Thomas Talbott
Biographic Data
| ID | 5911901 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thomas Talbott |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thomas |
| FAMILY NAME | Talbott |
| SIGNATURE | TALBOTT T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Willamette University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 6 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 6 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1986 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Misery and freedom
In this brief reply to Walls's challenging critique, I try to do two things: first, clarify the most fundamental point on which I think Walls and I disagree, and second, argue that, as surprising as it may first appear, Walls's free-will theodicy of hell requires that God interfere with human freedom in inappropriate ways
Freedom, damnation, and the power to sin with impunity
I argue that the idea of a freely embraced eternal destiny in hell is deeply incoherent and implies, quite apart from its incoherence, that we are free both to sin with impunity and to defeat God's justice forever
Punishment, Forgiveness, and Divine Justice
According to a long theological tradition that stretches back at least as far as St Augustine, God's justice and mercy are distinct, and in many ways quite different, character traits. In his great epic poem, Paradise Lost , for example, John Milton goes so far as to suggest a conflict, perhaps even a contradiction, in the very being of God; he thus describes Christ's offer of himself as an atonement this way: No sooner did thy dear and only Son …
Craig on the Possibility of Eternal Damnation
In two recent papers, one a critique of two papers of mine, William Lane Craig has sought to put the Free Will Defence in the service of the traditional doctrine of hell; he has sought to establish, in other words, that the following proposition, which I shall call the Damnation Thesis (DT), is at least possibly true: (DT) There exists at least one sinner S such that S will never be reconciled to God and thus never be saved
Providence, Freedom, and Human Destiny
According to some theists, God will never completely destroy moral evil or banish it from his creation entirely; instead, he will eventually confine moral evil to a specific region of his creation, a region known as hell, and those condemned to hell, having no hope of escape from it, will live out eternity in a state of estrangement from God as well as from each other. Let us call that the traditional doctrine of hell. Elsewhere I have argued tha…
On Divine Foreknowledge and Bringing About the Past
In the past two decades much has been written on the topic of divine foreknowledge and human freedom, perhaps even too much, but there remains, in the recent discussion, an important point of dispute, one that should, I believe, finally be put to rest. The point of dispute concerns the appropriateness of causal-sounding language (i.e., the language of it about that) in the following kind of context: Suppose that an essentially omniscient God shou…
On Divine Foreknowledge and Bringing About the Past
In the past two decades much has been written on the topic of divine foreknowledge and human freedom, perhaps even too much, but there remains, in the recent discussion, an important point of dispute, one that should, I believe, finally be put to rest. The point of dispute concerns the appropriateness of causal-sounding language (i.e., the language of it about that) in the following kind of context: Suppose that an essentially omniscient God shou…
On Divine Foreknowledge and Bringing About the Past
In the past two decades much has been written on the topic of divine foreknowledge and human freedom, perhaps even too much, but there remains, in the recent discussion, an important point of dispute, one that should, I believe, finally be put to rest. The point of dispute concerns the appropriateness of causal-sounding language (i.e., the language of it about that) in the following kind of context: Suppose that an essentially omniscient God shou…
Providence, Freedom, and Human Destiny
According to some theists, God will never completely destroy moral evil or banish it from his creation entirely; instead, he will eventually confine moral evil to a specific region of his creation, a region known as hell, and those condemned to hell, having no hope of escape from it, will live out eternity in a state of estrangement from God as well as from each other. Let us call that the traditional doctrine of hell. Elsewhere I have argued tha…
Craig on the Possibility of Eternal Damnation
In two recent papers, one a critique of two papers of mine, William Lane Craig has sought to put the Free Will Defence in the service of the traditional doctrine of hell; he has sought to establish, in other words, that the following proposition, which I shall call the Damnation Thesis (DT), is at least possibly true: (DT) There exists at least one sinner S such that S will never be reconciled to God and thus never be saved
Punishment, Forgiveness, and Divine Justice
According to a long theological tradition that stretches back at least as far as St Augustine, God's justice and mercy are distinct, and in many ways quite different, character traits. In his great epic poem, Paradise Lost , for example, John Milton goes so far as to suggest a conflict, perhaps even a contradiction, in the very being of God; he thus describes Christ's offer of himself as an atonement this way: No sooner did thy dear and only Son …
Freedom, damnation, and the power to sin with impunity
I argue that the idea of a freely embraced eternal destiny in hell is deeply incoherent and implies, quite apart from its incoherence, that we are free both to sin with impunity and to defeat God's justice forever
Misery and freedom
In this brief reply to Walls's challenging critique, I try to do two things: first, clarify the most fundamental point on which I think Walls and I disagree, and second, argue that, as surprising as it may first appear, Walls's free-will theodicy of hell requires that God interfere with human freedom in inappropriate ways
Philosophy (6 works) · Theology and Philosophy of Evil (6 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Theology (4 works) · War, Ethics, and Justification (3 works) · Augustinian Studies and Theology (2 works) · Damnation (2 works) · Destiny (ISS module) (2 works) · Doctrine (2 works) · Economic Justice (2 works)