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Home , Classical theism, Dipolar theism, Open theism, Unmoved mover

Models of and Alternative Ultimate Realities

Jeanine Diller • Asa Kasher Editors

Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities

Editors Jeanine Diller Asa Kasher Department of Philosophy Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies Tel Aviv University University of Toledo Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv Toledo, OH Israel USA

ISBN 978-94-007-5218-4 ISBN 978-94-007-5219-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-5219-1 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012954282

© Springer +Business Media Dordrecht 2013 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied speci fi cally for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a speci fi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.

Printed on acid-free paper

Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) To my parents, James and Jean, for a lifetime of encouragement and love. Jeanine Diller To the deepest, clearest and most beloved sources of inspiration: My late son, Yehoraz, my late father, Shimeon, and my late forefathers, as well as my wife, Naomi, and my children Shirith and Avshalom. Asa Kasher

Acknowledgements

The following essays included in this volume are reprinted, in some cases with modi fi cation, from Philosophia 35 (3–4), September–December 2007, which col- lects most of the proceedings of the Mini-conference on Models of God at the 2007 annual meeting of the Paci fi c Division of the American Philosophical Association: Anderson, Pamela Sue. “Feminist Challenges to : Exploring Divine Ideals.” 361–370. Bishop, John. “How a Modest may Constrain Theistic Commitments: Exploring an Alternative to Classical .” 387–402. Coleman, Monica A. “From Models of God to a Model of : How Whiteheadian Facilitates Western Language Discussion of Divine Multiplicity.” 329–340. Hustwit, Jeremy R. “Can Models of God Compete?” 433–439. Kraay, Klaas. “Divine Unsurpassability.” 293–300. Peters, Ted. “Models of God.” 273–288. Rice, Richard. “, Temporality, and .” 321–328. Rhoda, Alan. “The Philosophical Case for Open Theism,” revised and retitled here “Open Theism and Other Models of Divine Providence.” 301–311. Turner, Donald L. and Ford Turrell. “The Non-Existent God: , Humanity and Ethics in the Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas.” 375–382. Viney, Donald Wayne. “Hartshorne’s and the Mystery of God.” 341–350. Wildman, Wesley J. “Behind, Between, and Beyond Anthropomorphic Models of .” 407–425. Woodruff, David. “Being and Doing in the Concept of God.” 313–320. The following essays included here are reprinted from other sources, as indicated: Gross, Rita M. “Toward a New Model of the Hindu Pantheon: A Report on Twenty- Some Years of Feminist Re fl ection,” excerpt reprinted from her A Garland of Feminist Re fl ections: Forty Years of Religious Re fl ection , Berkeley: University of

vii viii Acknowledgements

California Press, 2009, and previously Religion: An International Journal , Vol. 28 No. 4: 319–327, Oct. 1998. Miller, James. “, Impersonality and Absence in the of Highest Clarity Daoism,” excerpt reprinted from his The Way of Highest Clarity: Nature, Vision and Revelation in Medieval China, Magdalena, NM: Three Pines Press, 2008. Dombrowski, Daniel. “Infi nity, the Neoclassical Concept of God, and Oppy,” revised reprint of “Oppy, In fi nity and the Neoclassical Concept of God,” International Journal for , Springer Press, 61 (1): 25–37, 2007. Shaffer, Nancy J. “Nicholas of Cusa’s Understanding of Theophany and the Retrieval of a ‘New’ Model of God,” reprint of “Divine : Nicholas of Cusa’s Understanding of Theophany and the Retrieval of a ‘New’ Model of God,” The Journal of Theological Studies, Oxford University Press, 56 (2): 450–470, October 2005. Palmquist, Stephen. “Kant’s Moral ,” reprinted from Philosophia 36 (1):17–28, 2008. Bacon, John. “The God Insight: Vengeance or Destiny?” reprinted from On a panegyrical note: studies in honour of Garry W. Trompf, ed. Victoria Barker & Frances Di Lauro, Sydney Studies in Religion 6 (University of Sydney), 291–319, 2006. Steven Weinberg, “Facing Finality,” reprint of Chapter X, Dreams of a Final Theory , New York: Pantheon Books, 230–240, 1992. We are most grateful to all the above authors, editors and publishers for granting us permission to republish. Contents

Introduction ...... 1 Jeanine Diller and Asa Kasher

Part I Conceptual Foundations

Introduction to Conceptual Foundations ...... 13 James E. Taylor Modeling Ultimate Reality: God, Consciousness, and Emergence ...... 19 Robert Cummings Neville Symmetry and Asymmetry: Problems and Prospects for Modeling ...... 35 Lawrence A. Whitney, LC+ Models of God ...... 43 Ted Peters Relativizing the Classical Tradition: Hartshorne’s History of God...... 63 Donald Wayne Viney Can We Acquire Knowledge of Ultimate Reality? ...... 81 Michael V. Antony

Part II

Introduction to Classical Theism ...... 95 Thomas Williams on God: Divine as ...... 101 R. Michael Olson

ix x Contents

Jewish Images of God ...... 111 Elliot N. Dorff Augustine and Classical Theism ...... 125 John Peter Kenney Anselm’s Perfect God ...... 133 Katherin A. Rogers Al-Ghazali and Ibn Rushd () on Creation and the Divine Attributes ...... 141 Ali Hasan : Model of God ...... 157 Robert G. Kennedy and Divine Love ...... 165 Eric J. Silverman Descartes on God and the Products of His Will ...... 175 David Cunning

Part III Neo-classical Theism

Introduction to Neo-classical Theism ...... 197 Kevin Timpe Descriptivist Reference and the Return of Classical Theism ...... 207 John Allan Knight Divine Unsurpassability ...... 225 Klaas J. Kraay The MaximalGod and the ...... 233 Yujin Nagasawa In fi nity, the Neoclassical Concept of God, and Oppy ...... 245 Daniel A. Dombrowski

Part IV Open Theism

Introduction to Open Theism ...... 263 David Basinger Being and Doing in the Concept of God...... 277 David M. Woodruff Open Theism and Other Models of Divine Providence ...... 287 Alan R. Rhoda Trinity, Temporality, and Open Theism ...... 299 Richard Rice Contents xi

Part V

Introduction to Process Theology ...... 311 Roland Faber ’s Argument for a Finite Theism ...... 323 Jonathan Weidenbaum Hartshorne’s Dipolar Theism and the Mystery of God ...... 333 Donald Wayne Viney From Models of God to a Model of Gods: How Whiteheadian Metaphysics Facilitates Western Language Discussion of Divine Multiplicity ...... 343 Monica A. Coleman Ultimate Complexity: A Hindu Process Theology ...... 357 Jeffery D. Long

Part VI Panentheism

Introduction to Panentheism ...... 371 Philip Clayton Nicholas of Cusa’s Understanding of Theophany and the Retrieval of a “New” Model of God ...... 381 Nancy J. Shaffer Kant’s Moral Panentheism...... 399 Stephen Palmquist Schelling’s Fragile God ...... 411 Klaus Ottmann Hegelian Panentheism ...... 421 Glenn Alexander Magee Peirce on God, Reality and Personality ...... 431 Jeffery L. Kasser Karl Rahner on God ...... 441 James J. Bacik Modeling God in One Hindu Context: The Supreme God in a Medieval South Indian Hymn...... 453 Francis X. Clooney, SJ

Part VII Ground, Start and End of Being

Introduction to Ground, Start and End of Being Theologies ...... 473 Jeanine Diller xii Contents

Paul Tillich’s Pantheon of Theisms: An Invitation to Think Theonomously ...... 483 Christopher Demuth Rodkey The Theology of the Chinese Jews: An Understanding of God That Is Simultaneously Jewish, “Confucian” and Daoist ...... 497 Jordan Paper Deistic Distance: The Shift in Early Modern Theology from Divine Immanence to Divine Design ...... 511 Kurt Anders Richardson How a Modest Fideism may Constrain Theistic Commitments: Exploring an Alternative to Classical Theism ...... 525 John Bishop The God Insight: Vengeance or Destiny? ...... 543 John Bacon A New Existential Model of God: A Synthesis of Themes from Kierkegaard, Buber, Levinas, and Open Theism ...... 567 John Davenport Taking the Nature of God Seriously ...... 587 Nicholas Maxwell

Part VIII Ultimate Unity

Introduction to Ultimate Unity ...... 603 Michael Levine God and Ultimate Reality: An Analytical Interpretation of Śaņkara’s Philosophy ...... 615 R. Puligandla The as the Body of God: Rāmānuja on What is Ultimately Real ...... 625 Sucharita Adluri Ardhanārīśvara: An Androgynous Model of God ...... 633 Ellen Goldberg How Spinozistic Was Toland’s ? ...... 643 Edwin Curley

Part IX Divine Multiplicity

Introduction to Divine Multiplicity ...... 657 George I. Mavrodes Contents xiii

The Great Ancestor: An African Conception of God ...... 661 Jawanza Eric Clark Nature, Impersonality, and Absence in the Theology of Highest Clarity Daoism ...... 669 James Miller Toward a New Model of the Hindu Pantheon: A Report on Twenty-Some Years of Feminist Re fl ection ...... 681 Rita M. Gross

Part X Naturalistic Models of the Ultimate

Introduction to Naturalistic Models of the Ultimate ...... 695 Kurt Anders Richardson The , Figured and Dis fi gured: Hume on and Vulgar Religion ...... 699 Lee Hardy Nietzsche on the Death of God and the God of Life ...... 709 Jason Smick Emmanuel Levinas’s Non-existent God ...... 727 Donald L. Turner and Ford J. Turrell The New and Models of God: The Case of Richard Dawkins ...... 735 James E. Taylor Buddhist Ultimates? A Dif fi cult Question ...... 745 Rita M. Gross Facing Finality ...... 755 Steven Weinberg

Part XI Against Modeling: Negative Theology

Introduction to Negative Theology ...... 767 Wesley J. Wildman The Platonic of ...... 775 John Peter Kenney Pseudo-Dionysius and the Negation of Models of God ...... 783 Nancy J. Shaffer Strolling with on the Via Negativa ...... 793 Kenneth Seeskin xiv Contents

Meister Eckhart’s God ...... 801 Dietmar Mieth Kierkegaard’s Model of God and the Importance of Subjective Experience ...... 811 Aaron P. Smith Transcending the World: Wittgenstein, God, and the Unsayable ...... 823 Mario von der Ruhr Schleiermacher and the Negative Way: Implications for Inter-Religious Dialogue ...... 839 Wendy Farley Feyerabend on the Ineffability of Ultimate Reality ...... 849 Ian James Kidd Aperture of Absence: Jean-Luc Marion on the God Who ‘Is Not’ ...... 861 Donald L. Wallenfang

Part XII Diversity of Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities

Introduction to the Diversity of Models of Ultimate Realities ...... 877 Michael Thune Behind, Between, and Beyond Anthropomorphic Models of Ultimate Reality ...... 885 Wesley J. Wildman Can Models of God Compete? ...... 907 Jeremy R. Hustwit Ibn ‘Arabī on the Ultimate Model of the Ultimate ...... 915 William C. Chittick The Many-Sided Reality: A Model of Models ...... 931 Jerry L. Martin Incoherence and Truth in Models of the Ultimate: A Badiouan Approach ...... 941 David R. Brockman The Equal Weight Argument Against Religious ...... 955 Samuel Ruhmkorff Contents xv

Part XIII Practical Implications

Introduction to Practical Implications ...... 973 Sallie McFague Models of God and Global Warming ...... 979 Charles Taliaferro Models of God and Just War Theory ...... 991 Philip J. Rossi, SJ Models, Idols, and the Great White Whale: Toward a Christian of Nonattachment ...... 1001 Jeremy R. Hustwit Feminist Challenges to Conceptions of God: Exploring Divine Ideals ...... 1013 Pamela Sue Anderson

Epilogue ...... 1025 Jeanine Diller

Index ...... 1031

Contributors

Sucharita Adluri Department of Religious Studies, Cleveland State University, Cleveland , OH , USA Pamela Sue Anderson Faculty of Philosophy , University of Oxford , UK Michael V. Antony Department of Philosophy , University of Haifa , Israel James J. Bacik College of Languages, Literature and the Social , University of Toledo , OH , USA, now Illinois, USA John Bacon Department of Philosophy , University of Sydney , Australia, now OH, USA David Basinger Division of Teacher Education, Roberts Wesleyan College, NY , USA John Bishop Department of Philosophy , University of Auckland , New Zealand David R. Brockman Department of Theology , Brite School , TX , USA William C. Chittick Department of Asian and Asian-American Studies, Stony Brook University , NY , USA Jawanza Eric Clark Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Spelman College , GA , USA Philip Clayton Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean, Claremont School of Theology , CA , USA Francis X. Clooney , SJ Center for the Study of World Religions , Harvard Divinity School , MA , USA Monica A. Coleman Department of Process Studies/Theology , Claremont School of Theology , CA , USA David Cunning Department of Philosophy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

xvii xviii Contributors

Edwin Curley Department of Philosophy , University of Michigan , MI , USA John Davenport Department of Philosophy , Fordham University , Bronx, NY , USA Jeanine Diller Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Toledo, OH , USA Daniel A. Dombrowski Department of Philosophy , Seattle University , Seattle, WA, USA Elliot N. Dorff Department of Philosophy , American Jewish University , CA , USA Roland Faber Kilsby Family/John B. Cobb, Jr. Chair of Process Studies, Claremont School of Theology, and School of Religion , Claremont Graduate University , CA , USA Wendy Farley Department of Religion , Emory University , GA , USA Ellen Goldberg Queen’s School of Religion , Queen’s University , ON , Canada Rita M. Gross Comparative Studies in Religion, University of Wisconsin—Eau Claire , WI , USA Lotus Garden Buddhist Retreat Center , VA , USA Lee Hardy Department of Philosophy , Calvin College , MI , USA Ali Hasan Department of Philosophy , University of Iowa , IA , USA Jeremy R. Hustwit Department of Religion and Philosophy , Methodist University , NC , USA Asa Kasher Department of Philosophy , Tel Aviv University , Israel Jeffrey L. Kasser Department of Philosophy , Colorado State University , CO , USA Robert G. Kennedy Department of Catholic Studies and Terrence J. Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law and Public Policy, University of St. Thomas, MN , USA John Peter Kenney Department of Religious Studies , St. Michael’s College , VT , USA Ian James Kidd Department of Philosophy , Durham University , UK John Allan Knight Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies , Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY , USA Klaas J. Kraay Department of Philosophy , Ryerson University , ON , Canada Michael Levine Department of Philosophy , University of Western Australia , Australia Contributors xix

Jeffery D. Long Department of Religious Studies , Elizabethtown College , P A , U S A Glenn Alexander Magee Department of Philosophy, The C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University , Brookville, NY , USA Jerry L. Martin Department of Philosophy , University of Colorado at Boulder , CO , USA, retired, now Pennsylvania, USA George I. Mavrodes Department of Philosophy , University of Michigan, MI , USA Nicholas Maxwell Science and Technology Studies, University College London, UK Sallie McFague Vancouver School of Theology , BC , Canada Dietmar Mieth Faculty for Catholic Theology, University of Tuebingen and Max Weber Center for Advanced Studies , Research Group “Religious Individualisation – Historical Perspectives,” University of Erfurt , Germany James Miller Queen’s School of Religion , Queen’s University , ON , Canada Yujin Nagasawa Department of Philosophy, University of Birmingham, UK Robert Cummings Neville Department of Philosophy, Department of Religion, and School of Theology , Boston University , MA , USA R. Michael Olson Department of Philosophy , Saint Michael’s College , VT , USA Klaus Ottmann Center for the Study of Modern Art, The Phillips Collection, Washington , DC , USA Stephen Palmquist Department of Religion and Philosophy, Hong Kong Baptist University , Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR , China Jordan Paper Department of Humanities , York University , ON , Canada Centre for Studies in Religion and Society , University of Victoria , Victoria, BC , Canada Ted Peters Graduate Theological Union and Institute for Theology and Ethics , Pacifi c Lutheran Theological Seminary , CA , USA R. Puligandla Department of Philosophy , University of Toledo , OH , USA Alan R. Rhoda School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Bloomington , IN , USA Richard Rice School of Religion , Loma Linda University , CA , USA Kurt Anders Richardson Department of Philosophy, McMaster University, ON , Canada Christopher Demuth Rodkey Department of Philosophy, Penn State, York, PA, USA St. Paul’s United Church of Christ , Dallastown , PA , USA xx Contributors

Katherin A. Rogers Department of Philosophy , University of Delaware , DE , USA Philip J. Rossi, SJ Theology Department , Marquette University , WI , USA Samuel Ruhmkorff Department of Philosophy , Bard College at Simon’s Rock , MA , USA Kenneth Seeskin Department of Philosophy , Northwestern University , IL , USA Nancy J. Shaffer Department of Philosophy , California University of Pennsylvania , PA , USA Eric J. Silverman Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Christopher Newport University , VA , USA Jason Smick Department of Religious Studies , Santa Clara University , CA , USA Aaron P. Smith Department of Fine Arts and Humanities, Moraine Valley Community College , Palos Hills , IL , USA Charles Taliaferro Philosophy Department , St. Olaf College , MN , USA James E. Taylor Department of Philosophy , Westmont College , CA , USA Michael Thune Department of English, World Languages and Philosophy , Joliet Junior College , IL , USA Kevin Timpe Department of Philosophy , Northwest Nazarene University , ID , USA Donald L. Turner Philosophy Department , Nashville State Community College , TN , USA Ford J. Turrell College of Law , Michigan State University , MI , USA Donald Wayne Viney Department of History, Philosophy and Social Sciences, Pittsburg State University , KS , USA Mario von der Ruhr Department of Political and Cultural Studies , Swansea University , Wales, UK Donald L. Wallenfang Division of Theology , Walsh University , OH , USA Jonathan Weidenbaum School of Liberal Arts , Berkeley College , NY , USA Steven Weinberg Department of , University of Texas at Austin , TX , USA Lawrence A. Whitney , LC+ Marsh Chapel, Boston University, MA , USA Wesley J. Wildman School of Theology, Graduate School and Institute for the Biocultural Study of Religion , Boston University , MA , USA Contributors xxi

Thomas Williams Department of Religious Studies , University of South Florida , FL , USA David M. Woodruff Department of Philosophy and Theology , Azusa Pacifi c University , CA , USA