God, suffering, and the value of free will / Laura W. Ekstrom.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ekstrom, Laura Waddell, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Theodicy.

Good and evil--Religious aspects.

Good and evil.

Free will and determinism--Religious aspects.

Free will and determinism.

Suffering--Religious aspects.

Suffering.

God.

Physical Description:

x, 238 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2021]

Summary:

"This book focuses on arguments from suffering against the existence of God and on a variety of issues concerning agency and value that they bring out. The central aim is to show the extent and power of arguments from evil. The book provides a close investigation of an under-defended claim at the heart of the major free-will-based responses to such arguments, namely that free will is sufficiently valuable to serve as the good, or prominently among the goods, that provides a God-justifying reason for permitting evil in our world. Offering a fresh examination of traditional theodicies, it also develops an alternative line the author calls a divine intimacy theodicy. It makes an extended case for rejection of the position of skeptical theism. The book expands upon an argument from evil concerning a traditional doctrine of hell, which reveals a number of interesting issues concerning fault, agency, and blameworthiness. In response to recent work contending that the problem of evil is defanged since God's baseline attitude toward human beings is indifference, the book defends the essential perfect moral goodness of God. Finally it takes up the question of whether or not it makes sense to live a religious life as an agnostic or as an atheist"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. God And Suffering

1.1. Attractions of Theism

1.2. The Problem of Suffering

1.2.1. Consistency Matters

1.2.2. Pointless Evils

1.2.3. Amount, Intensity, and Distribution of Suffering

1.3. Justification Attempts

1.3.1. The Punishment Theodicy

1.3.2. Building Better People

1.3.3. The Gift of Free Will

1.4. Going Forward

2. The Value Of Free Will

2.1. Free Will of What Sort?

2.1.1. The Rational Abilities View

2.1.2. A Hierarchical Account

2.1.3. Libertarian Free Will

2.2. Value Proposals

2.2.1. Intrinsic Value

2.2.2. Extrinsic Value

2.2.2.1. Love

2.2.2.2. Moral Responsibility

2.2.2.3. Meaningful Life

2.2.2.4. Sense of Self

2.2.2.5. Truly Good Acts

2.2.2.6. Genuine Creativity

2.3. Taking a Measure

2.4. Objection: Natural Law Violations

2.5. Additional Problems

3. Divine Intimacy Theodicy

3.1. The Character of Religious Experience

3.2. Suffering as Religious Experience

3.3. The Value of Relationships

3.4. Divine Passibility

3.5. Problems for the Divine Intimacy Theodicy

3.5.1. The Objection from Cruelty

3.5.2. The Objection from Lunacy

3.5.3. The Objection from Ineffectiveness

3.6. Assessment

4. Skeptical Theism

4.1. Characterizing Skeptical Theism

4.2. Rejection of Skeptical Theism

4.2.1. Senor on Racist Appearances

4.2.2. Bergmann on Our Cognitive Limitations

4.2.3. Humility in the Face of Mystery

4.2.4. Rea on the Threat of Skeptical Spread

4.3. Conclusion

5. Hell And Fault

5.1. What God Does

5.2. Lewis on a Neglected Argument from Evil

5.3. An Expanded Argument Concerning Responsibility and Hell

5.4. The Fault of Others, the Goodness of Hell, and a Blameworthy God

5.5. Hell and Individual Free Choice

5.6. A Streamlined Argument

6. God's Ethics: A Workaround?

6.1. Murphy on God's Goodness

6.2. Application to Arguments from Evil

6.3. A Big Mistake?

6.4. The Heart of God

6.5. The Value of Persons

6.6. The Badness of Suffering

6.7. Rejection of Murphy's Move

6.8. God's Contingent Love and Promises

6.9. The Problem of Evil Remains Powerful

7. Religion On The Cheap

7.1. A Religious Life

7.2. Theological Realism and Theological Antirealism

7.3. Initial Perspective

7.4. Making Sense of the Religious Life of a Non-Theist

7.5. The Significance of Religious Experience

7.6. God and Explanation

7.7. Religious Agnosticism?

7.8. What Is Lost if God Is Not Real?

7.9. Closing

8. Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Ekstrom, Laura Waddell, God, suffering, and the value of free will

ISBN:

9780197556412

0197556418

OCLC:

1200037453

Publisher Number:

99987051288