“Creatures sin. To sin is to will what God wills what you should not will. Therefore, on Anselm’s understanding, free creatures introduce into the universe events which are against the will of God. Does Anselm’s view then diminish the divine nature? He does not state them explicitly, but there are at least two, mutually reinforcing responses to the charge. First, the entire system is God’s doing. If He chooses to qualify his absolute dominion by carving out a little space in creation for other free agents, it is His own choice and so it cannot be understood as some sort of external limitation on His power. Moreover, we might, as Aquinas proposed, judge the power of a cause by the nature of the effects it is able to produce. A created, primary agent, free in the libertarian sense, is a much more independent and powerful sort of thing than a secondary agent, free only in a compatibilist sense. That God makes the former rather than the latter is an indication of His power, not a limitation on it. True, He cannot absolutely control us, but that is exactly the point of created imagines dei who can act from themselves and participate in the divine aseity.”
—Katherin A. Rogers, Anselm on Freedom, 82.
Blaise Pascal was one of the most brilliant men to ever live. He made major advancements in math and science. He published an influential treatise on probability when he was only 16. However, after a dramatic conversion to Jansenism he abandoned his pursuit of science and wrote very eloquently about the philosophy of religion. He died, at the age of 39, before his final work, the Pensees, could be completed. In philosophy he is most well known for a few pages from this incomplete work known as Pascal’s Wager. This argument basically asserts that everyone ought to live as if God exists because it is the best bet. I’ll outline how this works, then I’ll talk about some of the criticisms of this idea. Whether people know about Pascal or not, I run into people regularly who base their relationship with God on similar reasoning. (more…)
This is the first in a series of posts called PHI 101 where I will be taking a look at several philosophers and philosophical ideas from a Christian perspective.
Descartes is widely regarded as the most important philosopher in the European Enlightenment. He is also considered by many to be the dividing line between ancient and modern philosophy. Because his ideas have been so influential, it is important that Christians understand them and how they have influenced the worldviews that are present in our culture. I will limit my discussion here to two of his main ideas and their consequences: skepticism and the cogito. (more…)
“Creatures sin. To sin is to will what God wills what you should not will. Therefore, on Anselm’s understanding, free creatures introduce into the universe events which are against the will of God. Does Anselm’s view then diminish the divine nature? He does not state them explicitly, but there are at least two, mutually reinforcing responses to the charge. First, the entire system is God’s doing. If He chooses to qualify his absolute dominion by carving out a little space in creation for other free agents, it is His own choice and so it cannot be understood as some sort of external limitation on His power. Moreover, we might, as Aquinas proposed, judge the power of a cause by the nature of the effects it is able to produce. A created, primary agent, free in the libertarian sense, is a much more independent and powerful sort of thing than a secondary agent, free only in a compatibilist sense. That God makes the former rather than the latter is an indication of His power, not a limitation on it. True, He cannot absolutely control us, but that is exactly the point of created imagines dei who can act from themselves and participate in the divine aseity.”
