There is more than one Christian idea of God, though all share much in common. In this book I aim to set out one main Christian idea which is founded on a philosophical view known as personal idealism.
Idealism in philosophy has nothing to do with being idealistic, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as pursuing usually impractical ideals. Philosophical idealism is the opposite of philosophical materialism, which claims that everything that exists is a form of matter. Idealism holds that matter cannot exist without mind and depends on mind for its existence. Personal idealism holds that there is one supreme mind on which everything else depends and that is personal – that knows, thinks, feels, and intends.
This book tried to defend personal idealism as a philosophy and to show that it is a strong philosophical foundation for Christian belief. The book is thus a work of Christian theology, holding that Christianity has a strong philosophical basis and that Christianity needs such a basis. It is also a work of philosophy, arguing, perhaps unfashionably, that good philosophical argument lends itself naturally to belief in God. Or if that is too strong for modern tastes, it argues that at least Christianity is not just a matter of pure faith, but is closely related to reasonable, plausible, and defensible philosophical theses. The book is written from an explicitly Christian perspective, though its main arguments could easily be transferred – obviously with some adjustments – to other theistic views. I hope that the philosophical arguments will stand up to rigorous inspection on their own and that those interested in philosophy and in religion, whatever exact form their interest takes, will find in this book something worth taking into consideration.
Of course philosophical arguments are always contestable, and it may be felt that this book is too short to deal adequately with all the arguments upon which it depends. That is true. But philosophy has become a very technical discipline, and to deal adequately with any one philosophical thesis that I uphold would need at least one large volume littered with rigorous formal logic. To deal adequately with all the theses I defend would take a whole library. I wished to write a book that was not too long and that was readable and accessible, while dealing with topics that are both philosophically profound and practically important. I do think rigorous argument is important, and I have presented arguments for each thesis I hold and have not shrunk from confronting major problems. But it is impossible to deal with all critical objections or to survey all the vast literature available. I have provided notes pointing to fuller discussions of this sort that can be found elsewhere.
If read in conjunction with Morality, Autonomy, and God (Oneworld Press, Reference Ward2013) and Christ and the Cosmos (Cambridge University Press, Reference Ward2016), the book can be seen as part of a systematic Christian philosophical theology. But this book is meant to stand alone as a cumulative argument giving a philosophical foundation for Christian faith.
I have used – particularly in Chapters 8, 15, 16, and 18 - some material adapted from articles I have published in edited books. Those articles are ‘God as the Ultimate Informational Principle’ in Information and the Nature of Reality, edited by Paul Davies and Niels Henrik Gregersen (Cambridge University Press, Reference Davies and Gregersen2010); ‘Cosmos and Kenosis’ in The Work of Love, edited by John Polkinghorne (SPCK, Reference Ward and Polkinghorne2001); and ‘Idealism and the Moral Life’ in Idealism and Christian Philosophy, edited by Steven Cowan and James Spiegel (Bloomsbury, Reference Ward, Cowan and Spiegel2016). I am grateful to the publishers for permission to use this material.
