The Moral Argument: A History

The history of the moral argument for the existence of God is a fascinating tale. Like any good story, it is full of twists and unexpected turns, compelling conflicts, memorable and idiosyncratic characters, both central and ancillary players. The narrative is as labyrinthine and circuitous as it is linear, its point yet to be fully seen, and its ending yet to be written. What remains certain is the importance of telling it. The resources of history offer a refresher course, a teachable moment, a cautionary tale about the need to avoid making sacrosanct the trends of the times, and an often sobering lesson in why reigning assumptions may need to be rejected. This book lets the argument's advocates, many long dead, come alive again and speak for themselves. A historical study of the moral argument is a reminder that classical philosophers were unafraid to ask and explore the big questions of faith, hope, and love; of truth, goodness, and beauty; of God, freedom, and immortality. It gives students and scholars alike the chance to drill down into their ideas, contexts, and arguments. Only by a careful study of its history can we come to see its richness and the range of resources it offers.

Religion & Spirituality

Baggett, David

Walls, Jerry

Religious Studies

Oxford University Press

The history of the moral argument for the existence of God is a fascinating tale. Like any good story, it is full of twists and unexpected turns, compelling conflicts, memorable and idiosyncratic characters, both central and ancillary players. The narrative is as labyrinthine and circuitous as it is linear, its point yet to be fully seen, and its ending yet to be written. What remains certain is the importance of telling it. The resources of history offer a refresher course, a teachable moment, a cautionary tale about the need to avoid making sacrosanct the trends of the times, and an often sobering lesson in why reigning assumptions may need to be rejected. This book lets the argument's advocates, many long dead, come alive again and speak for themselves. A historical study of the moral argument is a reminder that classical philosophers were unafraid to ask and explore the big questions of faith, hope, and love; of truth, goodness, and beauty; of God, freedom, and immortality. It gives students and scholars alike the chance to drill down into their ideas, contexts, and arguments. Only by a careful study of its history can we come to see its richness and the range of resources it offers.

The Good, the Right, and the Real: Is Value a Fact?

The Good, the Right, and the Real: Is Value a Fact? argues for a strongly objective understanding of ethics. This book offers a cumulative case for robust moral objectivity, the combination of both prescriptivity and objectivity. It provides positive arguments to believe in morality realistically construed, from Moorean arguments to indispensability arguments; from partners in guilt arguments to C. S. Lewis's arguments in The Abolition of Man, and more. This book outlines critiques of such moral objectivity ranging from queerness objections and moral arguments against morality to debunking objections to moral knowledge. It offers critiques of several alternative views like those of Friedrich Nietzsche, error theory, classical expressivism, constructivism, and sensibility theory. In the process of endorsing a generous empiricism and expansive conception of rationality, it delves into evidential considerations that go beyond the purely philosophical. This book argues that a supernaturalist explanation of morality realistically construed should remain on the table of living possibilities worth careful exploration.

Politics & Social Sciences

Walls, Jerry L.

Philosophy

Good God: The Theistic Foundations of Morality

This book aims to reinvigorate discussions of moral arguments for God's existence. To open this debate, Baggett and Walls argue that God's love and moral goodness are perfect, without defect, necessary, and recognizable. After integrating insights from the literature of both moral apologetics and theistic ethics, they defend theistic ethics against a variety of objections and, in so doing, bolster the case for the moral argument for God's existence. It is the intention of the authors to see this aspect of natural theology resume its rightful place of prominence, by showing how a worldview predicated on the God of both classical theism and historical Christian orthodoxy has more than adequate resources to answer the Euthyphro Dilemma, speak to the problem of evil, illumine natural law, and highlight the moral significance of the incarnation and resurrection of Christ. Ultimately, the authors argue, there is principled reason to believe that morality itself provides excellent reasons to look for a transcendent source of its authority and reality, and a source that is more than an abstract principle.

God and Cosmos: Moral Truth and Human Meaning

Naturalistic ethics is the reigning paradigm among contemporary ethicists; in God and Cosmos, David Baggett and Jerry L. Walls argue that this approach is seriously flawed. This book canvasses a broad array of secular and naturalistic ethical theories in an effort to test their adequacy in accounting for moral duties, intrinsic human value, moral knowledge, prospects for radical moral transformation, and the rationality of morality. In each case, the authors argue, although various secular accounts provide real insights and indeed share common ground with theistic ethics, the resources of classical theism and orthodox Christianity provide the better explanation of the moral realities under consideration. Among such realities is the fundamental insight behind the problem of evil, namely, that the world is not as it should be. Baggett and Walls argue that God and the world, taken together, exhibit superior explanatory scope and power for morality classically construed, without the need to water down the categories of morality, the import of human value, the prescriptive strength of moral obligations, or the deliverances of the logic, language, and phenomenology of moral experience. This book thus provides a cogent moral argument for God's existence, one that is abductive, teleological, and cumulative.

Christian Books & Bibles

<ul><li>Christianity Today 2019 Book of the Year Award of Merit, Apologetics/Evangelism</li></ul> What arguments best support the existence of God? For centuries the moral argument―that objective morality points to the existence of God―has been a powerful apologetic tool. In this volume, David and Marybeth Baggett offer a dramatic, robust, and even playful version of the moral argument. Tracing both its historical importance and its contemporary relevance, they argue that it not only still points to God's existence but that it also contributes to our ongoing spiritual transformation.

The Morals of the Story: Good News About a Good God

Baggett, Marybeth

IVP Academic

Telling Tales distills twenty years' worth of reflections on popular culture through the lens of faith and reason, literature and philosophy. Recurring and integrating motifs of the volume center on the character of God and the nature and value of people, winsomely explored with a light touch. Canvassing pop culture artifacts as diverse as Harry Potter and Firefly, these reflections challenge readers to look closer and attend to inchoate echoes of the sacred in the otherwise familiar and mundane."Telling Tales is a rich collection that brings together many years of thoughtful cultural analysis. Marybeth and David Baggett offer much timeless wisdom about our changing world in these pages." - Philip Tallon, author of The Absolute Basics of the Christian Faith

Telling Tales: Intimations of the Sacred in Popular Culture

Moral Apologetics Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Baggett, David. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Baggett, David

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Baggett, David. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Moral Argument: A History

The Moral Argument: A History

The Good, the Right, and the Real: Is Value a Fact?

The Good, the Right, and the Real: Is Value a Fact?

Good God: The Theistic Foundations of Morality

Good God: The Theistic Foundations of Morality

God and Cosmos: Moral Truth and Human Meaning

God and Cosmos: Moral Truth and Human Meaning

The Morals of the Story: Good News About a Good God

Telling Tales: Intimations of the Sacred in Popular Culture