Describing Gods : An Investigation of Divine Attributes

A substantial and careful discussion of this central topic in the philosophy of religion, distinctive both for its focus on under-explored attributes such as infinity, simplicity, incorporeality, beauty and fundamentality, and for what it says about more commonly examined attributes such as perfection, omnipotence, omniscience, goodness, necessity, eternity and freedom.

How do religious believers describe God, and what sort of attributes do they attribute to him? These are central topics in the philosophy of religion. In this book Graham Oppy undertakes a careful study of attributes which are commonly ascribed to God, including infinity, perfection, simplicity, eternity, necessity, fundamentality, omnipotence, omniscience, freedom, incorporeality, perfect goodness and perfect beauty. In a series of substantial chapters, he examines divine attributes one by one, and relates them to a larger taxonomy of those attributes. He also examines the difficulties involved in establishing the claim that understandings of divine attributes are inconsistent or incoherent. Intended as a companion to his 2006 book Arguing about Gods, his study engages with a range of the best contemporary work on divine attributes. It will appeal to readers in philosophy of religion.