In defence of God making stuff up: a reply to Ward

Author:

Gould Paul M.ORCID

Abstract

Abstract Thomas Ward explicates and defends a version of divine exemplarism called Containment Exemplarism to make good on the claim that God is a ‘totally original artist’. According to Containment Exemplarism, (i) God ex nihilo creates according to divine ideas, (ii) divine ideas are about an aspect or part of God, and (iii) God has the ideas he has by knowing himself. Containment Exemplarism, we are told, secures the rationality and creativity of the divine creative act. I argue, first, that Ward's God is not a totally original artist since, on Containment Exemplarism, God does not act creatively in creating. Theistic Activism, the view that God makes up the ideas he has, can secure the creativity of the divine creative act. I argue, second, that Ward's argument against the rationality of God making stuff up fails. Thus, there is one version of divine exemplarism that satisfies key desiderata for divine creation.

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Subject

Philosophy,Religious studies

Reference21 articles.

1. A powers theory of modality: or, how I learned to stop worrying and reject possible worlds

2. Divine Ideas

3. Absolute creation;Morris;American Philosophical Quarterly,1986

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