The Severity of God
Religion and Philosophy Reconceived

This book explores the role of divine severity in the character and wisdom of God, and the flux and difficulties of human life in relation to divine salvation. Much has been written on problems of evil, but the matter of divine severity has received relatively little attention. Paul K. Moser discusses the function of philosophy, evidence and miracles in approaching God. He argues that if God's aim is to extend without coercion His lasting life to humans, then commitment to that goal could manifest itself in making human life severe, for the sake of encouraging humans to enter into that cooperative good life. In this scenario, divine agap? is conferred as free gift, but the human reception of it includes stress and struggle in the face of conflicting powers and priorities. Moser's work will be of great interest to students of the philosophy of religion, and theology.

Preface; Introduction; 1. Severity and God; 2. Severity and flux; 3. Severity and evidence; 4. Severity and salvation; 5. Severity and philosophy; References; Index.

Paul K. Moser is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University. His most recent books include The Elusive God: Reorienting Religious Epistemology (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and The Evidence for God: Religious Knowledge Reexamined (Cambridge University Press, 2010). He is editor of Jesus and Philosophy: New Essays (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and co-editor, with Daniel Howard-Snyder, of Divine Hiddenness (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and, with Michael McFall, of The Wisdom of the Christian Faith (Cambridge University Press, 2012). Moser is editor of the American Philosophical Quarterly.