Theism

The theory that a God (or gods) exist(s). Theism is not necessarily a religious belief, although it may form part of religious belief.

The word ‘theism’ is derived from theos, the Greek word for ‘god’. Theism is the theory that a God, or gods, exist(s). As a theory, it is reached by the exercise of human thought. So theism is, strictly speaking, just an intellectual position, not an act of religious belief. By contrast, religious faith in God depends upon God revealing himself in ways that may not be rational or comprehensible – ‘faith believes nor questions how’. (See ‘Negative Theology’.)

Theism is one of those apparently simple words that conceal a great muddle of ideas and beliefs. When we use the word ‘theism’ we need to be clear what we are saying. Ideas of God are immensely varied and it makes little sense to lump them all under the heading of ‘theism’, as though all forms of belief in God were somehow the same. This would put Christianity, Satanism and Hinduism all in the same category.

To avoid confusion, the word ‘theism’ really needs to be reserved for a philosophical or intellectual belief in God based upon arguments and reasoning. (Otherwise all our vocabulary becomes too imprecise to be useful.) The tradition of considering God in this way goes back to the ancient Greek philosophers, particularly Plato and Aristotle. Plato argued that God (or ‘the Good’, as he called it) was the most perfect of all perfect ideas. Aristotle also thought God was supremely rational, but introduced the idea that God was the ‘unmoved mover’ instigating the process of all the events of cosmic history. Plato had an immense influence on Christian ideas of God, particularly through St Augustine, who described Platonism as ‘Christianity for the masses’. Aristotle’s critical influence on Christian thought came 1000 years later, when St Thomas Aquinas developed his controversial theology of Being, which drew heavily upon Aristotle (whom Aquinas referred to simply as The Philosopher). Aristotle’s ideas also surface in the seventeenth-century Jewish theology of Spinoza.

The question of whether belief in a God can be justified rationally has been an issue for theology since the earliest times. Justyn Martyr, for example, in the early second century, saw God as the Logos, or the fount of reason. In recent times Richard Swinburne is probably the best-known proponent of rational theism. He argues that theism is both logical and coherent, because God offers the best way of making sense of the whole of our experience. On the other side, there have been plenty of philosophers – notably A. J. Ayer, Anthony Flew and Richard Hare – who have argued that belief in God can never be verified and is therefore irrational and meaningless. Interestingly, in 2004 Anthony Flew changed his mind and said that he did believe in God after all: ‘I’m thinking of a God … in the sense of a being that has intelligence and a purpose.’

Theistic belief does not necessarily translate into religious conviction. The desire to worship God does not necessarily follow from the fact that we give intellectual assent to the idea of a perfect being.

THINKERS

Ralph Cudworth (1617–88): one of the so-called Cambridge Platonists. He probably coined the term ‘theism’.

Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) argued that ‘we should stop thinking about God as someone, over there, way up there, transcendent, and, what is more … capable, more than any satellite orbiting in space, of seeing into the most secret of the most interior of places’ (The Gift of Death). Instead, we should see God as ‘the structure of conscience’.

Georg W. F. Hegel (1770–1831) believed that God was a ‘mind’ or ‘spirit’ guiding history towards a rational future.

David Hume (1711–76) argued in The Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion that belief in God is not rational.

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) held the theistic view that God is a necessary (or ‘regulative’) ‘idea’, but could find no value in arguments for God’s existence.

John Locke (1632–1704) argued in The Reasonableness of Christianity that the religious truths revealed in Scripture could also be verified by using human reason.

Isaac Newton (1642–1727) believed that the mind of God could be glimpsed through the logical scientific laws of the universe.

Alvin Plantinga (1932– ) argues that theism is ‘warranted’ because it is ‘a properly basic belief’. If God created us in such a way that we should believe in him, then belief in God would be rational, even if there were no evidence for it and our arguments were not very good.

Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) held the monist view that God (or Nature) is the one substance out of which the universe is made.

Richard Swinburne (1934– ) argues that belief in the Christian God provides the best possible explanation for our experience of the world.

IDEAS

Agnosticism: the belief that it is not possible to say whether God is real or not.

Atheism: the belief that there is no God of any kind. Socrates (470–399 bc) was arguably the first thinker to be accused of ‘atheism’. (See ‘Atheism’.)

Deism: the belief (dominant in the Enlightenment) that the reality of God as the ‘author of nature’ or ‘supreme being’ can be demonstrated by reason. The Deist God sets up the laws of the universe but does not interfere with human affairs.

Dystheism: the belief that God exists but is malevolent.

Eutheism: the belief that God exists and is good.

God of the gaps: the use of God to fill the gaps in the scientific explanation of the cosmos.

God of the philosophers: a phrase used to describe a purely intellectual belief in God without any living religious faith.

Monotheism: the belief that there is only one God.

Nihilism: the atheistic belief that there are no ultimate meanings. (See ‘The Death of God’.)

Ontological argument: a rational argument for God’s existence which was first suggested by St Anselm. (See ‘Proofs for the Existence of God’.)

Open theism: the view, developed by Clark H. Pinnock (1940– ) and others, that God is open and responsive to his creation.

Panentheism (literally ‘everything in God’): the belief that God is infused in the cosmos.

Pantheism: the belief that God is the same thing as the universe.

Polytheism: the belief that there is more than one god.

BOOKS

M. Diamond and T. Litzenburg (eds.), The Logic of God: Theology and Verification (Macmillan, 1975)

Paul Copan and Paul K. Moser (eds.), The Rationality of Theism (Routledge, 2003)