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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
In a recent paper, Robert A. Oakes argues that a doctrine central to, and partially constitutive of, classical theism implies a certain sort of pantheism. The doctrine in question is a modal form of the claim that God conserves in existence the world of contingent things; alternatively, it is the view that all contingently existing things are necessarily continuously dependent upon God for their existence. And the variety of pantheism at stake is a modal form of the thesis that all contingent things are, in some sense, included within the being of God.
page 289 note 1 Oakes, Robert A., ‘Classical Theism and Pantheism: a Victory for Process Theism?’, Religious Studies, XIII (1977), 167–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar I would like to thank Professor Oakes for sending me a copy of this provocative paper in advance of its publication.
page 289 note 2 See Kretzman, Norman, ‘Omniscience and Immutability’, The Journal of Philosophy, LXIII (1966).Google Scholar Reprinted in Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings, ed. Rowe, W. L. and Wainwright, W. J. (New York, 1973), pp. 60–70.Google Scholar
page 290 note 1 Oakes, , op. cit. p. 171.Google Scholar
page 290 note 2 For a thorough discussion of these matters see Plantinga, Alvin, The Nature of Necessity (Oxford, 1974).Google Scholar
page 291 note 1 Aquinas, Thomas, Summa Theologica, part 1, question 104, article IGoogle Scholar; Descartes, René, The Philosophical Works of Descartes, tr. Haldane, E. S. and Ross, G. T. R. (New York, 1955), 1, 168 (the passage in question is from the Third Meditation)Google Scholar; Mavrodes, George I., Belief in God (New York, 1970), p. 70Google Scholar; Ross, James F., Philosophical Theology (Indianapolis, 1969), p. 254.Google Scholar
page 292 note 1 Oakes, , op. cit. p. 171.Google Scholar
page 292 note 2 Ibid.
page 292 note 3 Maimonides, Moses, The Guide for the Perplexed, tr. Friedlander, M. (New York, 1956), pp. 104–5.Google Scholar The passage in question is from part 1, chapter 69.
page 293 note 1 Oakes, , op. cit. p. 172.Google Scholar
page 293 note 2 Ibid.
page 293 note 3 ‘One thing cannot have two beginnings of existence.’ Locke, John, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (New York, 1959), I, 440.Google Scholar The quotation comes from book II, chapter 27.
page 294 note 1 Oakes, , op. cit. pp. 172–3.Google Scholar For convenience, I will henceforth follow Oakes in speaking as if the universe came into being, though I do not think the doctrine of divine conservation requires us to assume that the universe was created after a period of time when it did not exist.
page 294 note 2 Ibid. p. 168.
page 294 note 3 Ibid. p. 173.
page 295 note 1 Aquinas, Thomas, Summa Theologica, part I, question 3, article 7.Google Scholar
page 296 note 1 This is argued for in Appendix B of Chisholm, Roderick M., Person and Object: a Metaphysical Study (LaSalle, 1976).Google Scholar
page 296 note 2 Oakes, , op. cit. p. 171.Google Scholar
page 297 note 1 Chisholm, , op. cit. p. 51.Google Scholar
page 297 note 2 Spinoza, Benedict, The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, tr. Elwes, R. H. M., (New York, 1955), II, 55. The quotation is from part I, proposition 15 of the Ethics.Google Scholar
page 297 note 3 Ibid. p. 45. The quotation is from part I, definition 5 of the Ethics.
page 299 note 1 Bayle, Pierre, A General Dictionary, Historical and Critical, tr. Bernard, J. P., Birch, T., Lockman, J. and others (London, 1734), IX, 359.Google Scholar I have taken the liberty of modernizing the spelling. This passage from Note N to the article on Spinoza is also to be found, translated in a slightly different way, in Bayle, Pierre, Historical and Critical Dictionary: Selections, tr. Popkin, R. H. (Indianapolis, 1965), pp. 309–10.Google Scholar
page 301 note 1 Oakes, , op. cit. p. 173.Google Scholar
page 301 note 2 Ibid. p. 171.
