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

308 Pages·2016·3.22 MB·English

by  B. A. Bosserman

Table of Contents
Title Page
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Abbreviations
Part 1: The Origins of Van Til’s Theological Apologetic
Chapter 1: Old Princeton
Chapter 2: Old Amsterdam
Chapter 3: Absolute Idealism
Part 2: Van Til’s Orthodox Trinitarian System
Chapter 4: Transcendental Argument from and for the Trinity
Chapter 5: Trinitarian Theory of Knowledge
Chapter 6: Trinitarian Logic
Chapter 7: Coherent Trinitarian Theology
Part 3: Critique
Chapter 8: The Looming Problem of Paradox
Part 4: Trinitarian Vindication of Christian Paradox
Chapter 9: God (Theology)
Chapter 10: Reality (Metaphysics)
Chapter 11: Nature and Man (Epistemology and Ethics)
Chapter 12: Fall and Salvation (Hamartiology and Soteriology)
Conclusion
Bibliography
The Trinity and the Vindication of Christian Paradox
An Interpretation and Refinement of the Theological
Apologetic of Cornelius Van Til
B. A. BOSSERMAN
FOREWORD BY K. SCOTT OLIPHINT
The Trinity and the Vindication of Christian
Paradox An Interpretation and Refinement of the
Theological Apologetic of Cornelius Van Til
Copyright © 2014 B. A. Bosserman. All rights
reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical
publications or reviews, no part of this book may
be reproduced in any manner without prior
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ISBN 13: 978-1-62564-128-1
EISBN 13: 978-1-63087-496-4
Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Bosserman, B.
A.
The Trinity and the vindication of Christian
paradox : an interpretation and refinement of the
theological apologetic of Cornelius Van Til / B.
A. Bosserman, with a foreword by K. Scott
Oliphint xxiv + 268 p. ; 23 cm. Includes
bibliographical references.
ISBN 13: 978-1-62564-128-1
1. Van Til, Cornelius, 1895–1987. 2.
Apologetics. 3. Trinity. 4. Christianity—
Philosophy. I. Oliphint, K. Scott. II. Title.
BX9225.V37 B788 2014
Manufactured in the U.S.A.
Scripture Quotations are taken from the New
American Standard Bible. Copyright 1997 by the
Lockman Foundation
To Thomas George Bossserman
Who taught me to love the biblical Scriptures
The Triune God from whom they came
And to whom they bear witness
Foreword
As one who has labored for decades to understand, articulate, and re-articulate
Cornelius Van Til’s Reformed approach to the discipline of apologetics, I have
normally been aware of other scholars in the field whose concerns have been
coincident with mine. One day, I received an email from Brant Bosserman, with
his doctoral dissertation attached, from which this work is taken. I had never
heard of Dr. Bosserman, so my instinct was to do (unfortunately) what I do with
virtually all emails of this nature—consign it to the digital trash bin. I rarely
have time to read what is required of me, much less what comes to me “out of
the blue.” But, since this work was focused on Van Til’s thought, I decided that I
should at least skim it.
My attempt to skim Dr. Bosserman’s dissertation turned to serious and
concentrated reading. I read every page, some more than once. By the time I had
finished this work, I recognized that Dr. Bosserman had successfully focused his
energies on a topic that is not only central to the Christian faith, but that is
central to all of Van Til’s thought. I set this work aside and thought, “Why
hasn’t this been done before?”
There are a number of responses to that question. One response would be that,
though Van Til’s apologetic method has its genesis in an affirmation of the
ontological Trinity, many of the criticisms of Van Til’s thought have,
historically, focused on other things. For example, there has been, and continues
to be, serious misunderstandings about what, exactly, Van Til means by the
notion of “presupposition.” There have been those who have seen Van Til’s
rejection of the standard formulations of the “theistic proofs” as a concession to
fideism. There have been, in other words, pressing matters of clarity that needed,
and still need, to be addressed. Whatever the reasons, however, the topic that is
given its due herein is not by any means tangential to Van Til’s thinking; it is the
warp and woof of everything that he believed, taught and wrote.
Without question, the most radical, revolutionary, requisite and Reformed
aspect of the apologetic set forth by Van Til was his insistence that one’s defense
of Christianity must begin with the ontological Trinity. No apologist prior to him
had argued such a thing, in part because it meant that the discipline of
apologetics must self-consciously begin with Scripture. So, says Van Til:
[A] consistently Christian method of apologetic argument, in agreement
with its own basic conception of the starting point, must be by
presupposition. To argue by presupposition is to indicate what are the
epistemological and metaphysical principles that underlie and control
one’s method. The Reformed apologist will frankly admit that his own
methodology presupposes the truth of Christian theism. Basic to all the
doctrines of Christian theism is that of the self-contained God, or, if we
wish, that of the ontological trinity. It is this notion of the ontological
trinity that ultimately controls a truly Christian methodology. Based upon
this notion of the ontological trinity and consistent with it, is the concept
of the counsel of God according to which all things in the created world
are regulated.1
Everything that Van Til wrote and taught has its center in the distinctly
Christian, biblical truth of God’s Triunity. The fact that God is One in Three
must take its rightful place in the theology of any Christian, and especially any
Reformed Christian. Not only so, but as goes one’s theology, so ought to go
one’s apologetic; a Trinitarian theology demands a Trinitarian apologetic as
well.
But, in spite of Van Til’s consistent emphasis throughout his career and his
writings, the fact of God’s Triunity has not yet ascended to its rightful place,
especially in the area of a Christian defense of the faith, and the theology that
must undergird that defense. Generally speaking, when mention is made of Van
Til’s emphasis on the Trinity, the discussion usually turns to the philosophical
problem of the “one and the many.” Aside from that, little is said, and even less
is elaborated.
One can peruse the books and writings of authors who follow in Van Til’s
line (including mine!) and there will not be a primary and focused articulation of
the Trinity, and the implications of that doctrine, in virtually any of them. There
is “honorable mention” made in most works, and some have wanted to move
from that doctrine to possible implications, but none of us has, in my opinion,
drawn out the deep and rich entailments that a rich, robust, Reformed doctrine of
the Trinity requires for the way that we think about the world, about our
theology, and about apologetics. This is not as it should be.
We owe Dr. Bosserman a debt of deep gratitude for mounting the difficulties
of Van Til’s Trinitarian thought, grabbing the reins, spurring it in the side, and
moving it forward, as he guides us through the trail of the rich and radical
contours that have otherwise been lying pent up and dormant, virtually hidden
from view.
With the pathway now clearer because of Dr. Bosserman’s work, those of us
who seek to follow in Van Til’s line can better recognize its direction, as well as
its boundaries. There will be more brush to clear along the way; a work of this
depth and breadth is bound to have a few briars and brambles still remaining in
the path. But the Trinitarian trail, mapped out by Van Til, has now been
extensively trod. Its end has not been reached, and we may want to sidestep it in
places in order to mark off a better side-path, but wisdom points to the trail Dr.
Bosserman has blazed as the best place to begin.
K. Scott Oliphint
Professor of Apologetics and Systematic Theology,
Westminster Theological Seminary

1 . DF4, 121–22.
Acknowledgments
This is based on a thesis originally submitted to the University of Bangor for the
award of Doctor of Philosophy in 2011. Many individuals are deserving of
thanks for aiding me to complete that initial project. I wish to thank first of all
Dr. Keith Warrington, and especially Professor Julian Ward for their invaluable
critique, guidance, and encouragement in the production of the present
manuscript. I also thank my father and mother, Tom and Marilyn Bosserman,
and sister and brother in-law, Noelle and Jon Baylor for their regular prayer,
support, and interest in this project; my brother Dustin Bosserman for thoroughly
editing this thesis and engaging its main ideas, despite his fundamental
disagreement with Christian theism; and the many theologians who have
contributed to Van Til scholarship—James N. Anderson, John M. Frame, K.
Scott Oliphint, Vern S. Poythress, Ralph Allan Smith, and Lane G. Tipton—
whose influence, although from a distance in the initial production of my thesis,
is thoroughly reflected in this manuscript. A special thanks to K. Scott Oliphint,
James Anderson, Ralph Alan Smith, and my examiner Daniel J. Hill for their
willingness to read my manuscript, and to offer insights as to how I might
modify and/or better develop my main arguments. Second only to the Lord
Himself, the author is thankful to his children Nicea, Chalcedon, and Augustine,
and most of all to his wife Heather Bosserman for the many sacrifices that they
have made on account of this project, and their unceasing faith that the Lord
would bring it to completion.