1st Edition

Classical Theism New Essays on the Metaphysics of God

Edited By Jonathan Fuqua, Robert C. Koons Copyright 2023
354 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

354 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

354 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This volume provides a contemporary account of classical theism. It features 17 original essays from leading scholars that advance the discussion of classical theism in new and interesting directions. It’s safe to say that classical theism—the view that God is simple, omniscient, and the greatest possible being—is no longer the assumed view in analytic philosophy of religion. It is often... Read more

Introduction Jonathan Fuqua and Robert C. Koons

Section I: What Is Classical Theism?

1. What Is Classical Theism? Edward Feser

2. Does the God of Classical Theism Exist? Robert C. Koons

3. Some Arguments for Divine Simplicity Alexander R. Pruss 

4. The Problem of Talking about "the God of gods" Gyula Klima

5. Anselmian Classical Theism Katherin Rogers

6. Thomist Classical Theism: Divine Simplicity within Aquinas’s Triplex Via Theology Daniel De Haan

7. The Unity of the Divine Nature: Four Theories Timothy O’Connor

8. A Metaphysical Inquiry into Islamic Theism Enis Doko and Jamie B. Turner

9. Classical Theism and Jewish Conceptions of God Samuel Lebens

10. Searching for the Ineffable: Classical Theism and Eastern Thought About God Erik Baldwin and Tyler Dalton McNabb

Section II: Classical Theism: Problems and Applications

11. Divine Ideas and Divine Simplicity Gregory T. Doolan

12. How the Absolutely Simple Creator Escapes a Modal Collapse Christopher Tomaszewski

13. Defending Divine Impassibility James E. Dolezal 

14. Classical Theism and Divine Action Michael J. Dodds

15. Classical Theism, Divine Beauty, and the Doctrine of the Trinity Mark K. Spencer 

16. The Incarnation of a Simple God Tim Pawl

17. Classical Theists Are Committed to the Palamite Essence-Energies Distinction (Or, How to Make Sense of the Fact That God Does Not Intrinsically Differ Even Though He Can Do Otherwise) James Rooney

Biography

Jonathan Fuqua is an assistant professor of philosophy at Conception Seminary College, USA. He specializes in the philosophy of religion, ethics, and epistemology. He is the co-editor of Faith and Reason (2019) and The Cambridge Handbook to Religious Epistemology (forthcoming). His articles have appeared in such places as the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, American Philosophical Quarterly, Synthese, and Philosophia.

Robert C. Koons is a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. He specializes in logic, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion. He is the author of Paradoxes of Belief and Strategic Rationality (1992) and Realism Regained (2000), co-author of Metaphysics: The Fundamentals (2015) and The Atlas of Reality (2017), and the co-editor of The Waning of Materialism (2010) and Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on the Philosophy of Science (Routledge, 2017).