Describing Gods: An Investigation of Divine Attributes

Description

How do religious believers describe God, and what sort of attributes do they attribute to him? These are central topics in the philosophy of religion. In this book Graham Oppy undertakes a careful study of attributes which are commonly ascribed to God, including infinity, perfection, simplicity, eternity, necessity, fundamentality, omnipotence, omniscience, freedom, incorporeality, perfect goodness and perfect beauty. In a series of substantial chapters, he examines divine attributes one by one, and relates them to a larger taxonomy of those attributes. He also examines the difficulties involved in establishing the claim that understandings of divine attributes are inconsistent or incoherent. Intended as a companion to his 2006 book Arguing about Gods, his study engages with a range of the best contemporary work on divine attributes. It will appeal to readers in philosophy of religion.

Graham Oppy is Professor of Philosophy at Monash University. His books on philosophy of religion include:Ontological Arguments and Belief in God (1996), Philosophical Perspectives on Infinity (2006), Arguing about Gods (Cambridge University Press, 2006), Reading Philosophy of Religion with Michael Scott (2010), The History of Western Philosophy of Religion co-edited with Nick Trakakis (2013), The Best Argument against God (2013) and Reinventing Philosophy of Religion: An Opinionated Introduction (2014).