To Be or not to Be? The Idea of God in Philosophical Theology

Authors

  • Alexei M. Gaginsky Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Goncharnaia, 12/1, Moscow, 109240, Russian Federation

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu28.2019.104

Abstract

The article deals with the question of the ontological status of God in the context of different types of theology. In particular, since polemics between theists and atheists has a form of logical, rational methods, both sides must recognize the demands necessary for the debates. The author shows that for this reason not only “theistic theology” takes place, which uses a certain notion of God, but also “atheistic theology”, or atheology, which takes place because an atheist must also understand what he denies, i.e. must operate with some concept of the divine. It follows that we can analyze the specific features of the idea of God in two kinds of theology. The article compares these theologies and identifies the most important aspect of the idea of God. In this regard, the author shows that the desire to prove or disprove the existence of what is beyond Being is a questionable task, to say the least. Nevertheless, for atheism this metaphysical point is extremely important, because God turns into a being that needs Being. Here atheism acquires rational grounds, but without it we have only “atheism of heart”, not “atheism of reason”.

Keywords:

God, Being, non-existence, beings, religion, atheism

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
 

References

Barnes J. (2006) “Mysliteli doplatonovskoi epokhiˮ [Thinkers of pre-platonic epoch], in Kanto-Sperber M. (ed.) Grecheskaia filosofiia, vol. 1. Moscow, GLK Publ., pp. 3–98. (In Russian)

Diels H., Kranz W. (Hrsg.) (1951–1952) Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker. Berlin, Weidmann, Bd. 1.

Dionysius Areopagita (1990) “De divinis nominibusˮ, in B. R. Suchla (Hrsg.) Corpus dionysiacum I. Berlin, De Gruyter.

Everett D. (2016) Ne spi — krugom zmeii! Byt i iazyk indeitsev amazonskikh dzhunglei [Don’t sleep, there are snakes! Life and language in Amazonian jungles]. Moscow, Iazyki slavianskikh kulʼtur Publ. (In Russian)

Falter R. (2003) “Was wir noch heute von den alten Göttern verstehen können oder Die Götter der Erfahrungsreligion als Sprache”, in Klarheit in Religionsdingen: Aktuelle Beitraege zur Religionsphilosophie. Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, S. 329–377.

Flew A. (2007) There is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind. New York, Harper One.

Frankfort G., Frankfort G. A. (1984) “Mif i realʼnostʼˮ [Myth and reality], in V preddverii filosofii: dukhovnye iskaniia drevnego cheloveka. Moscow, Nauka Publ., pp. 24–44. (In Russian)

Gaginsky A. M. (2018) Filosofiia bespredposylochnykh nachal [Philosophy of unconditional principles]. Moscow, IF RAN. Publ. (In Russian)

Gaginsky A. M. (2018) “Skrytye predposylki ratsional’noi teologiiˮ [The hidden premises of rational theology], in Filosofskii zhurnal 11(1): 111–124. (In Russian)

Gregorius Palamas (1988) Capita CL Saint Gregory Palamas. The One Hundred and Fifty Chapters. Ed., transl. and study by R. E. Sinkewicz. Toronto, PIMS.

Duluman E. K. (1970) Ideia boga: issledovatel’skii i polemicheskii ocherk [Idea of god: Research and Polemical essay]. Moscow, Nauka Publ. (In Russian)

Inwagen P. van (2001) Ontology, Identity, and Modality: Essays in Metaphysics. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press.

Kazarian A. T., Fokin A. R. (2007) “Dokazatelʼstva bytiia Bozhiiaˮ [Proofs of existence of God], in Pravoslavnaia entsielopediia, Moscow, TNС “Pravoslavnaia entsielopediiaˮ, vol. 15, pp. 555–573. (In Russian)

Karpov K. V. (2017) “Metafizicheskoe izmerenie kosmologicheskogo dokazatelʼstva bytiia Bozhestvennogo i nekotorye zadachi teisticheskikh dokazatelʼstvˮ [Metaphysical dimension of cosmological proof of Divine and some tasks of theistic proofs]. Vestnik Sviato-Tikhonovskogo Pravoslavnogo gumanitarnogo universiteta. Bogoslovie. Filosofiia. Religiovedenie, no. 73, pp. 41–52. (In Russian)

Marion J.-L. (1982) Dieu sans l’être. Paris, Fayard.

Maximus Confessor (2002) “Ambigua ad Thomam”, in Janssens B. (ed.) Maximi Confessoris Ambigua ad Thomam una cum Epistula secunda ad eundem. Turnhout, Brepols, pp. 3–34.

Morris T. (2011) Nasha ideia Boga: vvedenie v filosofskoe bogoslovie [Our idea of God: An Introduction to philosophical theology]. Moscow, BBI Publ. (In Russian)

Onfray M. (2005) Traité d’athéologie: Physique de la métaphysique. Paris, Grasset.

Ross W. (ed.) (1970) Aristotle’s metaphysics. In 2 vols. Oxford, Oxford university press.

Sass H. von E. (ed.) (2014) Groundless Gods: The Theological Prospects of Post-Metaphysical Thought. Hall, Eugene.

Shohin V. K. (ed.) (2006) Problema zla i teodiceia: materialy mezhdunarodnoi konferentsii (Moskva, 6–9 iiunia 2005 g.) [Problem of evil and theodicy: Papers from international conference]. Moscow, IF PAN Publ. (In Russian)

Tillikh P. (2017) Sistematicheskaia teologiia [Systematical theology]. Vol. 1. Razum i otkrovenie. Bytie i Bog; Vol. 2. Sushchestvovanie i Hristos. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Centr gumanitarnyh iniciativ Publ. (In Russian)

Veil S. (2008) Tiazhestʼ i blagodatʼ [Heaviness and grace]. Moscow, Russkii putʼ Publ. (In Russian)

Yampolskaia A. (2011) “Fenomenologiia kak sniatie metafiziki?ˮ [Phenomenology as a withdrawal of metaphysics], Logos, no. 3 (82), pp. 107–123. (In Russian)

Вопросы теологии

Downloads

Published

2019-04-25

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2019)

Section

Research

License

Articles of "Issues of Theology" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.