Key term
OCR A-Level Religious Studies H573
Philosophy of Religion
Topic overviewPlato: the Forms and the analogy of the caveAristotle: the four causes and the Prime MoverSoul, mind and bodyThe teleological argumentThe cosmological argumentAnselm and the ontological argumentKant's criticisms of the ontological argumentReligious experienceThe problem of evilOmnipotence, omniscience and benevolenceEternity, foreknowledge and free willReligious language: via negativa, analogy and symbolVerification and falsificationLanguage games and non-cognitive approaches
Religion and Ethics
Topic overviewAquinas and the precepts of natural lawApplying and evaluating natural lawFletcher's propositions and working principlesApplying and evaluating situation ethicsThe categorical imperativeDuty, the summum bonum and evaluationUtilitarianismEuthanasiaBusiness ethicsEthical language and meta-ethicsConscienceSexual ethics
Developments in Christian ThoughtReligion
Topic overviewAugustine on human natureDeath and the afterlifeKnowledge of God's existenceThe person of Jesus ChristChristian moral principlesChristian moral action: Dietrich BonhoefferReligious pluralism and theologyReligious pluralism and societyGender and societyGender and theology: Ruether and DalyThe challenge of secularismLiberation theology and Marx
Developments in Islamic ThoughtReligion
Topic overviewProphecy and revelation in IslamHadith, Sira and the formation of Sunni and Shi'a IslamThe oneness of God (tawhid)Human destiny, the afterlife and divine willThe Shari'a and Islamic law in practiceSufism and Islamic spiritualityIslam, science and philosophyGender in Islam: equality, law and feminismTolerance, religious freedom and apostasyJustice, jihad and liberationIslam and the stateIslam in Europe
Developments in Jewish ThoughtReligion
Topic overviewJewish oral and written lawCovenant in the TorahMaimonides and the Thirteen PrinciplesDebate over the Principles and Jewish beliefSuffering and messianic hopeKashrut and the dietary lawsBusiness ethics and sexual ethics in halakhahConversion to JudaismThe Haskalah and Jewish emancipationZionismThe land of Israel and the modern stateJewish feminism: Plaskow and AdlerResponses to the HolocaustThe Holocaust and the problem of evilChagall: art as resistance
Developments in Buddhist ThoughtReligion
Topic overviewThe Buddha: Siddhartha's life and intellectual contextTaking refuge: the Three JewelsSamsara, kamma and rebirthThe three marks of existenceThe Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold PathBuddhist meditationThe development of Mahayana BuddhismMadhyamaka and the perfection of wisdomZen and Pure Land BuddhismBuddhism in the WestEngaged Buddhism and social activismBuddhism and gender
Developments in Hindu ThoughtReligion
Topic overviewOrigins and diversity in HinduismHindu scriptures and holy personsBrahman, atman and mokshaSamsara, karma and liberationDharma and adharmaVarnashramadharma and Hindu virtuesVedanta and its schoolsIs Hinduism a single religion?Hinduism and IndiaHinduism and the WestCaste, gender and discriminationHindu social reform movements
Philosophy of Religion
Eternity, foreknowledge and free will
- 3 things to know
- Component 1
Overview
Recall questions on the problem of divine foreknowledge and human freedom, eternal and everlasting models of God, Boethius on eternity and simple and conditional necessity, Anselm's four-dimensionalist approach, Swinburne's everlasting God and qualified omniscience, the criticisms of each, and libertarian and compatibilist free will.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Evaluation
Why does the foreknowledge problem also threaten divine benevolence and justice?
Key term
Explain Anselm's distinction between preceding and subsequent necessity.
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
How does Boethius reconcile divine foreknowledge with free will?
Model answer
He argues God is eternal rather than everlasting, seeing all time at once, so God's knowledge is observation rather than foreknowledge.
- 2
What is Swinburne's view of God's relationship to time?
Model answer
That God is everlasting, existing through time rather than outside it, and does not know future free choices because they are not yet there to be known.
- 3
Set out the problem of divine foreknowledge and human freedom.
Model answer
If God knew before you were born exactly what you would choose today, then it was true before you were born that you would choose it. If it was already true and God's knowledge cannot be mistaken, then you could not have chosen otherwise. If you could not have chosen otherwise, your choice was not free. So it seems that infallible foreknowledge and genuine human freedom cannot both be real.
- 4
Why does the foreknowledge problem also threaten divine benevolence and justice?
Model answer
Because reward and punishment presuppose that people could have acted differently. If God's knowledge fixes what everyone will do, then those who are condemned were never able to avoid it, and a God who created them knowing this and then judged them would be neither just nor loving. The problem therefore is not merely about freedom in the abstract but about whether divine judgement can be fair at all.
- 5
What are the two main models of divine eternity?
Model answer
On the timeless model, God exists outside time altogether, with no before or after in the divine life, and all moments of history are equally present to him. On the everlasting model, God exists throughout time without beginning or end, experiencing succession as we do but never coming into being or ceasing. The first protects immutability and solves the foreknowledge problem in one way; the second protects a God who responds and acts.
- 6
How does Boethius define eternity?
Model answer
He defines it as the possession of unending life all at once and completely, and contrasts it with everlastingness. A being that merely lasts for ever still lives its life a moment at a time, losing the past and awaiting the future. God, by contrast, holds the whole of his life in a single, complete present, which is why Boethius denies that God is merely very long-lived.
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