Maximal God
Maximal God

Author: Yujin Nagasawa

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0198758685

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Yujin Nagasawa presents a new, stronger version of perfect being theism, the conception of God as the greatest possible being. Although perfect being theism is the most common form of monotheism in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition its truth has been disputed by philosophers and theologians for centuries. Nagasawa proposes a new, game-changing defence of perfect being theism by developing what he calls the 'maximal concept of God'. Perfect being theists typically maintain that God is an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent being; according to Nagasawa, God should be understood rather as a being that has the maximal consistent set of knowledge, power, and benevolence. Nagasawa argues that once we accept the maximal concept we can establish perfect being theism on two grounds. First, we can refute nearly all existing arguments against perfect being theism simultaneously. Second, we can construct a novel, strengthened version of the modal ontological argument for perfect being theism. Nagasawa concludes that the maximal concept grants us a unified defence of perfect being theism that is highly effective and economical.

Maximal God
Maximal God

Author: Yujin Nagasawa

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017-10-13

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0191076430

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Yujin Nagasawa presents a new, stronger version of perfect being theism, the conception of God as the greatest possible being. Although perfect being theism is the most common form of monotheism in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition its truth has been disputed by philosophers and theologians for centuries. Nagasawa proposes a new, game-changing defence of perfect being theism by developing what he calls the 'maximal concept of God'. Perfect being theists typically maintain that God is an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent being; according to Nagasawa, God should be understood rather as a being that has the maximal consistent set of knowledge, power, and benevolence. Nagasawa argues that once we accept the maximal concept we can establish perfect being theism on two grounds. First, we can refute nearly all existing arguments against perfect being theism simultaneously. Second, we can construct a novel, strengthened version of the modal ontological argument for perfect being theism. Nagasawa concludes that the maximal concept grants us a unified defence of perfect being theism that is highly effective and economical.

Maximal God
Maximal God

Author: Yujin Nagasawa

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017-10-06

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0191076422

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Yujin Nagasawa presents a new, stronger version of perfect being theism, the conception of God as the greatest possible being. Although perfect being theism is the most common form of monotheism in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition its truth has been disputed by philosophers and theologians for centuries. Nagasawa proposes a new, game-changing defence of perfect being theism by developing what he calls the 'maximal concept of God'. Perfect being theists typically maintain that God is an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent being; according to Nagasawa, God should be understood rather as a being that has the maximal consistent set of knowledge, power, and benevolence. Nagasawa argues that once we accept the maximal concept we can establish perfect being theism on two grounds. First, we can refute nearly all existing arguments against perfect being theism simultaneously. Second, we can construct a novel, strengthened version of the modal ontological argument for perfect being theism. Nagasawa concludes that the maximal concept grants us a unified defence of perfect being theism that is highly effective and economical.

Defeating the Evil-God Challenge
Defeating the Evil-God Challenge

Author: Jack Symes

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2024-05-16

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 1350419303

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The evil-god challenge is one of the most popular topics in contemporary philosophy of religion. In this landmark text, Jack Symes offers the most detailed examination of the challenge to date. Exploring the nature of god through the leading schools of philosophical theology, Symes argues that it is significantly more reasonable to attribute goodness to god than evil. Drawing from a breadth of ground-breaking material – in metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics and epistemology – Symes claims to defeat the evil-god challenge on behalf of traditional theism. Is it any more reasonable to believe in a good god than an evil god? Not according to proponents of the evil-god challenge. After all, the world contains a significant amount of good and evil for which either god could be held responsible. However, if belief in both gods is equally as reasonable, then religious believers are unjustified in favouring one hypothesis over the other. Therefore, in order to defend their faith, theists must respond to the evil-god challenge: the question of what justifies belief in good god over evil god.

Immortality and the Existence of God
Immortality and the Existence of God

Author: David Apolloni

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2024-08-15

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1666911151

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Immortality and the Existence of God: Reformulating the Arguments of Plato, Anselm, and Gödel defends a modern version of Plato’s argument for the immortality of the soul. The self is essentially conscious and hence essentially living. It is therefore “deathless” and cannot receive death. But then, it also cannot become something else, nor can it be destroyed, since that would be receiving death also. So, the self or immortal, and immaterial. The book then considers materialist theories of the mind and rejects them. It formulates an argument from introspection which the author believes establishes substance dualism. The argument for immortality and the Ontological Argument for the existence of God are parallel in that attempt to establish the existence of necessary beings. Since immortality makes sense within a theistic context, the second half of the book defends a version of Gödel’s Ontological Argument for God’s existence, utilizing experience of the moral good and that mutual entailment of the attributes of God to argue that these attributes, including necessary existence, are logically coherent. In the final chapter, the author uses the central arguments in the book to support accounts of the afterlife from those who have had near-death experiences.

God, Modality, and Morality
God, Modality, and Morality

Author: William E. Mann

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 0199370761

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In one new and sixteen previously published essays, William E. Mann presents a modern interpretation of a traditional theory in philosophical theology, according to which God is a metaphysically simple, necessarily existing, personal being. Mann addresses such issues as God's independence and sovereignty, God's relationship to creation, and humans' relationship to God.

Divinity and Maximal Greatness
Divinity and Maximal Greatness

Author: Daniel J. Hill

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 0415312884

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"Divinity and Maximal Greatness stands in the notable tradition of perfect-being theology. The book thoughtfully explicates the concept of divinity in terms of the notion of maximal greatness - a being is divine if and only if he is maximally great."--BOOK JACKET.

Faith, Flourishing, and Agnosticism
Faith, Flourishing, and Agnosticism

Author: T. Ryan Byerly

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2023-11-19

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 0192689592

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Faith, Flourishing, and Agnosticism uses conceptual and empirical methods to argue that the many individuals who have ambiguous evidence for God can grow in virtue and attain greater flourishing by engaging in practices of faith toward God. The book develops a way of thinking about God, called minimal theism. It argues that a sizeable number of people have ambiguous evidence for God, and it provides support for arguments for agnosticism through an evaluation of theistic and atheistic arguments and higher-order evidence about God. It discusses what kind of cognitive commitments toward God are required to engage in faith practices such as thanking or praising God, and develops unique arguments that these can be supplied by beliefs or non-doxastic assumptions but not other states. Four pathways whereby individuals with ambiguous evidence for God can grow in virtue through such faith practices are identified. First, they can grow in general virtuous tendencies to give other people the benefit of the doubt by giving God the benefit of the doubt. Second, they can indirectly grow in a broad range of virtues by experiencing better mental health as a consequence of accepting God's love. Third, they can make skilled use of the worldview of minimal theism to cultivate transformative experiences of awe and connectedness, thereby supporting the specific virtue of spiritual excellence. Finally, by this same process, they can reap further downstream benefits in character growth, independently of whether spiritual excellence is virtuous.

Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies, Issue 3.2
Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies, Issue 3.2

Author: Daniel S. Diffey

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2018-10-09

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 1532671628

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The Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies (JBTS) is an academic journal focused on the fields of Bible and Theology from an inter-denominational point of view. The journal is comprised of an editorial board of scholars that represent several academic institutions throughout the world. JBTS is concerned with presenting high-level original scholarship in an approachable way. Academic journals are often written by scholars for other scholars. They are technical in nature, assuming a robust knowledge of the field. There are fewer journals that seek to introduce biblical and theological scholarship that is also accessible to students. JBTS seeks to provide high-level scholarship and research to both scholars and students, which results in original scholarship that is readable and accessible. As an inter-denominational journal JBTS is broadly evangelical. We accept contributions in all theological disciplines from any evangelical perspective. In particular, we encourage articles and book reviews within the fields of Old Testament, New Testament, Biblical Theology, Church History, Systematic Theology, Practical Theology, Philosophical Theology, Philosophy, and Ethics.

God, Purpose, and Reality
God, Purpose, and Reality

Author: John Bishop

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2023-01-31

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 0192864114

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What must reality be like if the God of Abrahamic theism exists? How could the worldview of Abrahamic theism be understood if not in terms of the existence of a supremely powerful, knowledgeable, and good personal being? John Bishop and Ken Perszyk argue that it is reasonable to reject what many analytic philosophers take to be the standard conception of God as the 'personal omniGod'. They argue that a version of a 'logical' Argument from Evil is still very much in play, contrary to the widely held view that this line of argument is bankrupt. This book provides a new presentation and defence of the alternative that Bishop and Perszyk have called euteleology. Its core claims are that reality is inherently purposive, and that the Universe exists ultimately because its overall end (telos), which is the supreme good, is made concretely real within it. There is no supreme agent ('standing by' while horrors take place); God is 'no-thing' in euteleology's basic ontology. Rather, talk of God-as-a-personal-being is a cognitive construction, treating ultimate reality by analogy with our ordinary ways of experiencing and talking about the world. But euteleological theism is also emphatically realist. Analogizing God-talk enables humans to align themselves with reality and is aptly deployed in prayer and worship-practices whose broad function is a human contribution to, and enjoyment of, the fulfilment of reality's inherent ultimate purpose.