The Coherence of Theism (Clarendon Library of Logic and Philosophy)

God is often defined as a spirit who is present everywhere, knows everything, is able to do anything, is the creator of the world, is perfectly free, perfectly good, eternal, immutable, one whose commands impose obligations on individuals, and who is in some sense a necessary being. In The Coherence of Theism, the first volume in a highly acclaimed trilogy on the philosophy of religion, Richard Swinburne examines what it means, and whether it is coherent philosophically, to say that there is such a being. He concludes that, despite philosophical objections, many of the claims about God made by religious believers are in fact coherent. In addition, he discusses claims that do not cohere and demonstrates that some important claims cohere only if the words by which they are expressed are stretched or used analogously.