Psychology of Religion Quotes

“In the first place we are conscious of having as our foundation the metaphysical presupposition of Christianity as it is expressed in the creation doctrine. This means that in God as an absolutely self-contained being, in God as an absolute personality, who exists as the triune God, we have a solution of the one and the many problem. The persons of the trinity are mutually exhaustive. This means that there is no remnant of unconsciousness of potentiality in the being of God. Thus there cannot be anything unknown to God that springs from his own nature. Then too there was nothing existing beyond this God before the creation of the universe. Hence the time-space world cannot be a source of independent particularity. The space-time universe cannot even be a universe of exclusive particularity. It is brought forth by the creative act of God, and this means in accordance with the plan of the universal God. Hence there must be in this world universals as well as particulars. Moreover they can never exist in independence of one another. They must be equally ultimate which means in this case they are both derivative. Now if this is the case God cannot be confronted by an absolute particularity that springs from the space-time universe any more than He can be confronted by an absolute particularity that should spring from a potential aspect of His own being. Hence in God the One and the Many are equally ultimate which in this case means absolutely ultimate.”
― Cornelius Van Til, Psychology of Religion