Inquiring about God: Volume 1, Selected Essays

by Nicholas Wolterstorff, Terence Cuneo (Editor)

Inquiring about God is the first of two volumes of Nicholas Wolterstorff's collected papers. This volume collects Wolterstorff's essays on the philosophy of religion written over the last thirty-five years. The essays, which span a range of topics including Kant's philosophy of religion, the medieval (or classical) conception of God, and the problem of evil, are unified by the conviction that some of the central claims made by the classical theistic tradition, such as the claims that God is timeless, simple, and impassible, should be rejected. Still, Wolterstorff contends, rejecting the classical conception of God does not imply that theists should accept the Kantian view according to which God cannot be known. Of interest to both philosophers and theologians, Inquiring about God should give the reader a lively sense of the creative and powerful work done in contemporary philosophical theology by one of its foremost practitioners.

Genres: Theology, Philosophy

322 pages, Hardcover

First published February 4, 2010

About the author

Wolterstorff is the Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology, and Fellow of Berkeley College at Yale University. A prolific writer with wide-ranging philosophical and theological interests, he has written books on metaphysics, aesthetics, political philosophy, epistemology and theology and philosophy of religion.

Reviews

[Zach Waldis · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a fair amount of philosophical claptrap and terminology here, so I almost docked a star, but some excellent essays on "suffering love" and Tertullian vs Clement as representative strategies for engaging "pagan" philosophy make this collection well worth the read. Woltersorff's writings and writing style are not systematic, but they are evidence that there's still a lot of interesting ground to cover in philosophical theology.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked his discussion of God's simplicity, especially his defense of the doctrine's tenets as consistent within Aquinas' "constituent ontology". Helpful in making the connections about why God's simplicity would imply his being outside time, immutability, and impassibility (i.e. God doesn't suffer, have passions).

Really interested in where all this leads, and what the biggest objections to Wolterstorff's rejection of divine simplicity, impassibility, eternality would be.

The intellectual rigor of this book challenged me considerably, but I am thankful that Wolterstorff's clear communication makes this academic book relatively accessible and demonstrates the patient and balanced manner in which Wolterstorff conducts his inquiry.