Alternative Concepts of God Essays on the Metaphysics of the Divine

The concept of God according to traditional Judeo-Christian-Islamic theism minimally includes the following theses: (i) There is one God; (ii) God is an omniscient, omnipotent, and morally perfect agent; (iii) God is the creator ex nihilo of the universe and the sustainer of all that exists; and (iv) God is an immaterial substance that is ontologically distinct from the universe. Proponents of alternative concepts of God, such as pantheism, panentheism, religious anti-realism, developmental theism, and religious naturalism, exclude at least one of these claims. A number of prominent philosophers and scientists have expressed sympathy with alternative concepts of the divine. However, voices raised in defense of these concepts tend not to be taken seriously in contemporary analytic philosophy of religion. This volume aims to shed light on alternative concepts of God and to thoroughly consider their merits and demerits. The contributors are leading analytic philosophers of religion, including critics of these views as well as sympathizers. This is the first contemporary edited collection featuring the work of analytic philosophers of religion covering such a wide range of alternative concepts of God.

1 - The Personal Pantheist Conception of God
2 - Pantheism as Panpsychism
3 - A Way of Picturing God
4 - Naturalistic Pantheism
5 - Modal Panentheism
6 - Concepts of God and Problems of Evil
7 - Horrors: To What End?
8 - Taking the Mind of God Seriously: Why and How to Become a Theistic Idealist
9 - God for All Time: From Theism to Ultimism
10 - Playing the God Game: the Perils of Religious Fictionalism
11 - The Divine as Ground of Existence and of Transcendental Values: An Exploration
12 - Theological Realism, Divine Action, and Divine Location
13 - Free Will and the Mythology of Causation
14 - Samuel Alexander's Spacetime God: A Naturalist Rival to Current Emergentist Theologies
15 - On Religious Naturalism

Andrei A. Buckareff is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Cognitive Science Program at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, USA. His research focuses on metaphysical and epistemological issues in philosophy of action, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of religion. His work has been published in the Canadian Journal of Philosophy, International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion, Philosophia, Philosophical Studies, Religious Studies, Theoria, and elsewhere. Yujin Nagasawa is Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the John Hick Centre for Philosophy of Religion at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of God and Phenomenal Consciousness and The Existence of God. He has published numerous articles in such journals as Mind, the Philosophical Quarterly, Synthese, the American Philosophical Quarterly, Religious Studies and Faith and Philosophy. He won the Philosophical Quarterly Essay Prize in 2007, the Templeton Award for Theological Promise in 2008, and the Excellence in Philosophy of Religion Prize in 2011.