect problem.
To address your question, I'll quote from Joe Boot: "If God is not the triune Lord revealed in Jesus Christ, then the doctrine of creation is rendered impossible, and man is part of a cosmic chain of being. This is because a monadic conception of God as some kind of singularity leaves us with the emptiness and void of non-personality as ultimate reality. If there is no plurality within God’s being, then there is no subject-object relationship, no particularity, but instead only a blank unity. In such a view of God there can be no foundation for knowledge, love, morality, or ethics. Indeed, without an absolute personality, there is no diversity or distinction basic to reality at all; ultimate reality is a bare unity about which nothing may be said. This is why the Trinity is so important in tackling the philosophical problem of the one and the many."
In other words, it is necessary that God is a plurality. If we deny that, we deny absolute personality. Since God is necessarily a plurality, it is therefore necessary that God's nature of love is expressed between the persons of the Trinity. The Father and the Son and the Spirit love each other. In your manner of speaking, it is necessary that God loves Himself.
But if you mean in some kind of irrational or selfish narcissistic self-love, no, God is not involved in or guilty of that. God does not have an excessive preoccupation with Hiss own needs, and certainly not at the expense of others.