Book Review: The Reality of Time and the Existence of God: The Project of Proving God's Existence

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS 175 but also as a fresh way of doing Christian theology. His approach is biblical in its insistence on the covenant and appeal to biblical evidence, historical in that it acknowledges the sad legacy of the Church over against Israel that issued in the Holocaust, and practical in that it calls for a new relationship between Christians and Jews today.Perhaps the most controversial theological aspect of the book is its dialogue with the early conciliar creeds about Christ. Although some will accuse V. of subordinationism and being "soft" on Christ's divinity, he is correct in stressing that the conciliar statements took creation as their context rather than the covenant and focused on Jesus' humanity (and divinity) rather than his Jewishness. These choices had and still have consequences. Others will ask how he defines "Israel" and which Jews belong to it. Still others may object to the almost "messianic" significance that he attributes to the State of Israel (though this is qualified somewhat [126]). On the whole, however, V.'s Christology is a remarkably creative recovery of the biblical tradition and a timely challenge to the theological community today. It deserves careful study and serious discussion.

The Neo‐Classical Challenge to Classical Theism

“…Maimonides, another major influence, went so far as to say that we cannot believe in God's unity without acknowledging his simplicity 11 . Contemporary Thomists sometimes reiterate the connection between unity and simplicity (Braine, 1988, pp. 168–70; Miller, 1996, p. 5; Feser, 2017, pp.…”

“…Many contemporary classical theists are Thomists, and approach questions about the divine nature precisely the way Aquinas does (Braine, 1988; Davies, 2000, 2021; Feser, 2017; Kerr, 2015; Miller, 1996; Stump, 2003; Tomaszewski, 2019). That is to say, they develop their account of the divine attributes by way of first‐cause theology rather than perfect being theology, and take divine simplicity both to be grounded fundamentally in considerations about what a first cause must be like, and to be crucial to a proper understanding of all the other divine attributes.…”

“…Hence, in the first cause, essence and existence must be identical, which is a key aspect of divine simplicity. Contemporary Thomist arguments for God's existence often reiterate this theme that divine simplicity goes hand‐in‐hand with being a first cause (Braine, 1988, pp. 143–49 and 161–68; Davies, 2006, chapters 2 and 3; Feser, 2017; Kerr, 2015).…”