Category Archives: Uncategorized

What Is Wisdom?

I have a Ph.D. in Philosophy. Etymologically, ‘philosophy’ means love of wisdom and a ‘philosopher’ is therefore a lover of wisdom. But etymology doesn’t necessarily map onto semantics. Much that is currently labelled ‘philosophy’ is at best only tangentially concerned with wisdom. Indeed, many self-styled philosophers and other credentialed “smart” people promote astonishingly misguided forms… Read More »

Am I a heretic? Thoughts on faith, works, salvation, and baptism

My wife and I were recently charged (indirectly and by email) by a well-meaning Christian brother with being part of an heretical, non-Christian cult. In this post I’m going to rebut the “cult” and “heresy” charges, respectively. Along the way, I’ll make some observations about baptism, faith vs. works, and what counts as “salvation”. I.… Read More »

A Refutation of Simple Foreknowledge Revisited

In my previous post, I develop what I take to be a refutation of the simple foreknowledge (SF) view. In this post I want to look at little more carefully at that refutation, consider how a proponent of SF might try to get around it, and show that this response does nothing to resolve the… Read More »

What Is Open Theism?

In 2008 I published a paper called “Generic Open Theism and Some Varieties Thereof” (Religious Studies). My stated goal in that paper was to “facilitate ongoing dialogue between open and non-open theists” by making precise what “minimal set of commitments any open theist, qua open theist, must affirm.” I thus advocated, and still advocate, for… Read More »

The Modal Openness of the Future

There’s a simple and valid argument for fatalism based on a proposition which most analytic philosophers would accept. The assumption is this There is an actual world, alpha, which contains a complete history. Unlike other merely possible worlds, alpha is the possible world that “obtains”. For the sake of argument I take this assumption for… Read More »

Three Models of Divine Sustaining

Theists believe that God is not only responsible for creating or bringing about (the initial state) of a world of concrete finite beings but also that God in some sense sustains those beings throughout their existence. But what does divine sustaining amount to? I’d like to identify three possible models of divine sustaining. continuous creation:… Read More »