•  8
    John Wesley was an incredible person both in what he did and what he thought. Viewed against the background of the Christian scholars of his day and those who went before him, his thinking was immensely creative, insightful, and at times downright radical. From this book readers will learn more about what he thought than about what he did, but both are explored. Most Methodists know a little bit about what he did, but almost nothing about what he thought. When readers find out about them, they m…Read more
  •  117
    The Human Self: An Actual Entity or a Society?
    Process Studies 5 (3): 195-203. 1975.
    This article asks: Is the human self, the stream of human consciousness, a single unique enduring actual entity or whole (like Alfred North Whitehead’s God) or a society of transient actual occasions (like Charles Hartshorne’s God)? It argues forcefully for the former and against the latter and concludes that both God and human selves are enduring but constantly developing actual entities who are constantly being enriched by new events, experiences, and activities in time.
  •  2
    Axiology and Business Ethics
    In Deborah C. Poff & Alex C. Michalos (eds.), Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics, Springer Verlag. pp. 172-178. 2021.
  •  212
    Axiological Values in Natural Scientists and the Natural Sciences
    Journal of Formal Axiology: Theory and Practice 15 (1): 23-37. 2022.
    This article explains that and how values and evaluations are unavoidably and conspicuously present within natural scientists and their sciences—and why they are definitely not “value-free”. It shows how such things can be rationally understood and assessed within the framework of formal axiology, the value theory developed by Robert S. Hartman and those who have been deeply influenced by his reflections. It explains Hartman’s highly plausible and applicable definitions of “good” and related val…Read more
  •  220
    Robert Hartman and Brand Blanshard on Reason, Moral Relativism, and Intrinsic Goodness
    Journal of Formal Axiology Theory and Practice 15 (1): 65-82. 2022.
    This article explains that and how Robert S. Hartman and Brand Blanshard, two of the most insightful philosophers of the 20th Century, were complete rationalists in their approach to philosophical problems, especially those in value theory. They both rejected emotive, subjectivist, and relativistic approaches to ethical values. Both were convinced that “intrinsic goodness” is the most important, meaningful, and basic of all ethical or moral concepts. Just how they understood reasonableness and t…Read more
  •  12
    The Essentials of Formal Axiology
    University Press of America. 2010.
    This book explains and advances formal axiology as originally developed by Robert S. Hartman. Formal axiology identifies the general or formal patterns involved in (1) the meaning of "good" and other value concepts, (2) WHAT we value (value-objects), and (3) HOW we value (evaluations). It explains the rational, practical, and affective aspects of evaluation, and it shows how to make value judgments more rationally and effectively. It distinguishes between intrinsic, extrinsic, and systemic value…Read more
  •  111
    IDENTIFICATION SPIRITUALITY AND THE UNION OF JESUS AND GOD
    Journal of Ecumenical Studies 52 575-586. 2017.
    This was abstracted from a lengthier article titled "A Genuine Monotheism for Christians, Muslims, Jews, and All" originally published in the JOURNAL OF ECUMENICAL STUDIES, 52:575-586. Thanks to Paul Chase at Penn Press Journals for permission to use it here. This article proposes an understanding of the identity of God and Jesus that might be attractive and even plausible to persons of all monotheistic faiths. The basic thesis is that Jesus (as both "fully God and fully human") is best understo…Read more
  •  855
    The first two thirds or so of this book is a thorough, severe, and at times somewhat difficult, philosophical analysis and critique of atheistic naturalistic answers to “What caused the Big Bang?” Most contemporary astrophysicists accept one of the following non-theistic accounts of the origin of the Big Bang: Steady State, Plasma, Oscillationist, Big Fizz, Big Divide, Quantum Observership, Big Accident, Atheistic Anthropic, and Plenitude cosmologies. The last third or so of the book develops a …Read more
  •  163
    God, Miracles, Creation, Evil, and Statistical Natural Laws
    In Matthew Nelson Hill & Wm Curtis Holtzen (eds.), Connecting Faith and Science, Claremont Press. pp. 55-85. 2017.
    This article argues that actual entities come first; the statistical laws of nature are their effects, not their causes. Statistical laws are mentally abstracted from their habits and are only formal, not efficient, causes. They do not make anything happen or prevent anything from happening. They evolve or change as the habits of novel creatures evolve or change. They do not control or inform us about what any individual entity is doing, only about what masses of individuals on average are doing…Read more
  •  269
    Wesley on Love as "The Sum of All"
    Wesleyan Theological Journal 55 168-189. 2020.
    John Wesley insisted that love is the “sum of all” in real Methodism, Christianity, and True Religion. This “sum” includes “God is love,” the two love commandments, and all beliefs, affections, and good works that are derived from, express, and nurture love to God, neighbors, and every creature God has made. Wesley expressly rejected Biblical doctrines and practices that are unloving such as predestination, God hated Esau, and the many malicious and vengeful imprecatory Psalms. Wesley’s example …Read more
  •  133
    God and Process
    In Logic, God and Metaphysics. pp. 41-57. 1992.
    This article argues against Bowman Clarke's attempt to eliminate futurity from the God of Process.
  •  150
    Review of Thomas J. Oord, The Uncontrolling Love of God (review)
    Process Studies 44 (2): 299-303. 2015.
    This is a review of Thomas Jay Oord’s book on The Uncontrolling Love of God in which he develops a very persuasive and highly original process account of how God’s love, power, and providence relate to matters of human freedom, randomness in nature and history, natural laws, miracles, and evil. This review summarizes the main points in each of his eight chapters and offers a few critical and constructive comments on them.
  • Freedom, Responsibility and Obligation (review)
    Zeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung 26 (1): 140-143. 1969.
  •  8
    Stephen H. Daniel's novel approach interprets the thought of Jonathan Edwards thorough semiotics, the theory of signs. He explicates the theory of signs that pervades Edwards' thought and associates it with elements of post-modernist semiotics in Foucault, Kristeva, and Peirce. He contends that Edwards himself developed a viable alternative to the classical-modern philosophical outlook by drawing explicitly upon the pre-modernist Renaissance propositional logic of Peter Ramus.
  •  775
    Conflicting Process Theodicies
    Process Studies 48 (1): 19-39. 2019.
    This article examines the process theodicies of David Ray Griffin and Philip Clayton. It explains their differences on such issues as God’s primordial power and voluntary self-limitation, creativity as an independent metaphysical principle that limits God, creation out of nothing or out of chaos, and God’s voluntary causal naturalism. Difficulties with their positions are discussed. The Clayton-Knapp “no-not-once” principle is explained, and a more comprehensive process theodicy is outlined.
  •  224
    Reasonableness, Murder, and Modern Science
    with Rem B. Edwards and Frank H. Marsh
    Phi Kappa Phi Journal 58 (1): 24-29. 1979.
    Originally titled “Is It Murder in Tennessee to Kill a Chimpanzee,” this article argues in some detail that typical legal definitions of “murder” as involving the intentional killing of “a reasonable being” would require classifying the intentional killing of chimpanzees as murder.
  • Death and dying
    In Rem B. Edwards & G. C. Graber (eds.), Bioethics, . pp. 387-401. 1998.
    This article is in a larger textbook of articles in Medical Ethics
  •  277
    Confidentiality and the professions
    In Bioethics, Harcourt. pp. 72-81. 1988.
    This article is in a larger textbook of articles on Medical Ethics. It identifies a number of values that underlie professional commitments to confidentiality that are involved in protecting or promoting the client's (1) privacy, (2)social status, (3) economic advantages, (4) openness of communications, (5) seeking professional help, (6) trust in professionals, (7) autonomous control over personal information. The problem of making exceptions to confidentiality commitments is also examined.
  •  257
    A Genuine Monotheism for Christians, Muslims, Jews, and All
    Journal of Ecumenical Studies 52 554-586. 2017.
    Today's conflicts between religions are grounded largely in historical injustices and grievances but partly in serious conceptual disagreements. This essay agrees with Miroslav Volf that a nontritheistic Christian account of the Trinity is highly desirable. Three traditional models of the Trinity are examined. In their pure, unmixed form, two of them should logically be acceptable to Jews, Muslims, and strict monotheists who regard Christianity as inherently tritheistic, despite lip service to o…Read more
  •  170
    This book explores three easily recognized personality types of great spiritual significance--worldliness, ideology, and saintliness. These spiritual types are defined by the dominant values they manifest--extrinsic, systemic, or intrinsic. The thoughts, experiences, actions, feelings, and overall characters and behaviors of people belonging to these types are shaped and expressed by what and how they value, as the chapters in the book explain. A distinctive mode of spirituality is correlated wi…Read more
  • Freedom, Responsability and Obligation
    Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 163 219-220. 1969.
  •  3133
    Was Jesus Ever Happy? How John Wesley Could Have Answered
    Wesleyan Theological Journal 52 (2017): 119-132. 2017.
    John Wesley did not directly address the question, but he could have answered "Yes'" to "Was Jesus Ever Happy?" given his understanding of "happiness." His eudaimonistic understanding of happiness was that it consists in renewing and actualizing the image of God within us, especially the image of love. More particularly, it consists in actually living a life of moral virtue, love included, of spiritual fulfillment, of joy or pleasure taken in loving God, others, and self, and in minimizing unnec…Read more
  •  2527
    "John Wesley's Non-Literal Literalism and Hermeneutics of Love"
    Wesleyan Theological Journal 51 (2): 26-40. 2016.
    A thorough examination of John Wesley’s writings will show that he was not a biblical literalist or infallibilist, despite his own occasional suggestions to the contrary. His most important principles for interpreting the Bible were: We should take its words literally only if doing so is not absurd, in which case we should “look for a looser meaning;” and “No Scripture can mean that God is not love, or that his mercy is not over all his works.” Eleven instances of his not taking biblical texts l…Read more
  •  31
    The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 14 (review)
    Review of Metaphysics 52 (1): 140-142. 1998.
    This volume contains the editor’s informative “Preface to the Period”, the Quaestio that Edwards submitted in 1723 to complete his master’s degree at Yale, and 19 sermons. Some of the sermons were first preached during 1723 and 1724 in Bolton, Connecticut, but most were composed between 1726 and 1729 in Northampton, Massachusetts while Edwards was junior minister in the church of Solomon Stoddard, his grandfather; a few originated after Stoddard’s death in February, 1729, when Edwards became sol…Read more
  •  3
    Rem B. Edwards, What Caused the Big Bang? (review)
    International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 53 (3): 189-193. 2003.
  •  380
    The Validity of Aquinas’ Third Way
    New Scholasticism 45 (1): 117-126. 1971.
    This article argues for the formal validity of and the truth of the premises and conclusion of a version of Aquinas' "Third Way" that says: If each of the parts of nature is contingent, the whole of nature is contingent. Each of the parts of nature is contingent. Therefore, the whole of nature is contingent--where "contingent" means having a cause and not existing self-sufficiently.
  •  26
    The Naturalness of Religious Ideas (review)
    Review of Metaphysics 49 (2): 400-401. 1995.
    Philosophers might be misled by the title of this book, particularly philosophers of religion. Although the author argues that some religious ideas are natural, he does not try to vindicate "natural religion" or "natural theology." Instead, he argues that some religious concepts are natural in that they depend on "noncultural constraints" like genetics and the effects of evolution on human brain development, and that these ideas are considered to be "perfectly obvious" and "self-evident" to thos…Read more
  •  3
    Rem B. Edwards, Religious Values and Valuations (review)
    International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 53 (1): 57-60. 2003.