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Title: God and Philosophy, Second edition by Etienne Gilson, Jaroslav Pelikan ISBN: 0-300-09299-7 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 March, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Encourages one's own Investigation!
Comment: God and Philosophy is an outstanding exposition how the thought of 'God' has emerged into what Eitenne Gilson has persuaded himself to believe as "HE WHO IS." EG first begins this task by exploring the notion of 'God' in Greek philosophy from Homer's Iliad to Plato and Aristotle. Then, EG explores the early Christian tradition of 'God' from Augustine to Aquinas. Next, EG contrasts Descartes' 'God' with Spinoza's 'God'. Finally, EG investigates the problem and brings to light the error that has been rampant from Greek philosophy to Contemporary Thought of 'God'. The problem has been an existential one. That is, an existential notion of 'God' has been lacking. The error has been utilizing the method of "science" or the "science of metaphysics" in our search for 'God'. This method does not get us any closer to finding 'God' as "HE WHO IS." Lacking an existential notion of 'God' takes us further away from finding 'God' and only gives us a 'God' as an "object of knowledge" (109) but not 'God'. I agree for the most part with EG. Because we have not found "HE WHO IS that which is" (both Being and Essence) we have created a world full of gods. "For when gods fight among themselves, men have to die" (137) - physically and existentially, emphasis mine. Based on man's anthropomorphic grounds in his affirmation of 'God' "HE WHO IS" never was... Indeed, "God is dead!"
Rating: 4
Summary: interesting, badly written and unorganized at the end.
Comment: i gave this book 4 stars because it has motivated me to pursue more study on Aquinas. as for the book itself, it's far from perfect. i agree with the other reviewer in that, towards the end of the book, Gilson's thoughts seemed to lose structure and purpose. By the last chapter, I was scratching my head trying to figure out what his point was in adding another chapter. it was fairly organized right up to the discussion of the Deists, which seemed to be just thrown in so that no part of natural theology in the modern period would be left out. I could appreciate a few pages discussing the faults with following a strict scientism, which has seduced contemporary thinkers, but to devote an entire chapter to saying the same thing over and over again is just a waste of time. Overall, it was worth reading, but I doubt anyone will be convinced by any argument presented in this book. I think Gilson is preaching to the converted, because i doubt anyone but fellow Thomists and Christians agree with Gilson's assessment of the history of the relationship between religion and philosophy. If you've not familiarized yourself with Aquinas' thought, however, reading this book might challenge you to do so.
Rating: 5
Summary: Still one of the best introductions
Comment: Thales of Miletus, whom tradition regards as the first Western philosopher, is well-known for the rationalist view that the first principle is water, and the religious statement, "all things are full of gods." (p. 1) For Gilson, this epitomizes the problems of relating philosophy and religion. How can religious and philosophical statements about God be reconciled? For Thales and the Greeks, Gilson argues that they cannot, but that it is otherwise with the Christian philosophies of Being.
On this basis, rejects the view that Greek philosophy is a rationalization of a religious viewpoint, apparently on the basis that one cannot interpret a world of personal forces in terms of things. However, F. M Cornford and others argued persuasively for the opposite view, and seem to have in great part won the battle. For example, the classic study of the presocratic philosophers by Kirk, Raven, and Schofield, as well as anthologies by Wheelwright and Barnes, begin with a consideration of their religious and mythological predecessors. So, it does not seem one can understand the origin of Greek philosophy without considering Greek religion.
How well does Gilson understand Greek religion? Is it true that "A world where everything comes from without, including their feelings and passions, their virtues and vices, such was the Greek religious world." (p. 13) As E. R. Dodds has pointed out, this did not seem to deprive them of a sense of responsibility. Before criticizing Gilson too strongly, we should remember that God and Philosophy originates in the Mahlon Powell Lectures on Philosophy at Indiana University in 1938-1939, and that Greek thought and religion are not really his specialty. Historical details aside, Gilson always raises pertinent questions.
Gilson aptly states the philosophical problem of God not only for the Greeks, but philosophers generally: "how to identify their principles with their gods, or their gods with their principles." (p. 22) Christian thought concerning the nature of God owes much to Plato's Form of the Good, Aristotle's Unmoved Mover or Self-Thinking Thought, and Plotinus' One, but it is difficult to give them a full religious value, although I cannot agree they have none at all. I may say that Gilson provides a marvelously condensed account of Plotinus' philosophy of the One which may well be basically correct. (Pp. 45-50)
For Gilson, the Greek essentialist philosophies could not help but consider God as a thing. When it comes to Christian philosophies of Being (a controverted subject), Gilson argues that the philosophical God and the religious God can be the same Being. This is a very attractive position considered in itself. I think. But, his historical analysis is less certain. It may be that many Christian thinkers have rendered the cryptic phrase for who God is in Exodus 3:1 as "He Who Is." This, however, has exegetical difficulties. Suffice it to point out that the New Revised Standard Version translates the phrase as "I AM WHO I AM," and offers two alternatives in the footnotes, "I AM WHAT I AM or I AM WHAT I WILL BE." So, while Gilson argues persuasively that religious thinkers such as Augustine and Aquinas, among numerous others, have interpreted this as meaning God is Being, it doubtful whether this a good exegesis of the text.
Gilson is one of the greatest Descartes scholars, but I must forgo discussing his insights in any detail. He cites O. Hamelin for the opinion that Descartes, the founder of modern philosophy, followed after the ancient philosophers as if nothing had happened in between. Gilson has very effectively attacked this view a number of times, especially as to his notion of God.
"Whatever his name, his rank, or his function, not one of the gods of Greek religion had ever claimed to be the one, sole, and supreme Being, creator of the world, first principle, and ultimate end of all things. Descartes, on the contrary, could not approach the same philosophical problem without finding himself confronted with the Christian God." (p. 79)
So Descartes' attempt to philosophize about God apart from religious revelation was doomed to failure from the start. Gilson argues that it is extremely difficult to philosophize about God apart from religious revelation, simply because philosophers must have some pre-philosophical idea of God in the first place. The God of the philosophers generally becomes a thing, a philosophical principle.
Frankly, after Descartes, the book becomes somewhat disjointed, filled with brilliant insights though it may be. I will mention Spinoza, who wished "to achieve salvation by means of philosophy only." His brand of salvation is really available, at best, to a select few, who can understand nature "as an absolutely intelligible reality." In passing, he discusses such varied thinkers as Pascal, Malebranche, Leibniz, Kant, Comte, English and French Deists, Sir James Jeans, who gets several pages, and Julian Huxley. One must remember that the book originated in a lecture series, which must have been brilliant.
Gilson quite sensibly holds that religion is existential, that it concerns our lives. It is not how the universe works, but why, and the ultimate why is, in Leibniz's formulation: why is there something rather than nothing?
"To this supreme question, the only conceivable answer is that each and every particular existential energy, each and every particular thing, depends for its existence on a pure Act of existence."
Gilson goes on to argue that this pure Act must be self-subsistent, knowing, and free, and hence, a person.
Ninian Smart, who qualified both in the history of religions and analytic philosophy, has argued forcefully that too many philosophers who discuss religion know very little about the history of religion. Gilson, however, really knew quite a lot about religion, and his position is quite attractive. Though many of his historical interpretations are debatable, with Gilson's philosophical and literary acumen, God and Philosophy remains one of the best introductions to many of the themes of the philosophy of religion.
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