Omnipotence and other Theological Mistakes

Charles Hartshorne is Ashbel Smith Professor Emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Creativity in American Philosophy, Insights and Oversights of Great Thinkers, Omnipotence and Other Theological Mistakes, and Wisdom as Moderation all published by SUNY Press.

"Hartshorne speaks with not just conviction, but passion. He cares, and that caring comes through loud and clear. By and large Hartshorne is a very abstract thinker, but this book has a very concrete concern with practical issues of importance to all thinking persons—abortion, environment, love, creationism and fundamentalism as negative forces in our society, nuclear arms, how to read the Bible, birds and animals in their relation to humans, etc. — Donald W. Sherburne

• Preface 1. Six Common Mistakes about God The Mistakes Briefly PresentedWhat Went Wrong in Classical TheismTwo Meanings of "God is Perfect and Unchanging"Two Meanings of "All-Powerful"Two Meanings of "All-Knowing"God's Love as Divine Sympathy, Feeling of Others' FeelingsTwo Meanings of "Immortality"Revelation, "Infallible" as from God, "Fallible" as Humanly ReceivedThe Principle of Dual Transcendence 2. The Physical and Spiritual Materialism and Dualism in Greek and Medieval ThoughtPlato's World Soul: The Mind-Body Analogy for GodMale Bias in TheologyCreation from Nothing, Magic, and the Tyrant Conception of GodMind or Soul as Creative of Its BodyPsychicalism and the Universality of Love 3. Creation through Evolution Evolution and Belief in GodEvolution, Chance, and Natural LawDarwin's MistakeChance, Freedom, and the Tyrant Idea of GodGod Takes Chances with Free CreaturesThe Religious Opposition to EvolutionGod "Makes Things Make Themselves"Creation Neither Out of Nothing Nor Out of MatterValue and Sympathy as the Keys to Power: The Final MysteryPsychicalism and EvolutionThe Perils of a High Level of Mind and FreedomAn Ornithologist who Opposed Evolution 4. Equal Love for Self and Other, All-Love for the All-Loving The Moral Argument against Heaven and HellAbortion and the Nonabsoluteness of Personal IdentityIdentity, Nonidentity, and the Primacy of LoveSelf-identity as Attribute of GodThe Present Condition of HumankindA Requirement for Ethical JudgmentsReligion and PhilosophyIs God Selfish?Divine Love as the Meaning of LifeWhy There is Human WickednessNuclear ArmsGod and the Universe Once More Index of Persons Subject Index