The Problem of Evil The Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of St. Andrews in 2003

by van Inwagen, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780199245604
• ISBN10: 0199245606
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780191529726
• Additional ISBN(s): 9780199543977
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-08-10
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

The vast amount of suffering in the world is often held as a particularly powerful reason to deny that God exists. Now, one of the world's most distinguished philosophers of religion presents his own position on the problem of evil. Highly accessible and sensitively argued, Peter van Inwagen's book argues that such reasoning does not hold: his conclusion is not that God exists, but that suffering cannot be shown to prove that He does not.

Author Biography

Peter van Inwagen is John Cardinal O'Hara Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.

Table of Contents

Detailed Contents	xi
Lecture 1. The Problem of Evil and the Argument from Evil	1	(17)
Lecture 2. The Idea of God	18	(19)
Lecture 3. Philosophical Failure	37	(19)
Lecture 4. The Global Argument from Evil	56	(19)
Lecture 5. The Global Argument Continued	75	(20)
Lecture 6. The Local Argument from Evil	95	(18)
Lecture 7. The Sufferings of Beasts	113	(22)
Lecture 8. The Hiddenness of God	135	(17)
Notes	152	(25)
Works Cited	177	(4)
Index	181