God, Modality, and Morality

381 Pages·2015·6.434 MB·English

by  William E. Mann

God, Modality, and Morality

God, Modality,
and Morality
WILLIAM E. MANN
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mann, William E., 1940–
[Essays. Selections]
God, modality, and morality / William E. Mann.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978–0–19–937076–4 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Philosophical theology.
2. God (Christianity) I. Title.
BT40.M365 2015
212—dc23
2014032964
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Permissions viii
Introduction 1
SECTION I: GOD
1. The Divine Attributes 5
2. Divine Simplicity 20
3. Simplicity and Immutability in God 44
4. Immutability and Predication What Aristotle Taught Philo
and Augustine 57
5. Epistemology Supernaturalized 73
6. Divine Sovereignty and Aseity 95
7. Omnipresence, Hiddenness, and Mysticism 119
v
SECTION II: MODALITY
8. Necessity 145
9. Modality, Morality, and God 153
10. God’s Freedom, Human Freedom, and God’s Responsibility
for Sin 170
11. The Best of All Possible Worlds 196
SECTION III: MORALITY
12. Theism and the Foundations of Ethics 227
13. The Metaphysics of Divine Love 251
14. Jephthah’s Plight Moral Dilemmas and Theism 269
15. The Guilty Mind 296
16. Piety Lending a Hand to Euthyphro 316
17. Hope 336
Index 363
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My thinking about these issues has been encouraged and stimulated through
the years by several people generous with their time and advice. I owe so much
to Steven M. Cahn, David Christensen, Terence Cuneo, Alfred J. Freddoso,
Hilary Kornblith, Norman Kretzmann, Scott MacDonald, Gareth B. Mat-
thews, Thomas V. Morris, Derk Pereboom, Alvin Plantinga, Philip L. Quinn,
and Eleonore Stump. The mistakes are my own. I thank the University of Ver-
mont for helping to defray expenses in the production of this volume.
vii
PERMISSIONS
“The Divine Attributes” (Chapter 1) originally appeared in American Phil-
osophical Quarterly 12, 1975: 151–159. Reprinted by permission of the
publisher.
“Divine Simplicity” (Chapter 2) originally appeared in Religious Studies
18, 1982: 451–471. (© 1982 by Cambridge University Press.) Reprinted
by permission of the publisher.
“Simplicity and Immutability in God” (Chapter 3) originally appeared in
International Philosophical Quarterly 23, 1983: 267–276. Reprinted by
permission of the publisher.
“Immutability and Predication: What Aristotle Taught Philo and Augus-
tine” (Chapter 4) is reprinted with kind permission from Springer Sci-
ence + Business Media from International Journal for Philosophy of
Religion 22, 1987: 21–39.
“Epistemology Supernaturalized” (Chapter 5) originally appeared in Faith
and Philosophy 2, 1985: 436–456. Reprinted by permission of the
publisher.
“Divine Sovereignty and Aseity” (Chapter 6) originally appeared in The
Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Religion, ed. William J. Wainwright
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 35–58. Reprinted by per-
mission of the publisher.
“Omnipresence, Hiddenness, and Mysticism” (Chapter 7) was written for
this volume.
“Necessity” (Chapter 8) originally appeared in A Companion to Philoso-
phy of Religion, second edition, ed. Charles Taliaferro, Paul Draper, and
Philip L. Quinn (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 285–291. Re-
printed by permission of the publisher.
“Modality, Morality, and God” (Chapter 9) originally appeared in Noûs 23,
1989: 83–99. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
viii
permissions ix
“God’s Freedom, Human Freedom, and God’s Responsibility for Sin”
(Chapter 10) originally appeared in Divine and Human Action: Essays
in the Metaphysics of Theism, ed. Thomas V. Morris, 182–210. Copy-
right © 1988 by Cornell University. Used by permission of the publisher,
Cornell University Press.
“The Best of All Possible Worlds” (Chapter 11) originally appeared in Being
and Goodness: The Concept of the Good in Metaphysics and Philosoph-
ical Theology, ed. Scott MacDonald, 250–277. Copyright © 1991 by
Cornell University. Used by permission of the publisher, Cornell Univer-
sity Press.
“Theism and the Foundations of Ethics” (Chapter 12) originally appeared
in The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Religion, ed. William E.
Mann (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2005), 283–304. Reprinted
by permission of the publisher.
“The Metaphysics of Divine Love” (Chapter 13) originally appeared in
Metaphysics and God: Essays in Honor of Eleonore Stump, ed. Kevin
Timpe (New York: Routledge, 2009), 60–75. Reprinted by permission of
the publisher.
“Jephthah’s Plight: Moral Dilemmas and Theism” (Chapter 14) originally
appeared in Philosophical Perspectives 5, 1991: 617–647. Reprinted by
permission of Ridgeview Publishing Company.
“The Guilty Mind” (Chapter 15) originally appeared in European Journal
for Philosophy of Religion 1, 2009: 41–63. Reprinted by permission of
the publisher.
“Piety: Lending a Hand to Euthyphro” (Chapter 16) originally appeared in
Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 58, 1998: 123–142. Re-
printed by permission of the publisher.
“Hope” (Chapter 17) originally appeared in Reasoned Faith: Essays in Phil-
osophical Theology in Honor of Norman Kretzmann, ed. Eleonore
Stump, 251–280. Copyright © 1993 by Cornell University. Used by per-
mission of the publisher, Cornell University Press.