Concepts of God and Models of the God–world relation

Abstract

There is a variety of concepts of the divine in the eastern and western theological and philosophical traditions. There is, however, not enough reflection on the logic behind concepts of God and their justification. I clarify some necessary and sufficient conditions any attempt to explicate a concept of God has to take into account. I argue that each concept of God is a cypher for a particular worldview and distinguishes three types of justification frequently used to bestow content on particular concepts of God: philosophical, theological, and scientific. I turn to four fundamental models of the God–world relation and argue that the most promising concept of God is panentheistic, on which the universe is essentially divine but is not exhaustive of the divine being.

Panentheism as cosmopolitanism: Karl Christian Friedrich Krause's conception of a global human league

“…15.There is an ongoing discussion about the concepts of, and relations between, panentheism, pantheism, and theism, which due to limitations in space can only be mentioned. See, for example, Göcke (2013), Göcke (2014), Göcke (2015), Göcke (2017), Göcke (2019), Lataster (2014), Lataster (2015), Lataster & Bilimoria (2018), and Tabaczek (2022). For further discussion of Krause's panentheism against the background of these debates, see Göcke (2022).…”

John Leslie's Platonic and non‐religious pantheism of infinitely many divine minds

“…In this essay, I set aside the issue concerning what exactly counts as a legitimate or religiously adequate concept of Ultimate Reality (Göcke, ; see also Draper, ). I assume, however, that there is a coherent concept of Ultimate Reality (though cf.…”