The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Theology (Oxford Handbooks)

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Rea Abstract The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Theology attempts both to familiarize readers with the directions in which the scholarship of this discipline has gone and to pursue the discussion into hitherto under-examined areas. Flint Petitionary Prayer Scott A. Berthrong End Matter Index. We can see the two as entirely unrelated, as in conflict so we must choose between them , or as in dialogue so that they can mutually enlighten each other ; he argues for a version of the last approach. When reading this, I was at first unclear how it fit into "theological preliminaries".

Then I realized that how we interpret the Bible depends in part on what we do when it seems to clash with science or with other secular subjects, like history. William Wainwright urges the importance of mystery in our halting understanding of God and he discusses forms that mystery can take. This essay would perhaps fit better in the next section, especially since Christian thinkers almost uniformly believe that God to a great degree is beyond our understanding.

Part 2, containing six essays, is about divine attributes.

First, Jeffrey Brower heroically defends the doctrine of God's simplicity. Many Christian thinkers today ignore this as verbal nonsense, as a category error, or as wrongly identifying God a person with properties like goodness. Brower argues for an interpretation of the doctrine in terms of "truthmakers". Edward Wierenga analyses and defends God's omniscience.

The chief problem here is how God can know perspectival truths like "I am feeling chilly now" as said by a specific person at a specific time and future free actions like "I will run later today". William Craig argues that we should not regard God as existing timelessly.

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This essay was a model of clarity and logical rigor -- and was my favorite essay of the book. Brian Leftow analyses and defends God's omnipotence. The chief problem he considers that there seem to be things that God cannot do but that we can do -- like hate, or fail at a task, or take a walk. Hud Hudson discusses God's omnipresence, focusing on what it means to say that God is everywhere. Does it imply that God is a spatial, hence material, being? Or is the universe God's body? Or maybe God should be seen as a non-spatial being, like a number?

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Or maybe saying that God is everywhere simply means that he influences every point of space, sustaining it in existence? Laura Garcia explores God's moral perfection, his goodness. Does this attribute mean that God created the best of all possible worlds, and is there any such thing?

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Or does it mean that he maximizes good consequences, or fulfills all of his duties, or acts from virtuous intentions? If we take "good" to mean "what follows God's will" which perhaps we should not do , then is it not vacuous to say that God is "good" since then it only means that he follows his own will? Part 3, made up of seven essays, is about God and creation. First, Robin Collins asks why God would have created us by an indirect evolutionary process that took 14 billion years, depended on random factors, and caused much cruelty to animals.

He argues that this approach best realized different kinds of human connectiveness. Thomas Flint discusses divine providence. The chief problem is free will: After finding fault with the "Thomist" and "open theism" answers which he sees as watering down respectively free will and God's providence , he endorses a solution that follows the sixteenth-century Jesuit, Luis de Molina.

The key here is that God has, besides knowledge of ordinary necessary and contingent truths, a "middle knowledge" of counterfactuals like "If Sarah is in circumstances C and freely chooses what to do, then she will do A" -- and that this middle knowledge enables God to arrange things so that his plans will succeed.

Edited by Thomas P. Flint and Michael C. Rea

Scott Davidson discusses petitionary prayer. He suggests that God has "answered" a particular prayer provided that the prayer is for something good and that God brings the thing about at least in part because of the prayer.

He gives reasons for being skeptical that prayers are answered. For example, would not God do the good thing even if we did not pray for it? And how can we know that our prayer made a difference to what God did? He suggests that the point of petitionary prayer may be more to change us than to change God. Mark Murphy, in a complex but clear essay, argues against the views of Phillip Quinn, Robert Adams, Linda Zagzebski, and some natural law theorists, who contend that God somehow explains morality.

The next section "Divine Attributes" focuses on philosophical problems connected with the central divine attributes: In Section Three "God and Creation" , essays explore theories of divine action and divine providence, questions about petitionary prayer, problems about divine authority and God's relationship to morality and moral standards, and various formulations of and responses to the problem of evil.

The fourth section "Topics in Christian Philosophy" examines philosophical problems that arise in connection with such central Christian doctrines as the trinity, the incarnation, the atonement, original sin, resurrection, and the Eucharist. List of Contributors I. Revelation and Inspiration, Stephen T.

Science and Religion, Del Ratzsch 4. Theology and Mystery, William J. Simplicity and Aseity, Jeffrey Brower 6.

Omniscience, Edward Wierenga 7. Divine Eternity, William Lane Craig 8. Omnipotence, Brian Leftow 9. Omnipresence, Hud Hudson Moral Perfection, Laura L. God and Creation Divine Action and Evolution, Robin Collins Divine Providence, Thomas Flint Petitionary Prayer, Scott A.