Creation and the Sovereignty of God

Acknowledgments

recto runningfoot – ix Acknowledgments Parts of this book draw on previously published work. Chapters 1 and 2 are partly based on Jonathan Kvanvig’s and my “Divine Conservation and the Persistence of the World,” in T. V. Morris, ed., Divine and Human Action (Ithaca: Cornell, 1988), and our “The Occasionalist Proselytizer,” Philosophical Perspectives 5 (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 1991). Chapter 3 appears in an earlier form as “The God Beyond Time,” in L. Pojman and M. Rea, eds., Philosophy of Religion (Belmont: Wadsworth, a part of Cengage Learning, Inc., 2008). Chapter 4 draws on “The Free Will Defense,” in K. Perszyk, ed., Molinism : The Contemporary Debate (New York: Oxford, 2011). Parts of chapters 5 and 6 are indebted to my “Divine Sovereignty and the Freedom of the Will,” Faith and Philosophy 12 (1995), and “The Author of Sin?” Faith and Philosophy 22 (2005). Chapter 7 is based on “Pointless Suffering,” Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion 2 (2009). Chapter 8 draws from “Modality and Sovereignty : On Theism and Ultimate Explanation,” Philosophia Christi 12 (2010). Chapter 11 includes material from “Divine Nature and Divine Will,” Sophia 16 (2010). I am grateful to the publishers for permission to draw from these sources. A large part of this book was written during my two separate years as a fellow in the Center for Philosophy of Religion at the University of Notre Dame. I am grateful for the support of the Center and the University, as well as for sabbatical support from Texas A&M University. It is impossible to remember and thank all whose encouragement and comments have contributed to this work. I owe a special debt to Jonathan Kvanvig, who first drew me into the philosophy of religion, and who co-authored the papers that form a partial basis for chapters 1 and 2 of the present volume. I have benefited from the assistance and comments of Robert Audi and from numerous discussions with Michael Loux. Earlier versions of various chapters were read at x – creation and the sovereignty of god the University of Notre Dame, Baylor University, Florida State University, the University of Oxford, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and at meetings of the American Philosophical Association. I am grateful for the discussion on these occasions, as well as for comments on the manuscript by Merold Westphal and an anonymous reviewer for Indiana University Press. Others whose insights and encouragement helped me include Michael Almeida, Wesley Baker, Andrei Buckareff, Robert Burch, David Burrell, John Churchill, Jeremy Evans, Thomas Flint, Allen Gehring, William Hasker, Christopher Haugen, Robert Kane, Brian Leftow, Emil Ogden, Louis Pojman, Zachary Manis, Mark Murphy, Timothy O’Connor, Myron Penner, Alvin Plantinga, Louis Pojman, Philip Quinn, Michael Rea, Katherin Rogers, William Rowe, Robin Smith, Eleonore Stump, Peter van Inwagen, and David Widerker. I am grateful to each, and I apologize to anyone I have omitted. Finally and above all I am grateful to my wife Janet, without whose patient encouragement and sensitive insight I cannot imagine this work having come to completion. Texas A&M University October, 2010 x – acknowledgments recto runningfoot – xi C r e at i o n a n d t h e S o v e r e i g n t y o f G o d xii – creation and the sovereignty of god ...