Theistic finitism, the position that God is not omnipotent, is the most tenable solution to the problem of evil—but it also necessitates a slide toward immanence. Among the ranks of the finitists we find philosophers such as William James,2 process thinkers such as Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne,3 theological personalists such as Edgar Brightman (and, Rufus Burrow argues, his pupil Martin Luther King, Jr.),4 feminist disability theologians like Julia Watts Belser,5 and popular religion writers such as Harold Kushner.6 Like many others, Kushner found in finitism not an answer to an abstract theological puzzle, but an existentially necessary salve for the despair that nearly overtook him when his three year-old son was diagnosed with a terminal degenerative disease. No loving, all-knowing, all-powerful creator would ever allow such a thing to happen, Kushner reasoned. If God is not all-powerful, then God need not be the author of...
The Note of Interpretation: Theistic Finitism as an Aesthetics of Religious Naturalism
Andrew Stone Porter is Visiting Assistant Professor of Theology and Religious Studies and Louisville Institute Postdoctoral Fellow at Bellarmine University. His work has appeared in the Journal of Religious Ethics, the American Journal of Theology and Philosophy, The Other Journal, and the Political Theology Network. His dissertation and current book project considers “interdependence” as an ambiguous and necessary normative value for social ethics. He lives in Louisville with his partner Shannon and their three children.
Andrew Stone Porter; The Note of Interpretation: Theistic Finitism as an Aesthetics of Religious Naturalism. American Journal of Theology & Philosophy 1 January 2023; 44 (1): 70–94. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/21564795.44.1.04
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