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God, Modality, and Morality Introduction
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Published:May 2015
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This collection of essays represents my thinking about a connected series of issues in philosophical theology. By reflecting on the question “What differences would God’s existence make to the world and its inhabitants?” one can come to see how the issues are connected. The differences that I explore in answer to the question are chiefly metaphysical and moral. Many of the chapters explore themes and arguments initially developed by such historical figures as Augustine, Philo, Thomas Aquinas, Meister Eckhart, Martin Luther, René Descartes, and Gottfried Leibniz. I am not prone, however, to philosophical veneration: the themes and arguments must pass contemporary muster.
The first order of business is to provide an account of God’s nature that is philosophically defensible and adequate to the conception of deity found in the Abrahamic religions. The account that I offer maintains that God, unlike all other beings, is perfect and simple. Perfection entails that God is essentially immutable, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, and perfectly good, a conscious sovereign and caring personal being who has no equals, flaws, or weaknesses. Simplicity entails that God has no physical or metaphysical parts, temporal stages, or properties. Philosophical critics may have doubts about the tenability of this account, both as a matter of logical plausibility and as a matter of religious accuracy. It would be rash of me to claim to quell all reasonable doubts. But I believe that several of them are dispelled in the chapters that follow, and I am eager to entertain new doubts.
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