ABSTRACT
When theologians talk of ontology, the author suspects they intend something very different from philosophers, or at least philosophers in the tradition he respect and represent. He confines himself to philosophical approaches to ontology from another direction, and from the traditions he knows best. The author appreciates that this may be asking some readers to traverse some unfamiliar territory. It should be interesting to compare and contrast the twists and turns of more general debates with any questions specifically belonging to the philosophy of religion. In fact, much modern philosophy has a no-nonsense way with ontology, or the question of what there is. Following the broad path blazed by W. V. Quine, it asks about the ontological commitments of a theory, or a discourse. It finds out these commitments by what seems like a very simple method. Quine's approach survives indeterminacy over the strength of commitment, although that too has occupied a good deal of attention.
