Overview
God, the Best, and Evil is an original treatment of some longstanding problems about God and his actions towards human beings. First, Bruce Langtry explores some implications of divine omnipotence, omniscience, and perfect goodness for God's providence. In particular, he investigates whether God is in some sense a maximizer. Second, he assesses the strength of objections to the existence of God that are based on the apparent fact that God could have created a better world than this one. Finally, he assesses the strength of objections to the existence of God that focus on the problem of evil. To create a (possible) world is to strongly or weakly actualize it. A world is prime if God can create it, and he cannot create a world better than it. This book's conclusions include the following: (1) If there is at least one prime world, then if God does create some world he will create a prime world. (2) If there are no prime worlds, then it does not follow that God does not exist. Instead, what follows is that if God creates a world he will create one that is good enough, despite the fact that he could create a world which is better. (3) This conclusion does not give rise to a good objection to theism, based on the apparent fact that the actual world is improvable and yet it is not good enough (4) Even if there is a best world, or several equal-best worlds, God cannot create any of them. (5) A good partial theodicy for evil can be provided, appealing to goods bound up with human free will, moral responsibility, and the roles of individuals' own personal traits in shaping their own and other people's lives. The partial theodicy is neutral between Theological Compatibilism and libertarianism. (6) The problem of evil does not provide a very strong objection to the existence of God.
Full Product Details
Author: Bruce Langtry (University of Melbourne)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 14.40cm
, Height: 2.00cm
, Length: 22.40cm
Weight: 0.452kg
ISBN: 9780199238798
ISBN 10: 0199238790
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 01 May 2008
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
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Reviews
Bruce Langtry's God, the Best and Evil offers an interesting take on some theology's most crucial issues...altogether rewarding read. Ash Cocksworth The Expository Times
Bruce Langtry's God, the Best and Evil offers an interesting take on some theology's most crucial issues...altogether rewarding read. * Ash Cocksworth The Expository Times * This is a very fine work. It is a model of clear, calm, and exact reasoning, and its complex argumetns, fashioned with great technical skill and dialectical ingenuity, penetrate deeply into issues hotly debated in contemporary philosophy of religion. * J. L. Schellenberg Mind Vol 118 Oct 2009 * A logically rigorous and tightly-argued work. Anyone wishing to be up to speed on theodicy, good or better possible worlds, and God's powers should have a copy. * James G Murphy, Miltown Studies *
Author Information
Bruce Langtry was a student at the University of Sydney, where he obtained his BA and PhD, and was appointed to a teaching fellowship. He spent four years teaching at the University of Tasmania before moving to the University of Melbourne in May, 1976. His current main research is in philosophy of religion, but he has also published journal articles and book chapters in a wide variety of other areas.
