God, Purpose, and Reality
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A01=John Bishop
A01=Ken Perszyk
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Product details
- ISBN 9780192864116
- Weight: 392g
- Dimensions: 146 x 225mm
- Publication Date: 31 Jan 2023
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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What must reality be like if the God of Abrahamic theism exists? How could the worldview of Abrahamic theism be understood if not in terms of the existence of a supremely powerful, knowledgeable, and good personal being? John Bishop and Ken Perszyk argue that it is reasonable to reject what many analytic philosophers take to be the standard conception of God as the 'personal omniGod'. They argue that a version of a 'logical' Argument from Evil is still very much in play, contrary to the widely held view that this line of argument is bankrupt.
This book provides a new presentation and defence of the alternative that Bishop and Perszyk have called euteleology. Its core claims are that reality is inherently purposive, and that the Universe exists ultimately because its overall end (telos), which is the supreme good, is made concretely real within it. There is no supreme agent ('standing by' while horrors take place); God is 'no-thing' in euteleology's basic ontology. Rather, talk of God-as-a-personal-being is a cognitive construction, treating ultimate reality by analogy with our ordinary ways of experiencing and talking about the world.
But euteleological theism is also emphatically realist. Analogizing God-talk enables humans to align themselves with reality and is aptly deployed in prayer and worship-practices whose broad function is a human contribution to, and enjoyment of, the fulfilment of reality's inherent ultimate purpose.
John Bishop is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Auckland, where he held a Chair in Philosophy from 1993 to 2021. He is the author of Natural Agency (1989) and Believing by Faith (Clarendon Press, 2007). In recent years, he has collaborated with Ken Perszyk as co-author of several journal articles and book chapters on the problem of evil and the concept of God.
Ken Perszyk is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Waikato and Academic Director at its Tauranga campus. He taught previously at Victoria University of Wellington, where for eleven years he was Head of the School of History, Philosophy, Political Science, and International Relations. He is the editor of Molinism: The Contemporary Debate (Oxford University Press, 2011), and author of Nonexistent Objects: Meinong and Contemporary Philosophy (1993). Many of his sole- and co-authored journal articles and book chapters have focused on the problem of evil and the concept of God.
