Multiple Location and Christian Philosophical Theology

Abstract

This paper discusses how the possibility of multi-located entities can resolve problems both with the Trinity (i.e., there being one God and three divine people, or the Father knowing things that the numerically identical Son does not) and with the existence of souls.

An episodic account of divine personhood

“…But I don't have the space to defend Markosian's interpretation of The Mummy case in detail, and that is not the purpose of this paper. My 5 In the service of developing a model of the Trinity, Effingham (2015) has also presented a case of this sort -an even more exotic one involving synchronic multilocation. 6 This characterization of the Mummy case as involving mere change and not going in or out of existence is indebted to lecture notes where Markosian suggests that one could view death as merely changing rather than going out of existence.…”

“…1 Naturally, any view which identifies the divine persons with each other invites worries about modalism, with one author alleging that the idea is 'quite straightforwardly heretical'. 2 But the minority insists that, though the Father, Son, and Spirit are numerically identical, none of them 1 Perhaps the clearest case is Effingham (2015). Effingham claims to be following in the footsteps of Leftow (2004) on this point, but it's unclear whether he is right about that.…”

The Eucharistic Conquest of Time

“…Nikk Effingham correctly observes that there are different brands of multilocation, and we should not confuse them: one multilocation is atemporal and another is temporally relativized. 49 Temporally relativized multilocation applies to entities that are exactly located at multiple regions of space at the same time. Atemporal multilocation applies to entities that are exactly located at multiple regions of time.…”

Multilocation and Parsimony

“…Butakov ). But there are also multilocation models of the Trinity (Effingham , forthcoming), mind–body dualism (Effingham ), and resurrection (Hudson ).…”

“…Butakov 2017). But there are also multilocation models of the Trinity(Effingham 2015, forthcoming), mind-body dualism(Effingham 2015), and resurrection(Hudson 2010). 3 I borrow the name 'Problem of Parsimony' from Hudson (2005 ch.…”