THINKING ABOUT GOD MATTERS

Authors

  • Stephen Curkpatrick Author
  • Hery Susanto Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55087/erckmg08

Keywords:

intelligence, God

Abstract

Thinking about God is integral to orientation and activity within life, for these require thought. If intelligence and therefore the capacity to think have their source in God, so too does thinking through the implications of certain assumptions about God. Two examples are explored within the following questions: Is God equated with everything, thereby diminishing the uniqueness of anything? Does God arbitrarily decree what is good, implying that we have no natural sense of goodness, or, that evil could be good by decree? Assumptions about God can have potential implications that need thinking through. Finally, is it possible to think, without God, if intelligence and therefore thinking inheres in God? This article gives focus to the philosophical writings of Leibniz pertinent to attentive thinking about God, within their orientation to Christian themes and values pertaining to human dignity and intelligence.

References

Antognazza, Maria Rosa. Leibniz: An Intellectual Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Johns, Christopher. Leibniz’s Discourse on Metaphysics: A New Translation and Commentary. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2023.

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm. Political Writings. 2nd ed. Translated and edited by Patrick Riley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. (First published 1972.)

———. Philosophical Essays. Translated and edited by Roger Ariew and Daniel Garber. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1989.

———. Leibniz’s "New System" and Associated Contemporary Texts. Translated and edited by Roger S. Woolhouse and Richard Franks. Introduction and notes by Roger S. Woolhouse. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

———. New Essays on Human Understanding. Abridged ed. Translated and edited by Peter Remnant and Jonathan Bennett. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. (First published 1982.)

———. The Monadology and Other Philosophical Writings. Translated with introduction and notes by Robert Latta. Coppell, TX: Ulan Press, 2012.

———. Leibniz on God and Religion: A Reader. Translated and edited by Lloyd Strickland. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.

———. Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man, and the Origin of Evil. Translated by E. M. Huggard. Edited with an introduction by Austin Farrer. Delhi: Lector House, 2019.

———. The Philosophical Works of Leibnitz. Translated by George Martin Duncan. Australia: Alpha Editions, 2020. (Originally published 1890.)

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Sophie, Electress of Hanover, and Sophie Charlotte, Queen of Prussia. Leibniz and the Two Sophies: The Philosophical Correspondence. Translated and edited by Lloyd Strickland. Chicago: Iter Press, 2011.

Downloads

Published

2025-12-20

Most read articles by the same author(s)