The Arian Controversy (Truth Matters) [28:06]
by Alex Hall rated at 3.2 (12 votes so far)
Alex Hall of London tells the story of how the church vacillated between Arius and Athanasius during the fourth century. By focusing on the dueling councils during that period (a.d. 318-381) Alex paints a picture, which, although disturbing to those of us who would like to think that such matters as the deity of Christ were always clear, accurately describes how politics heavily influenced the development of theology during that time. A good deal of Alex's work was influenced by When Jesus Became God by Richard Rubenstein. If this conversation has piqued your interest in this subject I highly recommend reading Rubenstein's book as it fills out the details in a readable manner. Alex's conclusion is that we should not trust either side since both used ungodly means to achieve their goal of winning the debate, rather, we should practice the Berean exercise of searching the Scriptures to see whether these things are so (Acts 17.11).
books
These books, written by people from diverse backgrounds, express the simple truth that God is one. Some of them are more scholary while others are more autobiographical. In addition, a few of them are available to read online. If you would like more in depth treatment of christian monotheism, these books are the next step to take. Note: if you know of other books, not listed here, please leave us feedback.
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The Problem of the Trinity
by David Kemball-Cook [13 pages]
rated at 3.6 (out of 4 votes)
It is the thesis of this paper that there is no viable route between modalism and tritheism for a Trinity defined in the ways that theologians have attempted. There is no internally consistent way of defining or explaining a Trinity which does not result in shipwreck either on the ‘Scylla’ of modalism or in the ‘Charybdis’ of tritheism. There are three ambiguities and confusions in the attempted definitions of the Trinity which have tended to obscure these difficulties.