Items from the Wish List: Feser and Lennox

 

Five Proofs of the Existence of God by Edward Feser  (Author)

This book provides a detailed, updated exposition and defense of five of the historically most important (but in recent years largely neglected) philosophical proofs of God’s existence: the Aristotelian, the Neo-Platonic, the Augustinian, the Thomistic, and the Rationalist.

It also offers a thorough treatment of each of the key divine attributes―unity, simplicity,  eternity, omnipotence, omniscience, perfect goodness, and so forth―showing that they  must be possessed by the God whose existence is demonstrated by the proofs.  Finally, it answers at length all of the objections that have been leveled against these proofs. 

This work provides as ambitious and complete a defense of traditional natural theology as is currently in print.  Its aim is to vindicate the view of the greatest philosophers of the past― thinkers like Aristotle, Plotinus, Augustine, Aquinas, Leibniz, and many others― that the existence of God can be established with certainty by way of purely rational arguments.  It thereby serves as a refutation both of atheism and of the fideism that gives aid and comfort to atheism. – Amazon.

By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed: A Catholic Defense of Capital Punishment by Edward Feser (Author), Joseph Bessette (Author)

The Catholic Church has in recent decades been associated with political efforts to eliminate the death penalty. It was not always so. This timely work reviews and explains the Catholic Tradition regarding the death penalty, demonstrating that it is not inherently evil and that it can be reserved as a just form of punishment in certain cases. 

Drawing upon a wealth of philosophical, scriptural, theological, and social scientific arguments, the authors explain the perennial  teaching of the Church that capital punishment can in principle be legitimate―not only to protect society from immediate physical danger, but also to administer retributive justice and to deter capital crimes. The authors also show how some recent statements of Church leaders in opposition to the death penalty are prudential judgments rather than dogma. They reaffirm that Catholics may, in good conscience, disagree about the application of the death penalty.

Some arguments against the death penalty falsely suggest that there has been a rupture in the Church's traditional teaching and thereby inadvertently cast doubt on the reliability of the Magisterium.  Yet, as the authors demonstrate, the Church's traditional teaching is a safeguard to society, because the just use of the death penalty can be used to protect the lives of the innocent, inculcate a horror of murder, and affirm the dignity of human beings as free and rational creatures who must be held responsible for their actions.

By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed challenges contemporary Catholics to engage with Scripture, Tradition, natural law, and the actual social scientific evidence in order to undertake a thoughtful analysis of the current debate about the death penalty. – Amazon.

Aristotle’s Revenge: The Metaphysical Foundations of Physical and Biological Science by Edward Feser  (Author)

Actuality and potentiality, substantial form and prime matter, efficient causality and teleology are among the fundamental concepts of Aristotelian philosophy of nature. Aristotle's Revenge argues that these concepts are not only compatible with modern science, but are implicitly presupposed by modern science.

Among the many topics covered are:

• The metaphysical presuppositions of scientific method.

• The status of scientific realism
• The metaphysics of space and time.
• The metaphysics of quantum mechanics.
• Reductionism in chemistry and biology.
• The metaphysics of evolution.
• Neuroscientific reductionism.

The book interacts heavily with the literature on these issues in contemporary analytic metaphysics and philosophy of science, so as to bring contemporary philosophy and science into dialogue with the Aristotelian tradition. – Amazon.

God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? by John C Lennox  (Author)

Evaluates the evidence of modern science in relation to the debate between the atheistic and theistic interpretations of the universe, and provides a fresh basis for discussion. The book has grown out of the author's lengthy experience of lecturing and debating on this subject in the UK, USA, Germany and Russia, and has been written in response to endless requests for the argumentation in written form. Chapters: War of the worldviews The scope and limits of science Gods, gaps and goblins Designer universe Designer biosphere The nature and scope of evolution The origin of life The genetic code and its origin Matters of information Taming chance without intelligence The origin of information. – Amazon.

God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design Is It Anyway? by John C Lennox  (Author) 

'The Grand Design', by eminent scientist Stephen Hawking, is the latest blockbusting contribution to the so-called New Atheist debate, and claims that the laws of physics themselves brought the Universe into being, rather than God. In this swift and forthright reply, John Lennox, Oxford mathematician and author of 'God's Undertaker', exposes the flaws in Hawking's logic. In lively, layman's terms, Lennox guides us through the key points in Hawking's arguments - with clear explanations of the latest scientific and philosophical methods and theories - and demonstrates that far from disproving a Creator God, they make his existence seem all the more probable. – Amazon.

Gunning for God: Why the New Atheists are Missing the Target by John C Lennox  (Author)

Atheism is on the march in the western world, and its enemy is God. Religion, the "New Atheists" claim, "is dangerous", it "kills" or "poisons everything". And if religion is the problem with the world, their answer is simple: get rid of it. But are things really so straightforward? Tackling the likes of Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett head on, John Lennox highlights the fallacies in the their approach, arguing that their irrational and unscientific methodology leaves them guilty of the same obstinate foolishness of which they accuse dogmatic religious folks. Erudite and wide-ranging, Gunning for God packs some debilitating punches. It also puts forward new ideas about the nature of God and Christianity that will give the 'New Atheists' best friends and worst enemies alike some stimulating food for thought. – Amazon.