God and the Meanings of Life: What God Could and Couldn't Do to Make Our Lives More Meaningful

Description

Some philosophers have thought that life could only be meaningful if there is no God. For Sartre and Nagel, for example, a God of the traditional classical theistic sort would constrain our powers of self-creative autonomy in ways that would severely detract from the meaning of our lives, possibly even evacuate our lives of all meaning. Some philosophers, by contrast, have thought that life could only be meaningful if there is a God. God and the Meanings of Life is interested in exploring the truth in both these schools of thought, seeking to discover what God could and couldn't do to make life meaningful (as well as what he would and wouldn't do). Mawson espouses a version of the 'amalgam' or 'pluralism' thesis about the issue of life's meaning - in essence, that there are a number of different legitimate meanings of 'meaning' (and indeed 'life') in the question of life's meaning. According to Mawson, God, were he to exist, would help make life meaningful in some of these senses and hinder in some others. He argues that whilst there could be meaning in a Godless universe, there could be other sorts of meaning in a Godly one and that these would be deeper.

T. J. Mawson is Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at St Peter's College, Oxford University. He is the author of Belief in God: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion (2005).

The book is very well and very closely argued, with an admirable use of modern philosophical resources, and it is written with humour and acuteness. Anyone who thinks about the meaning of life would have their thinking clarified and enriched by this excellent book. * Theology * This is an important contribution to the literature, written by a philosopher with a comprehensive understanding of the field, and containing a wealth of provocative lines of thought ... Given his careful and original discussion ... I would say that Mawson's book is indispensable for any philosopher interested in the question(s) of life's meaning. * Religious Studies * "...God and the Meanings of Life is an excellent book. It is insightful, clearly written, and well argued. It certainly makes one think. It is one of the best recent books on the meaning of life I have read. Its author is highly intelligent, is well informed, and has thought deeply about the subject. It is a must-read for anyone perplexed by the relationship between God and the meaning of life. * International Journal for Philosophy of Religion * Mawson's book yields the intellectual pleasures of good sense and probing analysis laced with humour and aided by imaginative thought experiments. Following him into the nooks and crannies of the 'meaning of life' discussion, we emerge with insights galore. * J. L. Schellenberg, Professor of Philosophy, Mount Saint Vincent University, Canada * In this energetically argued piece, Mawson examines the question of the meaning of life in scrupulous detail and shows that it is really an assemblage of different questions. He also offers a meticulous account of what the difference God would, or could, make to the meaningfulness of our lives. An impressive contribution to the literature. -- John Cottingham: Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Reading University, Professorial Research Fellow of Heythrop College, and Honorary Fellow of St John's College Oxford, UK The last twenty-five years or so have witnessed a remarkable renaissance of interest among a minority of analytical philosophers in the question of the meaning of life, and this monograph provides a substantial contribution to that discussion ... This is an important contribution to the current debate and my hope is that it will be widely read and receive the detailed engagement it merits. * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews * If the reader wants to read a first-rate philosophical book on the topic of the meaning of life, then he or she can do no better than God and the Meanings of Life. It is philosophy at its best, and I recommend it with the highest praise. * Journal of Analytic Theology * It is the most erudite and intricate book on life's meaning that I have ever read in the Anglo-American tradition of philosophy, and its appearance is a testament to the richness of the field of analytic existentialism. Mawson has advanced reflection on the question of what, if anything, would make life meaningful, requiring those in the field to engage with his original and powerfully defended positions. The book has truly broadened my thought, and I recommend it most strongly. * European Journal for the Philosophy of Religion *