BU Society Hosts Debate
June 24th, 2008 by Sean
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The Biblical Unitarian Society at the University of Southampton, UK, has hosted a debate on the Trinity. The debate occurred on June 16th, 2008. Representing the trinitarian side were two Anglicans, Prof. Keith Fox and Chris Halls both from Highfield Church. The two biblical unitarians that participated in the debate were Ray Faircloth of Restoration Fellowship and Thomas Gaston, a Christadelphian. The debate lasted nearly three hours and is available now online in both audio and video formats.
Program Timetable
Introduction by Michael Ng [5 min]Opening Statement by trinitarian Chris Halls [20 min]
Opening Statement by unitarian Thomas Gaston [20 min]
Opening Statement by trinitarian Prof. Keith Fox [20 min]
Opening Statement by unitarian Ray Faircloth [20 min]Rebuttal by trinitarian Chris Halls [5 min]
Rebuttal by unitarian Thomas Gaston [5 min]
Rebuttal by trinitarian Prof. Keith Fox [5 min]
Rebuttal by unitarian Ray Faircloth [5 min]Q&A [approx 45 min]
Video [watch] [download]
Audio [listen] [download]
Note: the video file is quite large and may take some time to buffer when watching online.
No cross-examination period; that’s too bad. This would have been a debate all the more with one. I’ll have to watch and see, perhaps the Q&A isn’t strictly audience questions and some semblance of questions between the participants will take place.
I certainly concur with Patrick that a strict questioning would have been a very good idea. It seems to me that the Trinity gets away with never quite exposing itself. It hides. The point for the unitarians is the question of whether our Christian faith is to be built on Jesus or not. Since Jesus recites and approves as the most important command of all (or part of it) belief in the unitary monotheistic creed of Israel, then does that not automatically mean that the real Christian creed is unitarian, following Jesus. Or is it credible that we claim Jesus as our founder and then cleverly reject his definition of God?
I think that in further debates that question ought to be asked from the very beginning. In other words “are you Trinitarians proposing that Jesus be disregarded in the matter of defining how many God is?” Can we just dispense with Jesus’ definition of God?
Or are Trinitarians going to argue that Jesus, agreeing with a Jewish, scribe, was in fact advocating a Trinitarian creed?
This is the important question which often is not faced by Trinitarians, while they chase unitarians around the board with arguments most from John! Anthony