The Trinity and the Vindication of Christian Paradox: An Interpretation and Refinement of the Theological Apologetic of Cornelius Van Til

A study of the Dutch Calvinist Cornelius Van Til's view of the paradox of the Trinity, offering a fruitful resolution through presuppositionalist apologetics.

The Trinity and the Vindication of Christian Paradox' grapples with the question of how one may hold together the ideals of systematic theology, apologetic proof, and theological paradox by building on the insights of Cornelius Van Til. Van Til developed an apologetic where one presupposes that the Triune God exists, and then proves this Christian presupposition by demonstrating that philosophies that deny it are self-defeating in the specific sense that they rely on principles that only the Trinity, as the ultimate harmony of unity and diversity, can furnish. A question raised by Van Til's trademark procedure is how he can evade the charge that the apparent contradictions of the christian faith render it equally self-defeating as non-
Christian alternatives. This text argues that for Van Til, Christian paradoxes can be differentiated from genuine contradictions by the way that their apparently opposing elements discernibly require one another, even as they present our minds with an irresolvable conflict. And yet, Van Til failed to sufficiently vindicate the central Christian paradox-the doctrine of the Trinity-along the lines required by his system. Hence, the present text offers a unique proof that God can only exist as the pinnacle of unity-in-diversity, and as the ground of a coherent Christian system, if He exists as three, and only three, divine persons.

B.A. Bosserman (PhD, Bangor) is an adjunct professor of philosophy at Northwest University, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America, and the church planting pastor of Trinitas Presbyterian Church.