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God, Freedom, and Evil Paperback – March 21, 1989
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- Print length122 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherEerdmans
- Publication dateMarch 21, 1989
- Dimensions5.25 x 0.33 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-100802817319
- ISBN-13978-0802817310
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Editorial Reviews
Review
-- John Carroll University
"A witty and logical introduction to the groundbreaking work of Alvin Plantinga, who has done more than anyone else to restore in analytic circles the respectability of belief in God."
Kevin Timpe
-- University of San Diego
"A classic work in the philosophy of religion, Plantinga's God, Freedom, and Evil is the single most influential text on the problem of evil in the past fifty years."
Stephen T. Davis
-- Claremont McKenna College
"Alvin Plantinga is one of the top Christian philosophers in the world today. He is well known in Christian and secular philosophical circles for his logical skills, his rigorous arguments, and his energetic defense of full-blooded Christianity. This book covers some of the same ground as his more technical The Nature of Necessity, but unlike most of Plantinga's works, it is aimed at the general reader. . . Students can understand this book; they must only be willing to think as hard as they read."
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Product details
- Publisher : Eerdmans (March 21, 1989)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 122 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0802817319
- ISBN-13 : 978-0802817310
- Item Weight : 5.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.25 x 0.33 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #221,229 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #261 in Religion & Philosophy (Books)
- #3,887 in Christian Theology (Books)
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I have felt that Christian scholars and apologists have either not tried to answer this question or have provided poor arguments for it. This book, even though it is short, is extremely dense; I would say graduate or even doctoral level dense. Advice: you need to go very slowly through it and take notes. One of the positives of this book is that it is not for the "laymen." I often am annoyed by apologists for how they try and dumb things down, which leaves those of us who can understand complex philosophical concepts yearning for more. Plantinga does not do this. Everything in this book is complex and you need to be slow reading it.
2/3rds of the book (1-75) addresses the problem of evil and successfully makes the defense that there can be an all-powerful and all-good God with evil in the world. It is absolutely brilliant. Some of the best philosophy I have ever read. I will not share his arguments, as I do not want to spoil them for you. If you are by some chance not convinced by the arguments you must at least acknowledge that it is an outstanding argument. I have seen some pretty junior philosophical reviews that attempt to show that his argument isn't sound. This is simply untrue. Let me remind all of you that you can acknowledge an excellent argument while still not being totally convinced.
The last 1/3rd of the book (77-111) is his argument for the existence of God. This is the part of the book that I am somewhat less impressed with. While I still find his philosophical reasoning sound and on an expert level, it doesn't quite hit home the same way the first 2/3rds did. I also question why he felt the need to add this last 1/3rd. Plantinga takes on his reformed version of the ontological argument, and has a few objections that he refutes. I personally do not think that the ontological argument is the strongest argument for the existence of God, but he does a good job presenting it. Once again, I think he could have ended the book with simply the first 75 pages and it would have been sufficient. But I suppose perhaps he felt that it would be too short of a book, or maybe his publisher had some say in it (these are not facts, these are simply my thoughts. I could and more than likely am wrong).
To my atheist, agnostic and deistic friends, I would ask you to do a few things. Become Descartes and empty your mind of all biases before reading. Then, go slowly through it. Truly ponder what Plantinga is saying. Take notes. While I am a Christian (a former deist), I can acknowledge that accepting that an all-powerful and all-good God can exist with evil in the world does not necessarily mean that God himself exists. These are two different arguments in themselves; one of them acknowledges to a degree that God does exist, but argues that he is either not all-powerful or not all-good. The other question in itself does not begin with God even existing, but asking "Does God exist?" Please go into reading this book with this in mind.
Overall it is fantastic. I highly recommend.
A large part of the book is dedicated the so-called problem of evil. That is, the question of whether or not the existence of evil is compatible with the existence of an all-knowing all-powerful and wholly good God. In addressing this issue Plantinga focuses on the question of whether evil and God can logically co-exist - it is not a theodicy which seeks to explain the existence of evil. With regard the former more modest question the author is quite successful in proving that evil and God are not incompatible as had been previously argued - written nearly 30 years ago it has yet to be challenged in any significant way. Plantinga can rightfully take credit in helping this question largely disappear amongst serious thinkers. Arguments in this area now tend to be focused on the level of evil rather than its mere existence (i.e. is there too much evil to be consistent with the existence of God). As an earlier reader commented, I too find the author's argument about transworld depravity awkward - it removal, however, does not serious impact Plantinga position.
In the remainder of the book Plantinga offers some brief thoughts on the classic arguments of natural theology - I found this part of the book less helpful. Plantinga indicates that he finds the ontological argument more compelling than either the argument from design or the cosmological argument. I tend to disagree with his views in this regard. Although with time I increasingly appreciate a certain force behind the ontological argument, it still strikes me somewhat as an artificial linguistic construct. On the other hand, I find the other two arguments more compelling than Plantinga does (I share his thought that, even if successful, the cosmological argument can offer little on the nature of God). To be fair to Plantinga, this work was composed prior to recent scientific developments that have strengthened the argument from design (particularly in the world of cosmology but, also to a limited degree in the biological sciences). A look at some of Plantinga's more recent work is also worthwhile.
Overall a good short book by an outstanding philosopher who effectively altered the argument surrounding the existence of evil. I highly recommend this book to all students of philosophy and religion. J.L. Mackie's "The Miracle of Theism is also worth a look for a dissenting view.
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