John E. Hare – författare

Unity and the Holy Spirit investigates the work of the Holy Spirit in the world (as distinct from the church). John E. Hare proposes that the Spirit aims at unity of four different kinds: unity between us and the material world, unity within us, unity between us and others, and unity between us and God. The book proceeds by discussing one example of each of these kinds of unity. The example of the first is our experience of the beautiful and the sublime, examining Kant's account of these experiences with two pieces by Beethoven used as illustrations. The example of the second is gender transition, taking as a case a life assigned female at birth. Patriotism provides the third example, and the discussion examines the relation of a limited patriotism to the ideal of cosmopolitanism. The fourth example is contemplation; the discussion looks at different conceptions of this practice, starting with Aristotle. The final chapter collects together these examples, and asks what unity is in itself, starting again with Aristotle. In each case, emphasis is placed on what is contributed to our understanding by invoking the work of the Holy Spirit. The book ends by asking why the Spirit aims at unity, and the answer is that the Spirit loves. This book completes a trilogy of works on ethical theory and the doctrine of the Trinity, following The Moral Gap (OUP, 1996), about the work of the Second Person, and God's Command (OUP, 2015), about the work of the First.

This volume brings together an impressive range of leading scholars to deftly navigate the field of moral arguments for God's existence. To this end, it canvasses the fertile history of the moral argument, highlighting thinkers from before Immanuel Kant, Kant himself, and various post-Kantian thinkers up until the present day-including C. S. Lewis, perhaps the most important popularizer of the moral argument of the twentieth century. It then makes a case for moral realism and against realism's salient metaethical alternatives such as error theory, expressivism, and constructivism. In that context, both the problem of evil and debunking arguments against moral knowledge are also discussed at length. Then the volume discusses a range of important moral phenomena, realistically construed, that call for adequate explanation-issues of moral value, human dignity, objective moral duties, issues of moral accountability and forgiveness, matters of moral knowledge, and aspects of Kantian moral faith. Then a range of theistic ethical accounts are outlined and defended against objections, from divine command theory, theistic natural law, divine will and desire theories, and divine motivation theory. The penultimate section elucidates challenges facing naturalistic theories like Cornell realism and atheistic Platonism, including the task of providing an account for basic human rights and escaping from problematic implications of debunking. Finally, an assortment of finer-grained religious ethical accounts are laid out, including a Trinitarian analysis, a Jewish perspective, and an original argument that certain moral considerations point beyond theism to Christianity in particular.

This volume brings together an impressive range of leading scholars to deftly navigate the field of moral arguments for God's existence. To this end, it canvasses the fertile history of the moral argument, highlighting thinkers from before Immanuel Kant, Kant himself, and various post-Kantian thinkers up until the present day-including C. S. Lewis, perhaps the most important popularizer of the moral argument of the twentieth century. It then makes a case for moral realism and against realism's salient metaethical alternatives such as error theory, expressivism, and constructivism. In that context, both the problem of evil and debunking arguments against moral knowledge are also discussed at length. Then the volume discusses a range of important moral phenomena, realistically construed, that call for adequate explanation-issues of moral value, human dignity, objective moral duties, issues of moral accountability and forgiveness, matters of moral knowledge, and aspects of Kantian moral faith. Then a range of theistic ethical accounts are outlined and defended against objections, from divine command theory, theistic natural law, divine will and desire theories, and divine motivation theory. The penultimate section elucidates challenges facing naturalistic theories like Cornell realism and atheistic Platonism, including the task of providing an account for basic human rights and escaping from problematic implications of debunking. Finally, an assortment of finer-grained religious ethical accounts are laid out, including a Trinitarian analysis, a Jewish perspective, and an original argument that certain moral considerations point beyond theism to Christianity in particular.

This book is about the gap between the moral demand on us and our natural capacities to meet it. John Hare starts with Kants statement of the moral demand and his acknowledgement of this gap. Hare then analyses Kants use of the resources of the Christian tradition to make sense of this gap, especially the notions of revelation, providence, and Gods grace. Kant reflects the traditional way of making sense of this gap, which is to invoke Gods assistance in bridging it. Hare goes on to examine various contemporary philosophers who do not use these resources. He considers three main strategies: exaggerating our natural capacities, diminishing the moral demand, and finding some naturalistic substitute for Gods assistance. He argues that these strategies do not work, and that we are therefore left with the gap and with the problem that it is unreasonable to demand of ourselves a standard which we cannot reach. In the final section of the book, Hare looks in more detail at the Christian doctrines of atonement, justification, and sanctification. He discusses Kierkegaards account of the relation between the ethical life and the Christian life, and ends by considering human forgiveness, and the ways in which Gods forgiveness is both like and unlike our forgiveness of each other. The book is intended for those interested in both ethical theory and Christian theology.

This work focuses on divine command, and in particular the theory that what makes something obligatory is that God commands it, and what makes something wrong is that God commands us not to do it. Focusing on the Abrahamic faiths, eminent scholar John E. Hare explains that two experiences have had to be integrated. The first is that God tells us to do something, or not to do something. The second is that we have to work out ourselves what to do and what not to do. The difficulty has come in establishing the proper relation between them. In Christian reflection on this, two main traditions have emerged, divine command theory and natural law theory.Hare successfully defends a version of divine command theory, but also shows that there is considerable overlap with some versions of natural law theory. He engages with a number of Christian theologians, particularly Karl Barth, and extends into a discussion of divine command within Judaism and Islam. The work concludes by examining recent work in evolutionary psychology, and argues that thinking of our moral obligations as produced by divine command offers us some help in seeing how a moral conscience could develop in a way that is evolutionarily stable.

This work focuses on divine command, and in particular the theory that what makes something obligatory is that God commands it, and what makes something wrong is that God commands us not to do it. Focusing on the Abrahamic faiths, eminent scholar John E. Hare explains that two experiences have had to be integrated. The first is that God tells us to do something, or not to do something. The second is that we have to work out ourselves what to do and what not to do. The difficulty has come in establishing the proper relation between them. In Christian reflection on this, two main traditions have emerged, divine command theory and natural law theory.Professor Hare successfully defends a version of divine command theory, but also shows that there is considerable overlap with some versions of natural law theory. He engages with a number of Christian theologians, particularly Karl Barth, and extends into a discussion of divine command within Judaism and Islam. The work concludes by examining recent work in evolutionary psychology, and argues that thinking of our moral obligations as produced by divine command offers us some help in seeing how a moral conscience could develop in a way that is evolutionarily stable.

God and Morality evaluates the ethical theories of four principle philosophers, Aristotle, Duns Scotus, Kant, and R.M. Hare. Uses their thinking as the basis for telling the story of the history and development of ethical thought more broadlyFocuses specifically on their writings on virtue, will, duty, and consequenceConcentrates on the theistic beliefs to highlight continuity of philosophical thought

God and Morality evaluates the ethical theories of four principle philosophers, Aristotle, Duns Scotus, Kant, and R.M. Hare. Uses their thinking as the basis for telling the story of the history and development of ethical thought more broadlyFocuses specifically on their writings on virtue, will, duty, and consequenceConcentrates on the theistic beliefs to highlight continuity of philosophical thought