Abstract
A problem with this book is its title. It is not inaccurate or misleading, but it might well fail to catch the attention of the general reader. This is a shame, and rather ironic, because one of its stated aims is ‘to broaden analytic theology’s audience and influence’ (p. ix).
Analytic philosophy has an image problem based on a perceived inclination towards pedantry, nit-picking and intra-disciplinary rivalries. Yet its positive pursuit of clarity and concision has much to contribute to philosophical theology, biblical studies, ethics and doctrinal evolution – and in Eleonore Stump it has one of its most effective and accessible advocates.
Her Catholic faith and studies in scholasticism, especially Thomism, consistently inform these essays spanning from 1999 to 2019. They feature an eclectic mix of interlocutors, from Augustine to Raymond Brown and Harry Frankfurt, engaging with Aquinas, Eckhart, SS Francis and Dominic, and even Goebbels and Benjamin Netanyahu along the way.
The book is in five parts. The first part deals with methodology in philosophical theology, with attention paid to the importance of doctrinal orthodoxy, while trenchantly opposed to labelling people as heretics. Historical literacy in the Christian tradition is emphasized, as is knowledge of persons as grist to the analytically theological mill, captured more by narratives than by propositional prose.
Narratives are key to biblical revelation, so Part II examines approaches to biblical exegesis characteristic of Augustine and Aquinas on the one hand, and Richard Swinburne on the other. She engages critically with Raymond Brown’s historical approach to the resurrection narratives in her support for the harmonizing tendencies of a medieval mystery play. Part III’s close examination of how a good God could order wholesale slaughter of the Amalekites in 1 Samuel seems to leave us with more questions than answers. But her point is to show how far the logical and philosophical principles of philosophical theology can take us in tackling a range of issues, and she makes her point with consummate skill, clarity and wit.
Next, she has little difficulty demolishing physicalist reductionism and its incompatibility with the integrity of personhood. Also, she makes a strong case for God as the God of the Bible having an intimate relationship with human beings – a view, she says, that is endorsed by Aquinas, notwithstanding those who have understood him otherwise. When it comes to how God can be known, she devotes a chapter to comparing Dominican (analytic) and Franciscan (empirical) approaches. She favours the latter with its emphasis on personal experience rather than metaphysical argumentation, but does not see them as mutually exclusive alternatives. The arts, especially music, she affirms as gateways to knowledge of God, but a somewhat elitist tone is evident here.
Finally, she offers a philosophical rationale for God hardening the heart of a pharaoh or a Goebbels in order to protect their freedom – her argument is logically incisive, but whether it is theologically sustainable is moot. A final chapter, contra Eckhart, argues that it is appropriate for us to will something contrary to God’s will so long as, like Jesus in Gethsemane, our will is for God’s will to take precedence over our own.
Stump wears her learning lightly, and her faith on her sleeve. We cannot help but actively engage with her argument – and that defines philosophical theology at its best.