Buch, Englisch, 198 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 145 mm x 222 mm, Gewicht: 387 g
The Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of St. Andrews in 2003
Buch, Englisch, 198 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 145 mm x 222 mm, Gewicht: 387 g
ISBN: 978-0-19-924560-4
Verlag: OUP Oxford
It is generally supposed that the fact that the world contains a vast amount of suffering, much of it truly horrible suffering, confronts those who believe in an all-powerful and benevolent Creator with a serious problem: to explain why such a Creator would permit this. Many reflective people are convinced that the problem, the problem of evil, is insoluble. The reasons that underlie this conviction can be formulated as a powerful argument for the non-existence of God, the so-called argument from evil: If there were a God, he would not permit the existence of vast amounts of truly horrible suffering; since such suffering exists, there is no God. Peter van Inwagen examines this argument, which he regards as a paradigmatically philosophical argument. His conclusion is that (like most philosophical arguments) it is a failure. He seeks to demonstrate, not that God exists, but the fact that the world contains a vast amount of suffering does not show that God does not exist.
Along the way he discusses a wide range of topics of interest to philosophers and theologians, such as: the concept of God; what might be meant by describing a philosophical argument as a failure; the distinction between versions of the argument from evil that depend on the vast amount of evil in the world and versions of the argument that depend on a particular evil, such as the Lisbon earthquake or the death of a fawn in a forest fire; the free-will defense; animal suffering; and the problem of the hiddenness of God.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Fachgebiete
- Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Systematische Theologie Christliche Philosophie
- Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie
- Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie
Weitere Infos & Material
- Introduction
- 1: The Problem of Evil and the Argument from Evil
- 2: The Idea of God
- 3: Philosophical Failure
- 4: The Global Argument from Evil
- 5: The Global Argument Continued
- 6: The Local Argument from Evil
- 7: The Sufferings of Beasts
- 8: The Hiddenness of God
