Proofs of God: Classical Arguments from Tertullian to Barth - Paperback

by Matthew Levering (Author)

Leading theologian Matthew Levering presents a thoroughgoing critical survey of the proofs of God's existence for readers interested in traditional Christian responses to the problem of atheism. Beginning with Tertullian and ending with Karl Barth, Levering covers twenty-one theologians and philosophers from the early church to the modern period, examining how they answered the critics of their day. He also shows the relevance of the classical arguments to contemporary debates and challenges to Christianity. In addition to students, this book will appeal to readers of apologetics.

Back Jacket

This is the best kind of book: intellectually serious, lucid, and covering a topic of great importance and perennial interest. Levering's interlocutors range in date from the second century to the twentieth, and he is a judicious and lively interpreter of them. For a reliable depiction of the Christian enterprise of thinking about reason and the question of God's existence, this is the book to read.
--Paul J. Griffiths, author of Intellectual Appetite: A Theological Grammar

"A splendid survey; ideal for students and for the intellectually curious of every vocation. Levering fits an enormous range of information in a small space without any sacrifice of detail or clarity."
--David Bentley Hart, author of The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss

"Levering's work is a careful, scholarly treatment of the history of attempts to argue for and against the existence of God. Levering recognizes the limits of such arguments and understands that they do not provide the kind of knowledge of God that Christian faith considers necessary for true relation to God. Nevertheless, he defends the value of such arguments as pointing to a mystery and majesty that requires Christian revelation to fully understand. The book is especially good in retrieving the contributions of patristic and medieval thinkers and gives a helpful account of the work of more recent thinkers, such as Maurice Blondel, Pierre Rousselot, and Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, who are often ignored in contemporary Anglo-American philosophy."
--C. Stephen Evans, Baylor University

"Matthew Levering's panoramic, well-documented Proofs of God is a wonderfully insightful and wisely argued defense of theistic proofs. Whether or not one fully embraces the arguments for classical theism, this philosophical and theological survey of the natural theological terrain from antiquity to the present is a truly impressive work on the most important topic of all--the existence of the God in whom we live, and move, and have our being and the One with whom we have to do."
--Paul Copan, Palm Beach Atlantic University

Author Biography

Matthew Levering (PhD, Boston College) is the James N. and Mary D. Perry Jr. Chair of Theology at Mundelein Seminary, University of Saint Mary of the Lake, in Mundelein, Illinois. He previously taught at the University of Dayton. Levering is the author of numerous books, including The Theology of Augustine, Engaging the Doctrine of Revelation, and Ezra & Nehemiah in the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible series.