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Preface
Before finishing my Doctorate, I promised I would eventually share my Ph.D. text and questionnaire results on this website. This has been nearly exhaustively accomplished.
Searching through my Blogger website archives, I noticed that the footnote citation in italics below had not been shared as of yet. Blogger has improved its interface and now the entire archive is searchable quicker. This citation was in the context of my William James section from my Ph.D. thesis which includes a discussion on the view, which I
disagree with, that God is finite.
James held to pragmatism and the view that God was finite (limited).
2010 Theodicy and Practical Theology: Ph.D. thesis, the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Lampeter The citation
I would suggest even if God was finite, his knowledge based on intelligence and a longer existence would provide him with a better understanding of possible situations in comparison to his creations.
May 29, 2020
I have reviewed the theological opinion, that it is logically impossible for even an infinite deity to have omniscience. For the sake of this article, let us assume it is true, temporarily.
Biblical Reformed theology and a sympathetic, theistic, philosophy of religion, would still reason God as the primary cause of all things. God would be considered sovereign over all things. Secondary human causes would always submit to God's sovereign power as the primary cause. God, by nature, would have a superior understanding of events than would human beings, and angelic beings for that matter.
In contrast, I do reason within my biblical, orthodox, Reformed theology, and within my philosophy of religion, that God’s nature as infinite and related attributes would include omniscience and omnipotence, for that matter.
But, God’s nature and attributes exist logically and do not allow for logical contradiction.
JAMES, WILLIAM (1892-1907)(1969) The Moral Philosophy of William James, John K. Roth (ed.), Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York.
JAMES, WILLIAM (1893)(2004) William James and a Science of Religions, Wayne Proudfoot (ed.), Columbia University Press, New York.
JAMES, WILLIAM (1902-1910)(1987) Writings 1902 – 1910, The Library of America, New York.
JAMES, WILLIAM (1902)(2002) The Varieties of Religious Experience, Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York.
JAMES, WILLIAM (1904) ‘Does ‘Consciousness’ Exist?’, in Journal of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods, Volume 1, pages 477-491. New York, Columbia University.
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/consciousness.htm
JAMES, WILLIAM (1907) Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking, Longman and Green Company, New York.
PAULSON, DAVID (1999) ‘The God of Abraham, Isaac, and (William) James’, in The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 13.2, University Park, Pennsylvania, Penn State University Press.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_speculative_philosophy/v013/13.2paulsen.html
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