The God of Metaphysics [Paperback]

Can philosophy offer reasonable grounds for the existence of a God as the centre of actual faith, rather than just a theoretical Absolute? Many contemporary thinkers have concluded that no genuine religion could be based upon metaphysics. In this book, however, T. L. S. Sprigge examines sympathetically the most notable metaphysical systems of the last four centuries which purport to put religion on a rational footing and, after a thorough examination of their claims, considers what kind of religious outlook they might support and (more briefly) how they actually affected the lives of their proponents. The thinkers studied include Spinoza, Hegel, T. H. Green, Bernard Bosanquet (together with a brief discussion of Bradley), Josiah Royce, A. N. Whitehead, and Charles Hartshorne, concluding with an exposition of the author's own viewpoint (pantheistic absolute idealism) and a general discussion on the relation between metaphysics and religion. There is also a chapter on Kierkegaard as the most important critic of metaphysical religion.

1. Introductory
2. The God of Spinoza
3. Hegelian Christianity
4. Kierkegaard and Hegelian Christianity
5. T. H. Green and the Eternal Consciousness
6. Bernard Bosanquet
7. Josiah Royce
8. Process Philosophy and Theology: Whitehead and Hartshorne
9. Panthesitic Idealism
10. Concluding Remarks

The subtitle of this beautifully produced book says it all, T.L.S. Sprigge has long been recognized as our principal authority on absolute idealism... Provocative and even eccentric....The God of Metaphysicsis nevertheless a wonderfully lucid book. It deserves a readership well beyond professional philosophical circles. --Fergus Kerr,Times Literary Supplement

This book offers a vast, sprawling metaphysical world in which to immerse oneself. For all its disciplined density of argumentation, austerity of abstraction and masterly intellectual control it is vitally, passionately persol£P