Depicting Deity: A Metatheological Approach

Description

A theology aims to explicate the nature of God. A metatheology investigates more fundamental issues concerning how to structure such an intellectual endeavour, and where it should begin. Approaches that ignore this more fundamental investigation risk presupposing stances that do not withstand scrutiny, and perhaps would never have been endorsed if considered directly. Approaches that ignore the issue of fundamentality can also switch from one set of assumptions to another without noticing the change in perspective that results, giving rise to a chance of incoherence and an approach that is theoretically disorderly. This book begins with the more basic question of where to begin thinking about God and where it is best to start the project of theology. It does so in a way that offers some hope of a defensible metatheory from which a complete theology, displaying the kind of theoretical elegance and structure we find in our best scientific and philosophical theories, can be developed. Cover Depicting Deity: A Metatheological Approach Copyright Preface Contents Part I: Introduction 1: The Major Positions 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Perfect Being Theology (PBT) 1.3 Creator Theology (CT) 1.4 Worship-Worthiness Theology (WWT) 1.4.1 Leftow’s Derivation of Personhood 1.4.2 Leftow’s Characterization of Worship 1.4.3 Worthiness and the Uniqueness Challenge 1.4.4 Fundamentality and Worship-Worthiness 1.5 Conclusion 2: Categorizing Metatheologies 2.1 Introduction 2.2 The Wider Logical Space 2.3 Theologies and Metatheologies 2.4 Alternative Category Systems 2.5 Conclusion 3: Initial Desiderata on Metatheology 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Semantics and Metaphysics 3.3 Monotheism and Personhood 3.4 The Question of Embodiment 3.5 Conclusion Part II: The Shared Ground 4: Creator Theology and the Shared Ground 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Monotheism 4.3 Personhood 4.4 Embodiment 4.5 Conclusion 5: Shaky Ground for Anselmianism 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Creator Theology and Contingency 5.3 The Metatheology of Perfection in Being 5.4 Creator Theology and the Problems of Contingency and Profligacy 5.5 Conclusion 6: The Shared Ground Prospects for Worship-Worthiness Theology 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Monotheism 6.3 Personhood 6.4 Embodiment 6.5 Conclusion Part III: Toward Competing Starting Points 7: Creator Theology’s Disadvantages 7.1 Introduction 7.2 From Creator Theology toward Worship-Worthiness 7.3 From Creator Theology toward Perfection 7.4 Conclusion 8: Perfect Being Theology’s Difficulties 8.1 Introduction 8.2 From Perfection in Being to Sourcehood 8.3 From Perfection in Being to Worship-Worthiness 8.4 Conclusion 9: Worship-Worthiness and Its Drawbacks 9.1 Introduction 9.2 From a Worship-Worthy Being to a Perfect Being 9.3 From Worship-Worthiness to Sourcehood 9.4 Conclusion Part IV: Concluding Parameters 10: Theological Systems and Their Derivations 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Summary 10.3 Theological systems 10.4 Issues of Derivability 10.5 Metatheological Resources 10.6 Conclusion 11: Conclusion Bibliography Index