PhD Doctor of Philosophy Philosophy of God and Religion 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Alvin Plantinga's 'free will defense' is primarily deployed against which formulation of the problem of evil?
- The evidential problem of evil
- The logical problem of evil (Correct answer)
- The moral problem of evil
- The eschatological problem of evil
Correct answer: The logical problem of evil
Plantinga's free will defense aims to show that God and evil are not logically incompatible by appealing to libertarian free will, directly addressing J.L. Mackie's logical version of the problem.
Question 2: Which philosopher introduced the concept of 'divine simplicity' as developed in medieval scholasticism, holding that God has no parts or properties distinct from His essence?
- Duns Scotus
- William of Ockham
- Thomas Aquinas (Correct answer)
- Anselm of Canterbury
Correct answer: Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas developed the doctrine of divine simplicity most systematically, arguing in the Summa Theologiae that God's essence, existence, and attributes are all identical.
Question 3: In William Rowe's evidential argument from evil, the existence of 'gratuitous evil' refers to evil that:
- Is freely chosen by human agents
- God permits for reasons we cannot comprehend
- Serves no greater good that an omnipotent being could not achieve otherwise (Correct answer)
- Results from natural disasters rather than human action
Correct answer: Serves no greater good that an omnipotent being could not achieve otherwise
Rowe's evidential argument holds that some evils appear gratuitous—serving no outweighing good—making theism improbable even if not logically impossible.
Question 4: Søren Kierkegaard's concept of the 'teleological suspension of the ethical,' illustrated by Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac, is meant to show that:
- Religious duty is always subordinate to universal moral law
- Faith can require acting against universal ethical norms by divine command (Correct answer)
- Ethics and religion are fundamentally identical domains
- Abraham's act was morally justified on consequentialist grounds
Correct answer: Faith can require acting against universal ethical norms by divine command
In Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard argues that Abraham's obedience to God suspended the universal ethical prohibition on murder, placing the religious stage above the ethical.
Question 5: The 'reformed epistemology' of Plantinga, Wolterstorff, and Alston holds that belief in God is:
- Properly basic and not requiring inferential justification (Correct answer)
- Justified only through natural theology and cosmological arguments
- A matter of practical reason rather than theoretical reason
- Best grounded in mystical experience alone
Correct answer: Properly basic and not requiring inferential justification
Reformed epistemologists argue that theistic belief can be properly basic—rationally held without being inferred from other beliefs—analogous to beliefs about the external world or other minds.
Question 6: John Hick's 'Irenaean theodicy' differs from Augustinian theodicy primarily in claiming that:
- Evil is privation of being and has no positive ontological status
- Humans were created immature and evil is necessary for soul-making toward moral perfection (Correct answer)
- God permits evil only to punish sinners for the Fall
- Free will alone explains the existence of moral evil
Correct answer: Humans were created immature and evil is necessary for soul-making toward moral perfection
Hick's soul-making theodicy, drawing on Irenaeus, holds that humans are created in God's image but must develop toward His likeness through moral and spiritual struggle with evil.
Question 7: The philosophical concept of 'aseity' when applied to God means that God:
- Exists necessarily in all possible worlds
- Is the cause of all contingent beings
- Exists from and through Himself, dependent on nothing external (Correct answer)
- Has always existed without beginning in time
Correct answer: Exists from and through Himself, dependent on nothing external
Aseity (from the Latin a se, 'from itself') denotes God's complete ontological self-sufficiency and independence from any external cause or ground of being.
PhD Doctor of Philosophy Philosophy of God and Religion 2
Alvin Plantinga's 'free will defense' is primarily deployed against which formulation of the problem of evil?