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The doctrine of divine simplicity has long played a crucial role in Western Christianity's understanding of God. It claimed that by denying that God is composed of parts Christians are able to account for his absolute self-sufficiency and his ultimate sufficiency as the absolute Creator of the world. If God were a composite being then something other than the Godhead itself would be required to explain or account for God. If this were the case then God would not be most absolute and would not be able to adequately know or account for himself without reference to something other than himself. This book develops these arguments by examining the implications of divine simplicity for God's existence, attributes, knowledge, and will. Along the way there is extensive interaction with older writers, such as Thomas Aquinas and the Reformed scholastics, as well as more recent philosophers and theologians. An attempt is made to answer some of the currently popular criticisms of divine simplicity and to reassert the vital importance of continuing to confess that God is without parts, even in the modern philosophical-theological milieu.
- Sales Rank: #115796 in Books
- Published on: 2011-11-01
- Released on: 2011-11-09
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x .60" w x 6.00" l, .80 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 260 pages
- ISBN13: 9781610976589
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Review
"Dr. James Dolezal's treatment of divine simplicity, which provides a defense of this doctrine in perhaps its strongest form, is a first-rate piece of work . . . [It] is the best full-length philosophical treatment of divine simplicity that I know."
-Paul Helm
Teaching Fellow
Regent College, Vancouver
"James E. Dolezal has authored a philosophically rigorous and theologically thorough defense of divine simplicity, and he has done so for positive reasons. For Dolezal, the whole rationale for defending the simplicity of God is to assure that we actually come to know, though not fully comprehend, God as he truly is--the God of reason and revelation, the God of the Christian philosophical and theological tradition. Dolezal has made a very admirable and extremely significant contribution to the discussion of God's simplicity."
-Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
"At a time when the simplicity of God has fallen on hard times, James Dolezal does a fine job of navigating current objections to this central aspect of theology proper. In particular, Dolezal shows the intimate relationship between those who would affirm God's absolute character, and an affirmation of divine simplicity. He brings Aquinas' affirmation of simplicity into the contemporary debate in a way that Thomas himself might have done."
-K. Scott Oliphint
Westminster Theological Seminary
"James Dolezal offers an exceptionally rich, lucid, and creative insight into the meaning and significance of the doctrine of God's simplicity. Engaging in a lively, sincere discussion with the major contemporary opponents and with representatives of the broad theological tradition, he gives not only a thorough introduction, but also advances the debate: Dolezal translates the discussion about ontotheology into an analytical framework and suggests a new solution for the compatibility of God's simplicity and freedom."
-Harm Goris
Tilburg University
"God without Parts is a valuable contribution to the field of philosophical-theology. Looking to the thought of Thomas Aquinas, James Dolezal carefully presents the logical coherence of the doctrine of divine simplicity, cogently illustrating how the doctrine is a necessary ontological condition for affirming God's absoluteness with regard to his existence, essence, knowledge, and will. This work will be a welcome addition to the libraries of philosophers and theologians alike."
-Gregory T. Doolan
The Catholic University of America --Wipf and Stock Publishers
Dolezal s book is a delight to read insightful, well-research, and clearly written. . . . Most especially, it is a prophetic work, providing a resounding call to recover and reaffirm the absolute God of the Christian tradition who is not pieced together from univocal fragments of human thought but is rather the transcendent Creator who has formed us in his own image and likeness. The Thomist
God without Parts deals with an important topic in philosophical theology, and anyone interested in the fate of the [doctrine of divine simplicity] should read it. . . . an instructive study of a difficult problem, written in scrupulously sober prose. Heythrop Journal
This book is a good and useful addition to the literature on the Doctrine of Divine Simplicity. Faith and Philosophy
God without Parts is meticulously researched, cogently argued, and eminently readable. . . . both an excellent study of the historic doctrine of divine simplicity and a rigorous defense of the doctrine with the contemporary philosophical and theological context. Philosophia Christi
James Dolezal s work not only manages to capture the wide-ranging significance of [divine simplicity], but also skillfully exposits the Christian tradition by leveraging the traditional [doctrine] to profitably engage contemporary philosophical suspicions. Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology
[T]he book represents the most thorough and up-to-date explication and defense of the doctrine of divine simplicity from within the Protestant tradition. Dolezal has given us a fine example of Reformed philosophical theology: historically informed, confessionally observant, ecumenically oriented, and analytically rigorous. Themelios --Wipf and Stock Publishers
About the Author
James E. Dolezal is a Research Fellow at the Craig Center for the Study of the Westminster Standards, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Most helpful customer reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
A faithful defense of a Christian doctrine
By Robert D. LaRocca
James E. Dolezals' book is among the best and most vitally needed accounts of the doctrine of God written in the past few decades. The doctrine of divine simplicity is the doctrinal foundation for God's aseity, immutability, infinity, and omniscience - indeed God's very absoluteness. That Dolezal was able to explicate and defend the doctrine so clearly and convincingly is a remarkable service for a contemporary theological comprehension of God's absolute nature.
It is important to note that the conclusions wrought in "God without Parts" are not the product of an autonomous natural theology. Instead, "God without parts" seeks to explicate the words of the Westminster Confession of Faith which stipulates that God is "without body, parts, or passions..." Therefore this book should be commended to any pastor or student who wishes to understand the meaning of the Westminster Confession, especially as Dolezal enters into the 17th century English divine's thought-world and uses their philosophical assumptions in his presentation of the uncompounded God. And while the book is written with Reformed convictions, there is a catholicity that is upheld throughout. If the many various theological traditions are to come to any agreement on the doctrine of salvation or the doctrine of the church, they must first concur on the absolute nature of the God Christians are to worship.
Right now, especially in the evangelical world, and even amongst those who consider themselves in line with Reformed Orthodoxy, there is an unfortunate lack of understanding of the sheer metaphysical austerity and intellectual complexity of the classic denial of composition in God. Even more disappointing, there is little acknowledgement of the disastrous theological consequences that must obtain if divine simplicity is denied, as it is denied in so many theological sectors. With this in view, I cannot recommend any other work that would clarify and faithfully represent the kinds of parts that are being denied of God by classical Christian theism. While much of the book takes its cue from Aquinas, there is also plenty of interaction with the Reformed tradition, with which Dolezal mainly agrees, and contemporary analytic philosophy of religion, which Dolezal mainly attacks.
There is one caution that should be registered: Dolezal's book explains the metaphysical tools with which he is working, but it would help the reader to have some background in classical metaphysics (especially Thomistic metaphysics). For this, Joseph Owen's "Elementary Christian Metaphysics" is a good introduction and glossary of the kinds of concepts used throughout Dolezal's book. This is not to say Dolezal's "God without Parts" does not stand alone, only that denying parts in God assumes some philosophical grasp of what parts are.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
A Much Needed Defense of an Important Doctrine
By Nathanael Johnston
James Dolezal's book is an excellent defense of the vitally important but much maligned and often misunderstood doctrine of divine simplicity. Dolezal's aim is to defend the doctrine against its recent critics and to show how the doctrine is foundational for the doctrines of God's aseity, immutability, infinity, and omniscience.
Dolezal's primary opponents are analytical philosophers of religion and evangelical theologians influenced influenced by them. Dolezal builds his defense of the doctrine of divine simplicity primarily on the work of Aquinas and contemporary Thomists although Dolezal also interacts positively with the early church fathers and the Reformed tradition, especially 16th and 17th century theologians.
Dolezal makes a convincing case for the continuing importance of divine simplicity. Given the centrality of the doctrine for orthodox theology from the church fathers to the Reformers it is shocking to see how easily it is rejected by many Protestant theologians today. Hopefully, Dolezal's book will at least cause people to think twice about rejecting the doctrine. Prospective readers should be warned that the book, which began life as a dissertation, contains quite a lot of philosophical discussion that employs a large number of technical terms, both scholastic and analytical. However, given the importance of the doctrine and the excellence of its defense in this book, the perseverance of the reader is commended. There is no other book like this one on the market.
Highly recommended.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Strong Defense of the Doctrine of Divine Simplicity
By Nate Claiborne
As you can gather from the subtitle, the focus of Dolezal's work is the attribute of divine simplicity, which he sees as "indispensable for the traditional understanding of doctrines such as God's aseity, unity, infinity, immutability, and eternity" (67). What you cannot gather from the subtitle is that this work is heavily indebted to Thomas Aquinas, and Dolezal takes readers through a guided tour of his writings on the topic. In essence then, it is a kind of exercise in retrieval theology. That is, Dolezal takes us back to Aquinas in order to answer modern objections to a traditionally held understanding of the doctrine of God.
Chapter 1 charts the landscape of modern thought on the doctrine of divine simplicity. Dolezal wants the reader to understand the objections that have been raised before he begins his defense of the doctrine of divine simplicity (which gets abbreviated DDS). Chapter 2 then explains the philosophical nature of composition, that is, what it would mean to be composed of "parts." This is done in order to contrast with the notion of simplicity. With this foundation laid, Dolezal can turn in chapter 3 to give the theological rationale for the DDS itself. It is here that Dolezal argues that DDS "supplies the strength of absoluteness" to the attributes of God I mentioned above. This thread of the argument continues into chapter 4 and 5, the former focusing on simplicity and aseity, and the latter on simplicity and the other attributes. The final two chapters discuss issues related to DDS and God's absolute knowledge and DDS and divine freedom.
To give you a feel for Dolezal's writing style as well as to sum up his argument, here is part of his conclusion:
It has been my contention throughout this study that unless God is identical with all that is in him, and it entirely devoid of all passive potency, one cannot designate him as "most absolute." If he were composed of parts then whatever absoluteness he exhibited would have to be correlative to those parts and thus weakened by relativity, contingency, and dependence. What's more, without an absolutely simple God who is identical with all that is in him, one can offer no account of God or for anything else. If God is not the ontological sufficient reason for himself and all other things then he is not God (213).
On the basis of Dolezal's study, he believes then that "dispensing with the DDS is not advisable" (216). I would heartily agree.
A major strength of Dolezal's work is his style of writing. As you might be able to tell from the extended quote above, he uses short sentences and writes clear, crisp prose. In reading through the book, I found his discussions on DDS much easier to follow than, for instance, Scott Oliphint's God With Us. Given the dense philosophical nature of doctrines like divine simplicity (and the other connected attributes), it is a corner of the theological world that is usually accessible to only a few. While God without Parts is not going to be flying off the shelves at the local Lifeway Christian Stores, it is a very readable book given its subject matter.
Additionally, the book is a very strong contribution to the discussion of DDS. As Dolezal argues, and other theologians pre- and post- Aquinas have as well, this is an important doctrine and there is much at stake in choosing to abandon it. Dolezal mounts an impressive defense in a relatively short space (slightly over 200pgs) and I think his work merits interaction from any future thinkers who might question the efficacy of holding to DDS.
From my perspective at least, there is little to criticize in Dolezal's work. Part of this is that I already agreed with his position before reading the book, but part of it is that I thought it was a well written book. The chapters were not too overwhelmingly long, and Dolezal did a fine job of summarizing in the appropriate places (beginnings and ends of chapters). My one complaint was the abundance of untranslated Latin, but it is hard to imagine the train of thought being able to move as smoothly without the Latin shorthand. It may make the book heavier lifting for some readers who would otherwise be interested, but repetitive lifting builds mental muscles, and the next thing you know you'll be digging up diamonds.
[I was given a review copy of this book by the publisher]
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