Creation and the Sovereignty of God

295 Pages·2012·2.735 MB·English

by  Hugh J. McCann

Creation and the Sovereignty of God
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Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion
Merold Westphal, editor
ii – creation and the sovereignty of god
Creation
and the Sovereignty of God
Hugh J. McCann
indiana university press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
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This book is a publication of Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Indiana University Press
McCann, Hugh J. [date]
601 North Morton Street
Creation and the sovereignty of God / Hugh
Bloomington, Indiana 47404-3797 USA
J. McCann.
iupress.indiana.edu p. cm. — (Indiana series in the philoso-
phy of religion)
Telephone orders 800-842-6796
Includes bibliographical references (p. )
Fax orders 812-855-7931
and index.
© 2012 by Hugh J. McCann ISBN 978-0-253-35714-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-253-00546-5 (ebook)
All rights reserved
1. God. 2. Creation. I. Title.
No part of this book may be reproduced or uti- BL205.M35 2012
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or mechanical, including photocopying and 2012012906 1
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Manufactured in the United States of America
iv – creation and the sovereignty of god
For Janet
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. The Case for a Creator 6
2. Creation and the Natural Order 22
3. Eternity 46
4. Evil, Freedom, and Foreknowledge 70
5. Free Will and Divine Sovereignty 92
6. Sin 113
7. Suffering 133
8. Divine Freedom 155
9. Creation and the Moral Order 176
10. Creation and the Conceptual Order 196
11. Divine Will and Divine Simplicity 213
Notes 237
Bibliography 267
Index 277
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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,” Philosophi-
cal 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., Phi-
losophy of Religion (Belmont: Wadsworth, a part of Cengage Learning, Inc.,
2008). Chapter 4 draws on “The Free Will Defense,” in K. Perszyk, ed., Molin-
ism: 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 Philoso-
phy 22 (2005). Chapter 7 is based on “Pointless Suffering,” Oxford Studies in
Philosophy of Religion 2 (2009). Chapter 8 draws from “Modality and Sover-
eignty: 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 fel-
low 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 remem-
ber 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 par-
tial basis for chapters 1 and 2 of the present volume. I have benefited from
the assistance and comments of Robert Audi and from numerous discus-
sions with Michael Loux. Earlier versions of various chapters were read at
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