This book presents a philosophically defensible conception of the deity found in the Abrahamic religions. The book draws insights from such figures as Augustine, Philo, Aquinas, Leibniz, and contemporary philosophers. Unlike all other beings, God is perfect and simple. Simplicity entails that God has no physical or metaphysical parts or temporal stages. Perfection entails that God is immutable, omniscient, omnipotent, and perfectly good, having no equals or weaknesses. The book’s chapters defend the coherence of these claims against various criticisms. Given this conception one can wonder what ... More

This book presents a philosophically defensible conception of the deity found in the Abrahamic religions. The book draws insights from such figures as Augustine, Philo, Aquinas, Leibniz, and contemporary philosophers. Unlike all other beings, God is perfect and simple. Simplicity entails that God has no physical or metaphysical parts or temporal stages. Perfection entails that God is immutable, omniscient, omnipotent, and perfectly good, having no equals or weaknesses. The book’s chapters defend the coherence of these claims against various criticisms. Given this conception one can wonder what God’s relation to the world is. The book replies that God is the creator and conserver of all else that exists. This creative activity includes God’s responsibility for all contingent truths. It responds to two challenges to the tenability of this notion–to show how humans can be free and why God is not responsible for all wrongdoing. God’s creative activity also extends over the necessary truths. The book argues that the necessary truths are the deliverances of God’s supremely rational mind. God is also the ultimate source of all value and obligation. It does not follow that God creates the best possible world; there may be no such thing. The book argues, rather, that God may have created a world whose goodness matches the capacities of its creatures. The chief obligations God imposes are to love God and other humans. It offers some reflections on Platonic love, friendship, charity, piety, and hope in order to suggest that one’s actions be properly motivated.