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Reviewed by:
  • Five Proofs of the Existence of God by Edward Feser
  • Stephen L. Brock
FESER, Edward. Five Proofs of the Existence of God. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017. 330 pp. Paper, $19.95

This book's title reflects its contents only in part. After a short introduction and five chapters presenting the proofs, two considerably longer ones remain: "The Nature of God and of His Relationship to the World" and "Common Objections to Natural Theology." There are also a Further Reading section and a name and subject index. There is no bibliography, but references abound to recent works in English by numerous authors (the most prominent being Feser). The book is pitched at a general university-level readership. It is hard to imagine how such difficult ideas and arguments could be set forth more digestibly. The tone is academic but lively, and certainly not diffident.

The chapters on the proofs have a common plan. Each starts with an informal statement of the argument in two stages. The first stage shows the existence of something answering to a certain key description; the second shows that it possesses attributes entitling it to the name of God. Then the same argument is presented "more formally," as a list of propositions (the shortest being twenty-seven; the longest, fifty). Lastly, some objections are raised and rebutted.

The five proofs are respectively dubbed Aristotelian, Neoplatonic, Augustinian, Thomistic, and rationalist (with Leibniz appearing on the book's cover). Passages from the past thinkers, however, are never cited. What we are given are Feser's formulations of what he considers the true philosophical gist of their arguments. Students of those thinkers will certainly perceive differences; pinpointing and assessing them might be [End Page 380] an instructive exercise. Feser summarizes his proofs as well as anyone could: "The Aristotelian proof begins with the fact that there are potentialities that are actualized and argues that we cannot make sense of this unless we affirm the existence of something which can actualize the potential existence of things without itself being actualized, a purely actual actualizer. The Neo-Platonic proof begins with the fact that the things of our experience are composed of parts and argues that such things could not exist unless they have an absolutely simple or noncomposite cause. The Augustinian proof begins with the fact that there are abstract objects like universals, propositions, numbers, and possible worlds and argues that these must exist as ideas in a divine intellect. The Thomistic proof begins with the real distinction, in each of the things of our experience, between its essence and its existence and argues that the ultimate cause of such things must be something which is subsistent existence itself. The rationalist proof begins with the principle of sufficient reason and argues that the ultimate explanation of things can only lie in an absolutely necessary being."

Although each of the chapters on the proofs briefly argues for some divine attributes, the sixth chapter adds others, explains them all in some detail, and addresses objections to each. Frequently invoked are three principles explained at the chapter's outset: proportionate causality, agere sequitur esse, and the analogy of being. The attributes discussed are pure actuality, unity, simplicity, immutability, immateriality, eternity, omnipotence, omniscience, perfect goodness, and intelligence. Also treated here are God's conservation of the world; his concurrence, as first and universal cause, with created secondary causes; and the nature and possibility of miracles.

Plenty of particular objections are addressed in the first six chapters, but the last one takes up objections to natural theology as a whole. There are sixteen of them, drawn from a multitude of authors. The "What caused God?" objection and scientism receive the lengthiest discussions. Feser is at his best in disputation, and, for my money, this is the book's most effective part.

There are some things that I would take issue with, if spaced allowed. Here I will simply register three of them. One is his repeatedly saying that God "just is existence itself," and never saying that he is his existence itself. The difference is not trivial.

Another is in the Augustinian proof. This proof reaches a divine intellect as the very seat...

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