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New Essays in Philosophical Theology
This book is among the most promising and most important in its particular field to be published within recent years. Indeed, there is no other in which men trained in the school of philosophy dominant in England today have sought as they do here to come to terms with Christian theology.' (British Weekly)'What is really appealing about these essays is not a new sophistication but a refreshing naivety and transparent sincerity, a kind of virginal approach to the old problems which, expressed in vigorous contemporary English, makes the book eminently attractive and readable.' (The Times Literary Supplement)
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First published January 1, 1955
About the author
Antony Flew
95 books123 followersAntony Garrard Newton Flew (11 February 1923 – 8 April 2010) was a British philosopher. Belonging to the analytic and evidentialist schools of thought, he was notable for his works on the philosophy of religion.
Flew was a strong advocate of atheism, arguing that one should presuppose atheism until empirical evidence of a God surfaces. He also criticised the idea of life after death, the free will defence to the problem of evil, and the meaningfulness of the concept of God. In 2003 he was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto. However, in 2004 he stated an allegiance to deism, more specifically a belief in the Aristotelian God, stating that in keeping his lifelong commitment to go where the evidence leads, he now believes in the existence of God.
He later wrote the book There is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, with contributions from Roy Abraham Varghese. This book (and Flew's conversion itself) has been the subject of controversy, following an article in the New York Times magazine alleging that Flew had mentally declined, and that Varghese was the primary author. The matter remains contentious, with some commentators including PZ Myers and Richard Carrier supporting the allegations, and others, including Flew himself, opposing them.
Flew was a strong advocate of atheism, arguing that one should presuppose atheism until empirical evidence of a God surfaces. He also criticised the idea of life after death, the free will defence to the problem of evil, and the meaningfulness of the concept of God. In 2003 he was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto. However, in 2004 he stated an allegiance to deism, more specifically a belief in the Aristotelian God, stating that in keeping his lifelong commitment to go where the evidence leads, he now believes in the existence of God.
He later wrote the book There is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind, with contributions from Roy Abraham Varghese. This book (and Flew's conversion itself) has been the subject of controversy, following an article in the New York Times magazine alleging that Flew had mentally declined, and that Varghese was the primary author. The matter remains contentious, with some commentators including PZ Myers and Richard Carrier supporting the allegations, and others, including Flew himself, opposing them.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 28, 2008
This book was the best introduction to skepticism I had read. Flew's Essay, Theology and Falsification, was written and presented to the Socratic Club of Oxford in (I think) 1952, and launched his career in philosophy. This is a collection of essays from first-rate scholars who, when these essays were published in 1955, had the attention of the philosophical and theological world.
When I read this book I was seriously challenged by these arguments, although not enough to persuade me to a state of unbelief, but enough to form a respect for those who chose not believe.
Flew, of course has changed his position recently to that of a deist - as opposed to atheist. And he humbly recanted several books and papers he has since regarded as incorrect. But nevertheless, this collection of writings he and Alisdair MacIntyre edited is a permanent edition in my library.
When I read this book I was seriously challenged by these arguments, although not enough to persuade me to a state of unbelief, but enough to form a respect for those who chose not believe.
Flew, of course has changed his position recently to that of a deist - as opposed to atheist. And he humbly recanted several books and papers he has since regarded as incorrect. But nevertheless, this collection of writings he and Alisdair MacIntyre edited is a permanent edition in my library.
August 12, 2024
A FAMOUS COLLECTION OF ESSAYS ON RELIGIOUS TOPICS
Antony Garrard Newton Flew (1923-2010) was a British philosopher, and formerly a noteworthy advocate of atheism, until his 2004 change of mind (see 'There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind'). He wrote such influential books as 'God & Philosophy' and 'The Presumption of Atheism and Other (Philosophical) Essays on God, Freedom and Immortality'; he also participated in debates/dialogues such as 'The Warren-Flew Debate on the Existence of God,' 'Does God Exist?: The Craig-Flew Debate,' etc. Alasdair MacIntyre (born 1929) is a Scottish philosopher and an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.
They wrote in the Preface to this 1955 book, "This is a collection of twenty-two papers by sixteen different philosophers working in the British Commonwealth. The first thing which all the contributors have in common is ... a great indebtedness to the recent revolution in philosophy. They are therefore certain to be labelled 'Logical Positivists' by most laymen... This label is entirely inappropriate... The second thing which the contributors share is a concern with theological questions, and a conviction that these call for serious and particular treatment." (Pg. vii) Essays are included by philosophers such as Flew and MacIntyre, of course, but also J.J.C. Smart, C.B. Martin, and others.
Martin states, "Neither is the addition of the existential claim 'God exists' to the psychological claim made good by any inductive argument. There are no tests agreed upon to establish genuine experience of God and distinguish it decisively from the ungenuine. Indeed, many theologians deny the possibility of any such test or set of tests." (Pg. 79) Martin later observes, "The statement 'I seem to be having direct experience of God' does not lend itself so easily to the criterion for meaning exemplified in the above, because if this statement has meaning only in so far as one already KNOWS what it is like to have direct experience of God, then the assumption of such knowledge is certainly not one which all normal people may be expected to be able to make or do in fact make." (Pg. 89)
The most interesting section to many readers is the reprinting of the famous "parable" by Flew and John Wisdom, whereby two explorers coming upon a clearing in the jungle argue about whether or not there is a gardener of the plot; they used an electrified barbed-wire fence, and bloodhounds, to try and detect the gardener to no avail, and the Sceptic asks, "Just how does what you call an invisible, intangible, eternally elusive gardener differ from an imaginary gardener or even from no gardener at all?" Flew then comments, "A fine brash hypothesis may thus be killed by inches, the death by a thousand qualifications." (Pg. 96-97) He concludes by asking, "What would have to occur or to have occurred to constitute for you a disproof of the love of, or of the existence of, God?" (Pg. 99)
Flew contends, "if it really is logically possible for an action to be both freely chosen and yet fully determined by caused causes, then the keystone argument of the Free-Will Defence, that there is a contradiction in speaking of God so arranging the laws of nature that all men always as a matter of fact freely choose to do the right, cannot hold." (Pg. 153)
These essays remain of considerable ongoing value to students of the philosophy of religion---particularly those of the analytical tradition in philosophy.
Antony Garrard Newton Flew (1923-2010) was a British philosopher, and formerly a noteworthy advocate of atheism, until his 2004 change of mind (see 'There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind'). He wrote such influential books as 'God & Philosophy' and 'The Presumption of Atheism and Other (Philosophical) Essays on God, Freedom and Immortality'; he also participated in debates/dialogues such as 'The Warren-Flew Debate on the Existence of God,' 'Does God Exist?: The Craig-Flew Debate,' etc. Alasdair MacIntyre (born 1929) is a Scottish philosopher and an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.
They wrote in the Preface to this 1955 book, "This is a collection of twenty-two papers by sixteen different philosophers working in the British Commonwealth. The first thing which all the contributors have in common is ... a great indebtedness to the recent revolution in philosophy. They are therefore certain to be labelled 'Logical Positivists' by most laymen... This label is entirely inappropriate... The second thing which the contributors share is a concern with theological questions, and a conviction that these call for serious and particular treatment." (Pg. vii) Essays are included by philosophers such as Flew and MacIntyre, of course, but also J.J.C. Smart, C.B. Martin, and others.
Martin states, "Neither is the addition of the existential claim 'God exists' to the psychological claim made good by any inductive argument. There are no tests agreed upon to establish genuine experience of God and distinguish it decisively from the ungenuine. Indeed, many theologians deny the possibility of any such test or set of tests." (Pg. 79) Martin later observes, "The statement 'I seem to be having direct experience of God' does not lend itself so easily to the criterion for meaning exemplified in the above, because if this statement has meaning only in so far as one already KNOWS what it is like to have direct experience of God, then the assumption of such knowledge is certainly not one which all normal people may be expected to be able to make or do in fact make." (Pg. 89)
The most interesting section to many readers is the reprinting of the famous "parable" by Flew and John Wisdom, whereby two explorers coming upon a clearing in the jungle argue about whether or not there is a gardener of the plot; they used an electrified barbed-wire fence, and bloodhounds, to try and detect the gardener to no avail, and the Sceptic asks, "Just how does what you call an invisible, intangible, eternally elusive gardener differ from an imaginary gardener or even from no gardener at all?" Flew then comments, "A fine brash hypothesis may thus be killed by inches, the death by a thousand qualifications." (Pg. 96-97) He concludes by asking, "What would have to occur or to have occurred to constitute for you a disproof of the love of, or of the existence of, God?" (Pg. 99)
Flew contends, "if it really is logically possible for an action to be both freely chosen and yet fully determined by caused causes, then the keystone argument of the Free-Will Defence, that there is a contradiction in speaking of God so arranging the laws of nature that all men always as a matter of fact freely choose to do the right, cannot hold." (Pg. 153)
These essays remain of considerable ongoing value to students of the philosophy of religion---particularly those of the analytical tradition in philosophy.
August 8, 2022
A fine introduction to Christianity and theological thoughts on free will, death, various paradoxes, and the nature of religion more broadly.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews