Johnathan L. Kvanvig describes this book as an exercise in metatheology: an attempt to provide a framework for evaluating competing views about what is fundamental in theology. At the core of Kvanvig’s framework is the idea that ‘starting points’ for theologies ‘generate’ aspects of theologies, to which more must be added in order to arrive at adequate complete theologies.
Kvanvig focuses on three starting points for theology, expressed as claims about divine essence:
(CT) Fundamentally, a god is an asymmetric source of all else.
(WWT) Fundamentally, a god is a being that is maximally worthy of supreme worship.
(PBT) Fundamentally, a god is a supremely perfect being.
In order to assess the adequacy of these starting points, Kvanvig proposes two criteria: first, these starting points should ‘generate’ monotheism, personality, and (maybe) lack of embodiment; and, second, these...
