Can God Be Free? is a penetrating study of a central problem in philosophy of religion: can it be right to regard God as free, and as praiseworthy for being perfectly good? Allowing that he has perfect knowledge and perfect goodness, if there is a best world for God to create he would have no choice other than to create it. But if God could not do otherwise than create the best world, he created the world of necessity, not freely, and we have no reason to be thankful to God for creating us, since he couldn't do otherwise. William Rowe proposes the need for some substantial revision in contemporary thinking about the nature of God.
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"Can God be Free?--like Rowe's work in general--is clearly written and full of engaging arguments. Regardless of whether they agree with his conclusions, readers interested in philosophical theology in general, and the divine nature in particular, will find much of interest in this book."--Shannon Murphy and Kevin Timpe, Philosophia Christi
About the Author
William L. Rowe is at Purdue University, Indiana.
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This review is from: Can God Be Free? (Paperback)
Taking Liebniz's proposition that God had created the best possible world, Rowe discusses the question whether God could have created a better world than the one we have and the implications of the answer to this question. The main point of the book is that if God is omnipotent and omnibenevolent, he would have to create the best possible world, a world that is better than this. It was thus a necessity that he does so and not a contingency. Hence, if he could but did not it implied that he was either not all powerful or all-good. If he did, and this was indeed the best possible world, then God cannot be said to have created it out of his own free will for he had no choice, being the perfect moral being, he had to create this world rather than one that was inferior or not to create any world at all. To better understand this well argued book that also confronts the main opposing arguments against his views, the reader might like to know a little more about the idea of our own free will because many of the arguments relate also to the notion of free will as applied to us. A good source would be Robert Kane's "A Contemporary Introduction to Free Will", Oxford University Press, 2006.
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First Sentence:
In 1751 a series of written exchange began between the eminent, highly original German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz and the brilliant British theologian Samuel Clarke. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
creatable world, least good world, best world scenario, being whose degree, necessarily perfect being, less perfect action, qualitative goodness, sufficient cause external, best possible being, less good world, more perfect action, being innocent beings, causing oneself, best possible world, moral inability, very good world, prime world, gratuitous love, absolutely perfect being, intrinsic maximum, libertarian freedom, maximal state, moral saint, moral praise, world creator Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Samuel Clarke, Jonathan Edwards, Andrea Yates, Cornell University Press, God Create the Best, Anselmian Explorations, New York, Thomas Morris, Clarke's Remarks, Expression Thesis, Norman Kretzmann, Oxford University Press, Philosophical Enquiry Concerning Human Liberty, Salvation Army New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
In 1751 a series of written exchange began between the eminent, highly original German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz and the brilliant British theologian Samuel Clarke. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
creatable world, least good world, best world scenario, being whose degree, necessarily perfect being, less perfect action, qualitative goodness, sufficient cause external, best possible being, less good world, more perfect action, being innocent beings, causing oneself, best possible world, moral inability, very good world, prime world, gratuitous love, absolutely perfect being, intrinsic maximum, libertarian freedom, maximal state, moral saint, moral praise, world creator Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Samuel Clarke, Jonathan Edwards, Andrea Yates, Cornell University Press, God Create the Best, Anselmian Explorations, New York, Thomas Morris, Clarke's Remarks, Expression Thesis, Norman Kretzmann, Oxford University Press, Philosophical Enquiry Concerning Human Liberty, Salvation Army New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 26
books:
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cites this book:
- Anselmian Explorations: Essays in Philosophical Theology by Thomas V. Morris on 6 pages
- Freedom of the Will by Jonathan Edwards on 5 pages
- Reasoned Faith by Eleonore Stump on 4 pages
- Leibniz: Selections (Hudson River ed) by Philip P. Wiener on page 9, page 22, and Back Matter
- Samuel Clarke: A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God: And Other Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy) by Samuel Clarke on page 9, page 62, and Back Matter
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