The Problem of God in Modern Thought

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Summary: Rethinking the modern era and its relationship to God
Review: I have had the pleasure of being a student of Philip Clayton, whose ability to inspire rigorous criticism without losing sight of the quest for meaning, and whose skills as a mentor, have inspired my own philosophical pursuits. In this work, Clayton advocates a rethinking of the place of the question of God in the thought of the modernist thinkers. His attention to detail and his ability to transcend the barriers of traditional categories produce a book that provides a refreshing look at the history of western philosophy in a theological light. There is a trend in contemporary Anglo-American Analytic Philosophy to ignore the systematic and theological aspects of the modernist thinkers in favour of individual arguments. While those individual arguments should not be ignored, their place in a larger system, as Clayton rightly shows us, is crucial to understanding the development of the modes of thought in use today. I cannot recommend this book highly enough to any student of philosophy or history of thought. Those of you who know Philip Clayton personally will know of his unique gift of enabling his students to pursue rigorously the development of their own philosophical systems, a gift that is evident in the journey in which Clayton leads the reader of this work through the philosophical and theological landscape.

Rating:
Summary: Good book!
Review: This is an astonishing book. Clayton manages to give a concise overview of what the Enlightenment philosophers did with the image of God it inhereted from the Middle Ages. Also, Clayton relates this to how metaphysics and theology relates to science. Although one of my criticisms is that it relates to merely German philosophers like Kant, Leibniz and Schelling (as well as Descartes and Spinoza by the way), it is well worth a read. I do wonder if their will be a sequel to this book.