ABSTRACT
In Chapters 1 and 2 we tackled scientific and religious challenges to philosophical theology. Chapter 3 addressed philosophical theology in the context of religious diversity, while Chapter 4 explored a positive case for divine disclosure along with a set of objections. In this chapter we focus on what is traditionally considered the divine attributes in theistic traditions, beginning with the idea of God as supremely or unsurpassably excellent or perfect. The idea that God is perfect is closely related to the idea that God is worthy of worship. This is the central claim in much of philosophy inspired by the Abrahamic faiths, for it is from such a central claim about God and values that the divine attributes are individually brought out to enrich the concept of God as essentially good, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, necessarily existing, eternal or everlasting, and more. In keeping with our understanding of philosophical theology as a philosophical operation both within and external to theological tradition, we will explore these attributes through the lens of religious practitioners from the inside as well as by skeptics. In a final section in this chapter, we examine two important Hindu understandings of the divine.
