[Vision2020] End of the Trinity Debate

[Nick Gier]

Dear Visionaries,

After waiting patiently for Doug Jones to produce his last response, I'm 
simply going to call an end to our debate on the Trinity.  Some of you will 
remember that this all started in the aftermath of Jones' "debate" with 
Unitarian minister Forrest Church, son of the late Sen. Frank Church on 
September 30, 2003.

For us Jones agreed to a four part debate involving two 400-word salvos on 
both sides and he promised that it would be published in Credenda Agenda, 
Christ Church's slick cover magazine.  He also said that he would link my 
long essay that was my initial response to the Jones-Church debate.  You 
can find that essay and our debate at 
www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/trinity.htm.  Jones was so generous that he 
allowed us two more exchanges.  I wrote one up very quickly, but I've been 
waiting for two months for Jones' final reply.  I'll of course add it if it 
comes in.

Over all I was disappointed in Jones' responses.  He simply repeated 
creedal formulations without giving any detailed defense of his 
position.  He also did not respond to my careful argument from analogy 
about substantial divine unity.  Furthermore, he sounds like a French 
deconsturctionist when he claims that there is no difference between 
rhetoric and substance or that we just make up our own logical rules.  Doug 
Jones and Jacques Derrida, what extremely strange bedfellows!

As Wilson and Co. prepare for their Trinity Festival later this year, it 
might be a good idea for them to explain to the community what they really 
mean by it.  Jones at least cannot explain himself out of a wet paper bag, 
one of my mother's favorite phrases.

Nick Gier
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