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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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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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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creatable world, omniscient being creates, best world scenario, being whose degree, least good world, necessarily perfect being, less perfect action, sufficient cause external, best possible being, being innocent beings, less good world, qualitative goodness, more perfect action, causing oneself, best possible world, prime world, gratuitous love, very good world, moral inability, intrinsic maximum, libertarian freedom, absolutely perfect being, moral saint, maximal state, moral praise Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Contemporary Debate, Infinity of Worlds, Must God Create the Best World, Samuel Clarke, Jonathan Edwards, Andrea Yates, Thomas Reid, Cornell University Press, New York, Thomas Morris, Anselmian Explorations, Expression Thesis, Oxford University Press, Philosophical Enquiry Concerning Human Liberty, Salvation Army New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
creatable world, omniscient being creates, best world scenario, being whose degree, least good world, necessarily perfect being, less perfect action, sufficient cause external, best possible being, being innocent beings, less good world, qualitative goodness, more perfect action, causing oneself, best possible world, prime world, gratuitous love, very good world, moral inability, intrinsic maximum, libertarian freedom, absolutely perfect being, moral saint, maximal state, moral praise Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Contemporary Debate, Infinity of Worlds, Must God Create the Best World, Samuel Clarke, Jonathan Edwards, Andrea Yates, Thomas Reid, Cornell University Press, New York, Thomas Morris, Anselmian Explorations, Expression Thesis, 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 | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 27
books:
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2
books
cite this book:
- Anselmian Explorations: Essays in Philosophical Theology by Thomas V. Morris on 5 pages
- Freedom of the Will by Jonathan Edwards on 4 pages
- Reasoned Faith by Eleonore Stump on 4 pages
- The Works of Thomas Reid (Thoemmes Press - Scottish Thought and Culture, 1750-1850) by Thomas Reid on page 32, page 72, and Back Matter
- Principia Ethica by G. E. Moore on page 77, page 78, and Back Matter
See all 27 books this book cites
- Providence, Evil and the Openness of God (Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Religion) by William Hasker in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Can God Be Free? by William L. Rowe in Back Matter
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