podcast 164 – On Counting Gods

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The terms “atheism,” “monotheism,” and “polytheism” seem straightforward enough, but in fact there is unclarity in how a lot of scholars think and write about these, due to the ambiguity of the term “theism.”

In this talk at Boston College in December of 2016, based on my recently published paper “On Counting Gods,” I distinguish these concepts: deity, God, The Ultimate, and show how they are logically related to one another.

The result is, I claim, a better scheme for classifying religious worldviews, shown in two of the charts below. I explain briefly here how I think this scheme helps in thinking about views about deities etc. in Christiany, Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism, and my interlocutors ask how this relates to Christ and to various Trinity theories.

Thanks to Dr. Daniel McKaughan of Boston College and his graduate students for a stimulating discussion! The link to the full paper is just below.

Links for this episode:

• “On Counting Gods“
• Daniel McKaughan
  • podcast 147 – Dr. Daniel McKaughan on faith – Part 1
• Deuteronomy 10:17; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Isaiah 40:17; Rev 4:8-11; Revelation 5:9-14; Hebrews 1:8-9; Genesis 1:26.
• podcast 97 – Dr. Michael Heiser on The Unseen Realm
• Paula Fredriksen
• Carl Mosser
  • podcast 59 – Dr. Carl Mosser on salvation as deification
• Joseph Priestley
• Epicurus of Samos
• Graham Oppy
  • podcast 160 – Dr. Graham Oppy on the Conflict between Christianity and Philosophy
• Henry More
• Ralph Cudworth
• podcast 96 – Dr. Winfried Corduan on the case for original monotheism
• posts on the worship of God and of Jesus in Revelation
• Passing Feser’s Laugh Test
• John Scottus Eriugena
• “Divine Deception and Monotheism“
• Who Should Christians Worship?
• Paul Tillich
• Sam Lebens
• Medieval Theories of Analogy
• John Hick’s Ultimism
• Advaita Vedanta and Sankara
• Hurtado on the early worship of Jesus
• Augustine
• Plato
• podcast 74 – Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho – Part 1
• “Metaphysics and Logic of the Trinity“
• one-self vs. three-self vs. mysterian Trinity theories
• Descartes
• podcast 27 – Interview with Dr. William Hasker about his Metaphysics and the Tripersonal God – Part 1
• podcast 57 – Richard Swinburne on the Trinity
• Buddhist positive mysterianism
• Sommer, The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel
• This episode’s thinking music is “Circle Round“ by Spinning Clocks.