Theism

Classification

Position level

specific

Domains

Philosophy of Religion

Overview

Theism holds that the universe depends on a personal God, perfect in power, knowledge and goodness, and that this dependence is what ultimately explains why anything exists at all and why what exists is ordered as it is. The classical arguments carry the case: that a chain of contingent things requires a necessary first term, that the fine adjustment of natural conditions points to an intending source, and that the world's intelligibility is what one would expect if a mind lay behind it.

Its central burden is created by its own commitments. A God both willing and able to prevent suffering appears to be contradicted by how much suffering there is, and every theistic reply — free will, soul-making, the limits of a human vantage — is an argument that the appearance is not decisive.

Position on

• The Existence of God

  Argues from motion, causation, contingency, degrees of perfection, or design to a first cause or designer that is the personal, perfect source of the universe.

Held by traditions

• Patristics

  Question scope: The Existence of God

• Scholasticism

  Question scope: The Existence of God

Incompatible positions

• Atheism

  Question scope: The Existence of God

References

• Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Part I, Question 2, Article 3 (the Five Ways)