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39Divine Action and EmbodimentProceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 71 113-124. 1997.
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31Is Christianity True? Hugo A. Meynell London: The Catholic University of America Press, 1994, 149 pp (review)Dialogue 37 (2): 395-. 1998.Most debate in the philosophy of religion centres on “thin theism,” the thesis that there is a deity who is omnipotent, omniscient, etc. But few if any theists are just thin theists. For most, thin theism is at best the abstract skeleton of a fuller set of religious beliefs— Christian, Jewish, or Moslem. Thus, there is another set of issues philosophers of religion might but rarely do discuss: with what sort of warrant might one add to thin theism the beliefs of a particular religious tradition?…Read more
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29Introduction to the Problem of Individuation in the Early Middle AgesInternational Philosophical Quarterly 27 (1): 109-109. 1987.
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28Perfect Being Attacked! Jeff Speaks’s The Greatest Possible Being (review)Faith and Philosophy 38 (2): 262-273. 2021.Jeff Speaks’s The Greatest Possible Being criticizes several sorts of perfect being theology. I show that his main discussions target what are really idealizations of actual perfect-being projects. I then focus on whether Speaks’s idealizations match up with the real historical article. I argue that, in one key respect, they do not and that it would be uncharitable to think that one of them does. If the idealizations do not represent what perfect being thinkers have actually been doing, a questi…Read more
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26Anselm on the Cost of SalvationMedieval Philosophy & Theology 6 (1): 73-92. 1997.This paper examines Anselm’s reply to this argument in order to shed light on a number of issues in philosophical theology, including the metaphysics of the Incarnation, the relation between perfect being theology and the doctrines of the Incarnation and the Atonement, the senses in which the Christian God might be impassible, and the nature of God’s perfect rationality and wisdom. (edited)
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25XFaith and Philosophy 31 (1): 3-23. 2014.Western theism holds that God cannot do evil. Christians also hold that Christ is God the Son and that Christ was tempted to do evil. These claims appear to be jointly inconsistent. I argue that they are not
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23F. X. Martin, O.S.A. and J. A. Richmond, eds., "From Augustine to Eriugena: Essays on Neoplatonism and Christianity in Honor of John O'Meara" (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 31 (3): 460. 1993.
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20Anselm's Argument: Divine NecessityOxford University Press. 2022."Anselm of Canterbury gave the first modal "ontological" argument for God's existence. Yet, despite its distinct originality, philosophers have mostly avoided the question of what modal concepts the argument uses, and whether Anselm's metaphysics entitles him to use them. Here, Brian Leftow sets out Anselm's modal metaphysics. He argues that Anselm has an "absolute", "broadly logical", or "metaphysical" modal concept, and that his metaphysics provides acceptable truth makers for claims in this m…Read more
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17Review of Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski: The Dilemma of Freedom and Foreknowledge (review)Ethics 103 (1): 163-164. 1992.
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17Anselm on NecessityOxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy 5 (1). 2017.This article provides an explanation of Anselm’s understanding of necessity. Anselm did not write much about modality, and what he did write is puzzling. The dominant readings of Anselm see him as having two concepts of necessity, one merely physical or causal, the other logical or “alethic.” This article argues that Anselm has just one concept of necessity, which corresponds best to what is now called broadly logical or absolute necessity, but whose metaphysics is in terms of powers and lacks o…Read more
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13Eternity and immutabilityIn William Mann (ed.), The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Religion, Blackwell. 2004.
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13EternityIn Charles Taliaferro, Paul Draper & Philip L. Quinn (eds.), A Companion to Philosophy of Religion, Wiley‐blackwell. 2010.This chapter contains sections titled: Limits and Life The Creation of Time Problems for Timelessness Works cited.
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12Reason and the Christian Religion (review)International Philosophical Quarterly 38 (2): 216-218. 1998.
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11A timeless God incarnateIn Stephen T. Davis, Daniel Kendall & Gerald O'Collins (eds.), The Incarnation, Oxford Up. pp. 273--299. 2002.
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