Proofs of God

Matthew Levering

Description

Leading theologian Matthew Levering presents a thoroughgoing critical survey of the proofs of God's existence for readers interested in traditional Christian responses to the problem of atheism. Beginning with Tertullian and ending with Karl Barth, Levering covers twenty-one theologians and philosophers from the early church to the modern period, examining how they answered the critics of their day. He also shows the relevance of the classical arguments to contemporary debates and challenges to Christianity. In addition to students, this book will appeal to readers of apologetics.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian theology

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 12 avril 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781493403363
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2016 by Matthew Levering
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2016
Ebook corrections 05.17.2022
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-0336-3
Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Baker Publishing Group publications use paper produced from sustainable forestry practices and post-consumer waste whenever possible.
Endorsements
“This fantastic tome serves as an essential road map to the most important thinkers in the Western tradition of natural theology. Levering provides the historical context for each thinker and expertly summarizes their work with precision and depth. Especially beautiful is the way he integrates this multimillennial conversation into the most important questions of human life. Without a doubt this book will be used with great success in philosophy and theology courses as an indispensable point of entry into the seminal texts on God and his existence. No philosophy or theology bookshelf should be without this gem.”
— Michael G. Sirilla , Franciscan University of Steubenville
“Demonstrating a wide knowledge of the tradition and contemporary literature, Matthew Levering makes a significant contribution to the contemporary debate about atheism and the possibility of rationally demonstrating the existence of God. This fascinating account of the multiple attempts by brilliant thinkers over the centuries to show the rationality of belief in God is a uniquely original contribution that many will find of interest.”
— Ralph Martin, STD , Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Archdiocese of Detroit
“In this extremely helpful book, Matthew Levering offers what is perhaps the best contemporary historical overview of the major positions on the subject of natural knowledge of God. His responsible and deeply insightful analysis of early Christians, great Scholastics, Enlightenment skeptics, and influential moderns produces an extremely varied tableau but also brings these diverse positions into effective conversation with one another. The book offers a strong defense of the contemporary importance of natural theology and its intellectual viability. This traditional position, largely eclipsed in modern Christian theology, is of vital significance to Christian intellectual life and Levering illustrates magnificently why and how this tradition can flourish today.”
— Fr. Thomas Joseph White, OP , Thomistic Institute, Washington, DC
“ Proofs of God is excellent. Matthew Levering has provided a much-needed resource that will greatly facilitate the rediscovery of neglected Christian thinkers in the history of natural theology.”
— Edward Feser , Pasadena City College
Dedication
To Thomas Joseph White, OP
Contents
Cover i
Title Page ii
Copyright Page iii
Endorsements iv
Dedication v
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Patristic and Medieval Arguments for God’s Existence 27
Tertullian 29
Gregory of Nazianzus 33
Augustine 39
John of Damascus 44
Anselm of Canterbury 48
Thomas Aquinas 57
William of Ockham 69
2. Reformation and Enlightenment Views 79
John Calvin 82
Michel de Montaigne 87
Francisco Suárez 93
René Descartes 101
Blaise Pascal 107
David Hume 115
Immanuel Kant 122
3. Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Responses 141
John Henry Newman 144
Maurice Blondel 150
Pierre Rousselot 159
Ludwig Wittgenstein 167
Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange 174
Martin Heidegger 182
Karl Barth 191
Conclusion 207
Select Bibliography 219
Subject Index 239
Name Index 243
Back Cover 247
Acknowledgments
This book had its origins in a doctoral seminar on the proofs for God’s existence that I “co-taught” with Steven A. Long at Ave Maria University some years ago. In that seminar, I spent most of my time taking careful notes! Steve has profound insight not only into Thomas Aquinas but also David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, as all those privileged to take the seminar can attest.
My chapter drafts were greatly improved by generous scholars who read portions of the manuscript on which they have expertise: Don Briel, Thomas Hibbs, Andrew Hofer, OP, Robert Koerpel, John Michael McDermott, SJ, Sean McGrath, Benjamin Myers, Kenneth Oakes, Kevin O’Reilly, OP, and Andrew Rosato. Michael Sirilla and Thomas Joseph White, OP, read the whole manuscript and saved me from many omissions and mistakes. I have incorporated a number of suggestions from all of these friends and colleagues. Francesca Murphy, Matthew Ramage, Emery de Gaál, Michael Sirilla, and Chad Pecknold testified to the viability of the project as a Baker Academic textbook. Bishop Robert Barron enthusiastically encouraged the project and inspired me by his own expertise on the topic. At Baker Academic, Dave Nelson supported the project from the outset, guided the book to publication, and offered wise counsel for improvement. Baker Academic’s Brian Bolger and the editorial staff did a superb job preparing the manuscript. My amazing research assistant, David Augustine, compiled the bibliography and indexes and provided numerous corrections and suggestions that I incorporated into the text.
I wrote this book for my children, in case it might ever be of use to them. May God, who in his infinite goodness is the meaning of life, give my beloved children eternal life in Christ Jesus. For my wife, Joy, my gratitude is so deep. The simple words of Genesis 24:67 express what I wish Joy to know: “he loved her.”
The book is dedicated to a master theologian and dear friend, born in the same year and month as myself: Fr. Thomas Joseph White, OP. Of him it may be said, “The crown of the wise is their wisdom” (Prov. 14:24). God’s blessings be upon you, Fr. Thomas Joseph.
Introduction
In this textbook, I offer a concise survey of the major responses, pro and contra, in the Christian tradition to the question of whether the existence of God can be demonstrated by human reason. Readers and classroom teachers should feel free to use the book selectively, rather than studying all of the twenty-one figures I have chosen. My surveys of these twenty-one figures aim to be accurate, concise, and thorough. For readers who are interested, I give my assessment of these figures in the conclusions to the three chapters. In the surveys themselves, I try to be descriptive rather than evaluative.
In this introduction (as well as in the book’s conclusion), I offer my view of where things stand in contemporary intellectual discourse and popular culture regarding the topic of whether God’s existence can be demonstrated by human reason. In this introduction, I also give a rationale for choosing to study these twenty-one figures, and I examine the key biblical and Hellenistic ideas that set the terms for the demonstrations of God’s existence in the Christian tradition.
To put my cards on the table, I think that the cosmos cannot be the source of its own existence. The cosmos is not a necessary being. In this regard, David Hart rightly remarks that “the contingent can only exist derivatively, receiving its existence from the Absolute.” 1 When Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow claim that God’s existence is no longer plausible because all things could have come forth from the quantum law of gravity, they fail to recognize, as Hart says, that the issue is “the very possibility of existence as such, not only of this universe but of all the laws and physical conditions that produced it.” 2 It is not necessary that any finite thing, let alone a quantum law, exist. Finite things exist, but they are merely limited modes of being; they are not being as such. A quantum law, insofar as it is , must derive its being from a source.
Hawking and Mlodinow can be excused for their failure to grasp that the issue is “existence as such.” Their misunderstanding is shared by many professional philosophers. Thus, in his Arguing about Gods , Graham Oppy supposes himself to be undermining Thomas Aquinas’s five ways for demonstrating God’s existence when he remarks that “it is hard to see that there is anything in Big Bang cosmology that rules out the existence of an infinite regress of changers, each changed by another.” 3 Oppy’s point would not have bothered Aquinas at all, of course, since Aquinas allows philosophically for an eternal universe. In fact, none of Aquinas’s five ways depends on the universe having a temporal beginning. A similar mistake appears in Simon Blackburn’s Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy . Blackburn devotes a chapter to God where he purports to engage Aquinas’s “cosmological argument.” But for his description of Aquinas’s argument, he rather oddly turns to Hume’s Dialogues concerning Natural Religion . The result is that Blackburn refutes an argument, supposedly Aquinas’s own, that Aquinas himself would have immediately rejected. 4 Likewise, in his textbook Philosophy of Religion: An Introduction , William L. Rowe refutes the version of the “cosmological argument” put forward by William Clarke and Gottfried Leibniz in the early eighteenth century and thereby avoids having to address the problem of finite existence in terms of act and potency. 5 All too often, questions regarding “existence as such” are naively dismissed by supposing that “the physical universe is merely a brute fact.” 6 Finite exis