Chapter Two: Intrinsic Difficulties
S.1. Preamble
S.2. Intrinsic Difficulties (p37)
2.1 Epistemology: Contemplation of the cosmos by the rational at odds with Jesus the historical; only those reached by bearers of the particular can move from Phase (P1) to (P2) (p38); Abraham consistent with P1 but to stop there would be to make P2 redundant.
2.2 Natural Revelation: "Justification theory (JT) builds from the objective discernment and linkage of certain propositions within creation - a universal recognition and derivation that, in strictly rational terms, is impossible." People must grasp theism, monotheism, transcendence, retributive justice, an ethical system (including monogamy) but a contemporary person contemplating the cosmos would probably not detect any of these and "not one follows from another" (p40).
2.3 Law: In JT a just God and perfect obedience are incompatible (p41); does God favour the Judaic long form or pagan short form of a religious and ethical code? Two codes is unjust (p42-43).
2.4 Anthropology: Human deductive power and innate sinfulness seem incompatible (p44); any spatial separation is metaphorical.
2.5 Theodicy: to hold people to a standard they cannot maintain is unjust (p45-46); relaxing the concept of perfect obedience by mitigation would allow non-Christian salvation (p49); but the transfer of sin from human to Christ is unjust because it transfers the punishment: JT is unjust.
2.6 Christology and Atonement: Why Christ must atone unexplained (p49); Anselm's Cur Deus Homo (p50-51) depends on quantitative justice and equivalence of restitution (p51); punishment moves from equivalence to penalty; Anselm reduces all to the economic (although the church had long struggled against this characterisation), "ludicrous" with respect to God because as creator God can only be deprived of honour and respect (p52); a market place within God to establish price; but JT stands against this idea: Jesus death an equivalence not substituted payment; Anselm moves from Christ's value to his price (p53); economic imagery must be metaphorical; Paul's economic metaphors (p54).
2.7 Faith: The Arminian and the Calvinist (p55). The saving criterion should be clear, information-based, manageable and particular; nothing in P1 indicates that faith will be the criterion in P2. Faith is privileged in Paul but JT cannot explain it (p56). Faith: propositions and content; believing in Christ. Belief voluntarism (Arminianism) (David Hume): you cannot choose or alter what you believe which goes against the contract theory (p57); In P1 people cannot verify theology from the cosmos; so we can neither choose nor verify belief (p58), so Arminianism fails. Calvinism: the saving work not contractual but solely with God; faith, according to Luther, is a gift. The "unaccountable" privileging of faith: "... as God elects such individuals, revealing salvation to them directly, they enter upon the fullness of Christian existence ... from this point they are new creations." Individuals will have faith but only as part of their transformation (p59). The disconnect between the P1 journey and particular election (p60). Other objections (p61).