As the provocative title is meant to imply, this is a book about God’s existence. Fortunately, it stops at “…for God” because what Patrick Flynn wrote is meant to be so much more. In The Best Argument for God, Flynn seeks to present a holistic, general-reader, academ-ish account of classical theism, which is the view that God contains characteristics that include omnipotence, omniscience, transcendence and immutably, etc. and, most importantly, that God is utterly simple, His essence is His existence. In presenting the philosophical case for classical theism, Flynn shows that “what God is” is just as important as “that God is” because these two answers explain each other.
In the title of the first chapter, Flynn shows readers exactly how ambitious this project is—he is only “On the Hunt for Ultimate Explanation.” However, this is exactly what the case for classical theism, especially one that emphasizes divine simplicity, provides in a non-arbitrary manner. It is not that one gets to shoehorn “God” into an explanation when one digs down deep enough. In fact, classical theism is not only the opposite of the “purely materialist naturalism” pseudo-solution, this “god-in-the-gaps” reasoning that is so often criticized by atheists, but it is the very cure for it.
In order to find this ultimate explanation, the book covers movement, and therefore the Prime Mover argument as understood by Aristotle and Aquinas’s “first way,” as well as the principle of sufficient reason, which includes sections of contingency and necessity. There is lengthy space devoted to worldview comparison between philosophical naturalism and classical theism with smatterings of divine psychology as he tackles the questions and objections related to why God would create at all and why God would create (or allow for) evil.
Flynn seeks to show through reason that God creates out of love. Here, he repackages the taken-for-granted elements of Christian revelation to show their philosophical reasonability. Flynn is able to take the already demonstrated presuppositions from earlier in the book about God’s nature and apply them to God’s reason for creating. While Christians can certainly point to divine revelation for confirmation of this, when engaging with those who question the possibility of divine revelation, as one who doubts God’s existence would, it is essential to be able to use argumentation that need not rely on this revelation.
Though it is less likely to be questioned today than years passed, one could respond “so what?” to what is seemingly a purely intellectual exercise. While this sentiment would be reductive and misguided, Flynn still does provide some practical implications to one’s answer of the God question. These implications are clear in his chapters on morality and human nature (“Beings Like Us”).
In “Morality,” he gives a relatively succinct treatment to the common “good without God” debate. Here, he shows that the metaphysical grounding for what God is, especially God’s omnibenevolence or all-goodness, are intrinsically tied to anyone’s moral foundation even if that person claims to have no faith in God.
In “Beings Like Us,” he shows the uniqueness of human thinking, rationality, and how insufficient a purely naturalist conception of reality is for explaining it. Just like something cannot come from nothing, so too can meaning not come from meaninglessness. Flynn shows that our minds, our “meaning makers,” must come from a Mind that literally makes everything meaning-full.
Those familiar with Flynn’s other work know the depth and intricacy with which he tackles philosophical subjects. This book is not for the faint of heart or mind when it comes to intellectual engagement on the questions related to God’s existence and essence.
What follows might be the harshest criticism I have of the book. It is not the length or the depth of the book, but the accessibility for what is meant to be a broad audience. One should build up the reader to reach these philosophical heights, and this is a topic that the wider Christian body needs to engage with on a much more thoughtful level in order to make a serious case to intellectual, philosophically naturalist objections. However, scaffolding needs to be provided in order for this construction. This could have been done by more clarification of jargon, bulleted reviews of the syllogisms, and more digestible chapters.
A final positive, albeit miscellaneous, note is worth including. There has been no shortage of engagement on the question of God’s existence in this generation, especially on the internet. Flynn has mined gems from a strong combination of ancient and contemporary sources in presenting his case for classical theism. Chapters are replete with footnotes and citations that supplement readers’ understanding and point them to further exploration on a concept. There is always more one can say, and Flynn gives the reader plenty of voices to hear.
One of the most demanding and satisfying things about proposing and working through philosophical questions is how one is tempted to jump to the new question that appears as one is still working through the previous one. While trying simultaneously to complete one small circle, one finds it has begun closing around an entirely new circle, creating links in a chain. It can be frustrating to never finish that first circle but exciting to see how big the chain gets. As Flynn concludes each argument about specific questions related to God, His essence, His creative acts, and His will, one finds that they are all contributing toward one big argument, which just so happens to be the best one.
Editor’s Note: This article was inspired by The Best Argument for God by Patrick Flynn, available from Sophia Institute Press.
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