Whose God? Which Tradition?: The Nature of Belief in God

184 Pages·2016·1.288 MB·English

by  D.Z. Phillips

Whose God? Which TradiTion?

Whose God? Which Tradition?
The nature of Belief in God
Edited by
d.Z. PhilliPs
Formerly Claremont Graduate University, USA
and University of Wales Swansea, UK
R
O
UT Routledge
L
E
D Taylor & Francis Group
G
E
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2008 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © Monica Phillips 2008
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
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Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
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d.Z. Phillips has asserted his moral right under the copyright, designs and Patents act, 1988,
to be identified as the editor of this work.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
claremont Graduate University Philosophy of religion conference (2005) Whose God?
Which tradition?: the nature of belief in God
1. Belief and doubt – congresses 2. God – Proof – congresses 3. christianity – Philosophy –
congresses i. Title ii. Phillips, d.Z. (dewi Zephaniah) 212
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Whose God? which tradition?: the nature of belief in God/edited by d.Z. Phillips.
p. cm.
includes index.
ISBN 978-0-7546-6018-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Philosophical theology. 2. Christianity—
Philosophy. 3. Belief and doubt. i. Phillips, d.Z. (dewi Zephaniah)
BT40.W46 2009
210—dc22
2006034964
isBn 9780754660187 (hbk)
contents
Notes on Contributors vii
Preface ix
1 ‘God’ and Grammar: an introductory invitation 1
D.Z. Phillips
Voices in discussion 18
D.Z. Phillips
2 Beyond subject and object: NeoThomist Reflections 21
Fergus Kerr
3 Speaking of the Unknowable God: dilemmas of the christian 35
discourse about God
Anselm Kyongsuk Min
Voices in discussion 49
D.Z. Phillips
4 The ‘Grammar’ of ‘God’ and ‘Being’: Making Sense of Talking 53
about the one True God in different Metaphysical Traditions
Gyula Klima
Voices in discussion 78
D.Z. Phillips
5 Simplicity and the Talk About God 81
James F. Ross
Voices in discussion 92
D.Z. Phillips
6 is God a Moral agent? 97
Brian Davies OP
Voices in discussion 123
D.Z. Phillips
7 anthropomorphism in catholic contexts 129
David B. Burrell CSC
vi Whose God? Which Tradition?
8 anthropomorphism Protestant style 137
Paul Helm
Voices in discussion 158
D.Z. Phillips
9 is God Timeless, immutable, simple and impassible? 161
some Brief comments
Stephen T. Davis
Index 167
notes on contributors
David B. Burrell csc is Theodore hesburgh Professor of Philosophy and Theology
at the University of Notre Dame. He has been working since 1982 in comparative
issues in philosophical theology in Judaism, christianity and islam, as evidenced
in Knowing the Unknowable God: Ibn-Sina, Maimonides, Aquinas (1986) and
Freedom and Creation in Three Traditions (1993), Friendship and Ways to Truth
(2000) and two translations of al-Ghazali: Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-Nine Beautiful
Names of God (1993) and Al-Ghazali on Faith in Divine Unity and Trust in Divine
Providence (Book 35 of his Ihya Ulum ad-Din, 2001). With Elena Malits he
co-authored Original Peace (1998). he is currently completing a translation of the
portion of existence from Mulla sadra’s (sadr al-din al-shirazi) Asfar al-Arbain, as
well as a theological commentary on the book of Job (Brazos Press series).
Brian Davies OP is Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University, New York. His
research interests lie in medieval philosophy and philosophy of religion. His books
include The Thought of Thomas Aquinas (1992), Aquinas (2002), An Introduction to the
Philosophy of Religion (2004) and The Reality of God and the Problem of Evil (2006).
Stephen T. Davis is russell K. Pitzer Professor of Philosophy at claremont
McKenna college, california. he writes mainly in the philosophy of religion and
christian thought. his degrees are from Whitworth college, Washington (Ba),
Princeton Theological seminary (Mdiv) and the claremont Graduate University
(Phd). he is the author of over 80 academic articles and author and/or editor of
15 books, including God, Reason, and Theistic Proofs (1997), Encountering Evil
(2nd edn, 2001) and Christian Philosophical Theology (2006).
Paul Helm is a Teaching Fellow at regent college, Vancouver, and before that
the Professor of the history and Philosophy of religion, King’s college, london,
1993–2000. His several books include John Calvin’s Ideas (2004), Faith with Reason
(2000), and Eternal God: A Study of God without Time (1989).
Fergus Kerr oP Frse, honorary Professor of Modern roman catholic Theology
at the University of st andrews, edinburgh, edits the english dominican journal
New Blackfriars. Formerly Regent of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, his books include
Theology after Wittgenstein (1986), After Aquinas: Versions of Thomism (2002)
and Twentieth-century Catholic Theologians: From Neoscholasticism to Nuptial
Mysticism (2007). he is a Fellow of the royal society of edinburgh.
Gyula Klima is Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University. Prior to this he
taught at Yale University and at the University of notre dame. his interests include
medieval philosophy, metaphysics and logical semantics. he is the author of
viii Whose God? Which Tradition?
The Logic and Metaphysics of John Buridan, Readings in Medieval Philosophy (both
forthcoming), John Buridan: Summulae de Dialectica, an annotated translation with
a philosophical introduction (2001) and ARS ARTIUM: Essays in Philosophical
Semantics, Medieval and Modern (1988). he has also published over 60 articles
in such collections as Mind, Value and Metaphysics in the Thomistic and Analytic
Traditions (2002), The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Philosophy (2003),
Thomas Aquinas: Contemporary Philosophical Perspectives (2002) and Blackwell’s
Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages (2003).
Anselm Kyongsuk Min holds Phds in theology (Vanderbilt University, Tennessee)
and philosophy (Fordham University, New York) and is Professor of Religion at
claremont Graduate University, california. he is the author of, among other things,
Dialectic of Salvation: Issues in Theology of Liberation (1989), The Solidarity of
Others in a Divided World: A Postmodern Theology After Postmodernism (2004)
and Paths to the Triune God: An Encounter Between Aquinas and Recent Theologies
(2005). He is now working on a theology of globalization.
D.Z. Phillips was formerly danforth Professor of Philosophy of religion at
claremont Graduate University, Usa, and Professor of Philosophy emeritus and
rush rhees research Professor emeritus at the University of Wales, swansea, UK.
Professor Phillips wrote more than 20 books and over 100 articles on topics
in philosophy of religion, ethics, philosophy and literature, and the nature of
philosophical inquiry. He edited the current work from its beginning to its near
completion but died suddenly on 25 July 2006 before final editing procedures had
been completed. The loss of Professor Phillips was a terrible misfortune for his
family and friends and a devastating blow to the field of philosophy of religion.
James F. Ross is Professor of Philosophy and law at the University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia. he is the author of Philosophical Theology (1968, reprinted 1979)
and Portraying Analogy (1982). He has another book forthcoming, The Hidden
Necessities, on metaphysics, and is completing one on willing belief and rational
reliance. he has also written many articles on philosophy of religion, plus reviews
and contributions to numerous other works.
Preface
As the first chapter makes clear, the discussions in this book arose from competing
contemporary claims about various accounts of religious belief offered by
philosophers. Many analytic philosophers of religion have included appeals to
orthodoxy in their accounts of religious belief, asserting, confidently, that other
analyses, for example, those offered by Wittgensteinian philosophers of religion,
obviously do not do justice to the nature of religious belief. if one listened to these
voices alone, one would not realize that the accusers have been accused of the
very fault they see in others, and that they are the ones who distort the nature of
religious belief. These accusations have come from Thomistic and calvinist sources.
By giving these voices a major hearing in this book, issues concerning religious
belief and philosophical enquiry are opened up in such a way that their outcome can
certainly not be taken for granted. The fact that this situation is introduced from a
Wittgensteinian point of view, and responded to, at the end of the collection, from
the point of view in analytic philosophy being criticized, means that the reader is
offered a creative engagement between major traditions in contemporary philosophy
of religion.
The papers in the collection were read at the 2005 annual claremont conference
on the Philosophy of Religion. The conference is supported by the financial
generosity of claremont Graduate University, claremont McKenna college and
Pomona College. Administratively, the conference benefits from the work of Helen
Baldwin, secretary to the department of Philosophy at the University of Wales,
Swansea and Jackie Huntzinger, Secretary to the School of Religion at Claremont
Graduate University. The conference also benefits from the support of graduate
students at claremont, ably organized by my research assistant ray Bitar, to whom
i am also grateful for preparing my contribution and the ‘Voices in discussion’ for
publication from my handwritten manuscripts. The ‘Voices’ consist of notes taken
by me during the conference. They do not claim to be verbatim reports, hence the
absence of names, but do claim to give a fairly accurate account of the discussions.
Readers, as usual, will have little difficulty in identifying many of the speakers, but
contributions from the audience have, on occasions, also been included.
Fergus Kerr was unable to attend the conference due to ill health. i am grateful to
my colleague at claremont, anselm Min, for introducing his paper, an introduction
which led to his valuable contribution to the discussion. stephen T. davis’s response
to criticisms during the conference also enhances the scope of the collection.
no matter which philosophical viewpoint one holds, the present collection
should teach philosophers to exercise greater caution in taking for granted that they
are always doing conceptual justice to the complexity of religious belief.
d.Z. Phillips
claremont, May 2005