Philosophical Essays on Divine Causation

Philosophical Essays on Divine Causation
Author: Gregory Ganssle
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2021-12-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1000530728

This book discusses various aspects of God’s causal activity. Traditional theology has long held that God acts in the world and interrupts the normal course of events by performing special acts. Although the tradition is unified in affirming that God does create, conserve, and act, there is much disagreement about the details of divine activity. The chapters in this book fruitfully explore these disagreements about divine causation. The chapters are divided into two sections. The first explores historical views of divine causal activity from the Pre-Socratics to Hume. The second section addresses a variety of contemporary issues related to God’s causal activity. These chapters include defenses of the possibility of special acts of God, proposals of models of divine causation, and analyses of divine conservation. Philosophical Essays on Divine Causation will be of interest to researchers and graduate students working in philosophy of religion, philosophical theology, and metaphysics.

Philosophical Essays on Divine Causation

Philosophical Essays on Divine Causation
Author: Gregory E. Ganssle
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2021-12-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1000530736

This book discusses various aspects of God’s causal activity. Traditional theology has long held that God acts in the world and interrupts the normal course of events by performing special acts. Although the tradition is unified in affirming that God does create, conserve, and act, there is much disagreement about the details of divine activity. The chapters in this book fruitfully explore these disagreements about divine causation. The chapters are divided into two sections. The first explores historical views of divine causal activity from the Pre-Socratics to Hume. The second section addresses a variety of contemporary issues related to God’s causal activity. These chapters include defenses of the possibility of special acts of God, proposals of models of divine causation, and analyses of divine conservation. Philosophical Essays on Divine Causation will be of interest to researchers and graduate students working in philosophy of religion, philosophical theology, and metaphysics.

Unlocking Divine Action

Unlocking Divine Action
Author: Michael J. Dodds
Publisher: CUA Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2012-09-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0813219892

Provides a sustained account of how the thought of Aquinas may be used in conjunction with contemporary science to deepen our understanding of divine action and address such issues as creation, providence, prayer, and miracles.

Eternal in Love

Eternal in Love
Author: R. T. Mullins
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2024-08-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666722995

Do you want to be close to God? The answer to a question like this is wrapped up in knowing what God is like, understanding the reasons for why God acts as he does, and learning how to promote God's goals for creation. In this short book, readers will explore issues about the nature of God, consider why God would create anything at all, and why God would create this particular universe. Through a mixture of devotional insight and philosophical analysis, one will come to a better understanding of the majesty of God.

Causation and Modern Philosophy

Causation and Modern Philosophy
Author: Keith Allen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2011-02-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1136820051

This volume brings together a collection of new essays by leading scholars on the subject of causation in the early modern period, from Descartes to Lady Mary Shepherd. Aimed at researchers, graduate students and advanced undergraduates, the volume advances the understanding of early modern discussions of causation, and situates these discussions in the wider context of early modern philosophy and science. Specifically, the volume contains essays on key early modern thinkers, such as Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hume, Kant. It also contains essays that examine the important contributions to the causation debate of less widely discussed figures, including Louis la Forge, Thomas Brown and Lady Mary Shepherd.

Powers and Abilities in Early Modern Philosophy

Powers and Abilities in Early Modern Philosophy
Author: Sebastian Bender
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 389
Release: 2024-06-28
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1040089771

This book explores different accounts of powers and abilities in early modern philosophy. It analyzes powers and abilities as a package, hopefully enabling us to better understand them both and to see similarities as well as dissimilarities. While some prominent early modern accounts of power have been studied in detail, this volume also covers lesser‐known thinkers and several early modern women philosophers. The volume also investigates early modern accounts of powers and abilities in a more systematic fashion than has been previously done. By broadening its scope in these ways, the volume uncovers trends and tendencies in early modern thinking about powers and abilities that are easy to miss. Chapters in this book explore how 22 early modern thinkers approached the following questions: What kind of entities are powers and abilities? Are they reducible to something categorical or not? What is the relation between powers and abilities? Is there a fundamental metaphysical difference between them or not? How do we know what powers objects have and what abilities agents have? Are human abilities in any way special? How do they relate to the abilities non‐human animals have? And how do they relate to the powers of inanimate objects? Powers and Abilities in Early Modern Philosophy will appeal to scholars and advanced students working in the history of early modern philosophy, in metaphysics, and in the history of science.

The Problem of Divine Action in the World

The Problem of Divine Action in the World
Author: Joel Archer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 136
Release: 2023-12-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1009270311

The world's major monotheistic religions share the view that God acts in the world. This Element discusses the nature of divine action, with a specific focus on miracles or 'special' divine acts. Miracles are sometimes considered problematic. Some argue that they are theologically untenable or that they violate the laws of nature. Others claim that even if miracles occur, it is never rational to believe in them based on testimony. Still others maintain that miracles are not within the scope of historical investigation. After addressing these objections, the author examines the function of miracles as 'signs' in the New Testament.

The Substance of Consciousness

The Substance of Consciousness
Author: Brandon Rickabaugh
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 438
Release: 2023-09-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1394195494

A singularly powerful and rigorous argument in favor of modern substance dualism In The Substance of Consciousness: A Comprehensive Defense of Contemporary Substance Dualism, two distinguished philosophers deliver a unique and powerful defense of contemporary substance dualism, which makes the claim that the human person is an embodied fundamental, immaterial, and unifying substance. Multidisciplinary in scope, the book explores areas of philosophy, cognitive science, neuroscience, and the sociology of mind-body beliefs. The authors present the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and rigorous non-edited work on substance dualism in the field, as well as a detailed history of how property and substance dualism have been presented and evaluated over the last 150 years. Alongside developing new and updated positive arguments for substance dualism, they also discuss key metaphysical notions and distinctions that inform the examination of substance dualism and its alternatives. Readers will also find: A thorough examination of the recent shift away from standard physicalism and the renaissance of substance dualism Comprehensive explorations of the likely future of substance dualism in the twenty-first century, including an exhaustive list of proposed research projects for substance dualists Practical discussion of new and rigorous critiques of significant physicality alternatives, including emergentism and panpsychism. Extensive treatments of philosophy of mind debates about the roles played by staunch/faint-hearted naturalism and theism in establishing or presuming methodology, epistemic priorities, and prior metaphysical commitments Perfect for professional philosophers, The Substance of Consciousness will also earn a place in the libraries of consciousness researchers, philosophical theologians, and religious studies scholars.

A Philosophy of Faith

A Philosophy of Faith
Author: Finlay Malcolm
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 183
Release: 2022-08-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1000629457

Faith occupies an important place in human lives. It can be directed towards God, friends, political systems and sports teams, and is said to help people through crises and to motivate people to achieve life goals. But what is faith? Philosophers and theologians have, for centuries, been concerned with questions about the rationality of faith, but more recently, have focussed on what kind of psychological attitude faith is. The authors of this book bring together, for the first time, the different elements of this recent debate, staking out the different positions and arguments, and defending a novel ‘true grit’ theory of faith, from which the rationality and language of faith are addressed from a fresh perspective. The book engages with a range of questions about the nature of faith, including: Does faith require belief? Is faith motivational? What is the relationship between faith, trust and hope? Do expressions of faith aim at the truth? And, in what sense is faith resilient? The authors defend a distinctive conception of faith involving resistance to psychological, practical and epistemic challenges, from which a novel account of the psychology and epistemology of faith is developed. The treatment of the topic draws extensively on the philosophy of mind, language and religion, and provides a map of this exciting field of study for newcomers to the philosophy of faith. A Philosophy of Faith will appeal to researchers and advanced students in philosophy of religion, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language and epistemology who are interested in the topic of faith.

Aquinas on the Divine Ideas as Exemplar Causes

Aquinas on the Divine Ideas as Exemplar Causes
Author: Gregory T. Doolan
Publisher: CUA Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2008
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0813215234

Gregory T. Doolan provides here the first detailed consideration of the divine ideas as causal principles. He examines Thomas Aquinas's philosophical doctrine of the divine ideas and convincingly argues that it is an essential element of his metaphysics