The Challenges of Divine Determinism: A Philosophical Analysis

Description

In this volume, Peter Furlong delves into the question of divine determinism - the view that God has determined everything that has ever happened or will ever happen. This view, which has a long history among multiple religious and philosophical traditions, faces a host of counterarguments. It seems to rob humans of their free will, absolving them of all the wrongs they commit. It seems to make God the author of sin and thus blameworthy for all human wrongdoing. Additionally, it seems to undermine the popular 'Free Will Defense' of the problem of evil, to make a mockery of the claim that God loves us, and to make it inappropriate for God to blame and punish us. This work carefully formulates these and other objections to divine determinism and investigates possible responses to each of them, providing systematic and balanced discussion of this major philosophical and theological debate.

Peter Furlong is Professor of Philosophy at Valencia College, Florida. His work has appeared in journals including Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Faith and Philosophy, Res Philosophica, Sophia, and International Philosophical Quarterly, as well as in Aquinas's 'Disputed Questions on Evil': A Critical Guide (Cambridge, 2015).

'... thoughtful and clear ...' Jesse Couenhoven, Modern Theology