And with that... we've completed the survey of Christian Philosophical Theology. It's really unfortunate that the Oxford Handbook folks reserved only three chapters for an exploration of philosophical theology in any other religions. Not only that, but how did Hinduism not get a chapter?! Color me SUPER unimpressed. This chapter is nowhere near as in-depth … Continue reading OHPT: Thoughts on Jewish Theological Philosophy (Chapter 24)
Warning: this is going to be a short post. After 500 pages of Christian theology (and hit-or-miss philosophy), I kind of hit my limit with "absurd theological beliefs that have perfectly satisfactory metaphorical or symbolic explanations but instead of talking about what richness lies therein we are going to twist ourselves in logical knots trying … Continue reading OHPT: Thoughts on The Eucharist (Chapter 23)
Finally! We've come to the topic I have been eager for and a topic I feel VERY passionately about: the rationality of believing in hell. Spoiler alert: I don't think a belief in hell is rational if we are holding to the existence of a Good God, a perfectly knowing, powerful, loving God. But I'll … Continue reading OHPT: Thoughts on Heaven and Hell (Chapter 22)
A short chapter! Praise be. On a topic that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me (and the author kind of agrees) so this was a fun little breeze. Also, I drop a "WTF" regarding Catholic theology so... fun times and let's dive in. "The Resurrection of the Body" was written by Dr. … Continue reading OHPT: Thoughts on The Resurrection of the Body (Chapter 21)
My brain is so tired. This semester is kicking my booty a little, work is busy, Chris's life is busy and stressful, we have to do a lot of shuffling and reshuffling and moving to make way for our apartment building to do a big (overdue) plumbing retrofit... so I don't have much to share … Continue reading OHPT: Thoughts on the Incarnation (Chapter 20)
Chapter 19 tackles one of the biggest questions in Christian theology, for the trained theologian and the layperson: how is it that Christ's death on the Cross atoned for humanity's sins? For that matter, what does "atone" mean? This chapter was written by Oliver D. Crisp. Dr. Crisp is Professor of Analytic Theology at the … Continue reading OHPT: Thoughts on Original Sin and Atonement (Chapter 19)
At first I was a little disappointed opening this chapter, because I realized we were entering a new section, leaving behind my beloved Problem of Evil. But Section IV, Topics in Christian Philosophical Theology (is that not what we've been doing this whole time?! Je suis confus) started off with an oldie but a goodie: … Continue reading OHPT: Thoughts on The Trinity (Chapter 18)
And with these, we start the last 10 essays of The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Theology. I have scheduled all the future posts (blank posts; just placeholders) so that I don't forget them as I start my second-to-last semester in my MA program. This is going to be an intense semester, so I'm trying to … Continue reading OHPT: Thoughts on Skeptical Theism and the Problem of Evil (Chapter 17)
This chapter went down smoooooth like a good bourbon. I'm not sure why -- perhaps because I am more familiar with this aspect of philosophy and theology (and their ornery offspring philosophical theology) or perhaps because Michael J. Murray is an excellent writer and communicator? Maybe because he references Leibniz and Plantinga?? That certainly made … Continue reading OHPT: Thoughts on Theodicy (Chapter 16)
I was eager for this chapter, not just because the Problem of Evil is what drew me to philosophy, but because I was eager to see how someone would summarize the work done around this question. It is of such profound significance to almost every facet of theological arguments for God: her existence, her characteristics, … Continue reading OHPT: Thoughts on The Problem of Evil (Chapter 15)
