Divine Simplicity and its Modern Detractors

According to James Dolezal, “For many theologians the cost of confessing a simple God is simply too much to pay.” Why? Because human language cannot encapsulate God in His essence. These theologians may be open to the doctrine of simplicity up to a point but do not accept the implication that human language cannot “map out God in a one-to-one way.”

In this lecture from the Southern California Reformed Baptist Pastors Conference, Dolezal addresses the various objections to divine simplicity within contemporary theology. Whether these detractors disregard the doctrine, deny the doctrine, or distort the doctrine they relativize God “by rendering him more intelligible to ordinary human ways of speaking and thinking.” It may surprise some, but these detractors are not limited to liberal or mainline theologians but also include some conservative evangelical Calvinists. In the end, Dolezal will demonstrate that compromise regarding divine simplicity soon leads to the collapse of the classical understanding of God.