How to Think About God: A Guide for the 20th-Century Pagan Book

Mortimer Adler was a University of Chicago Professor of Philosophy and one of the founders of the Great Books Foundation. Jewish by background but not practicing any religion, Adler examined the classical philosophers, and especially St. Thomas Aquinas, to tackle the great questions, does God exist, and if so, what is He? In doing so, Adler approached the problem, not from the perspective of theology or science, but from pure rationalism. In doing so, Adler asks many profound and important questions that are important, not just for the 20th Century Pagan, but for all of us.

Many of us may find it silly to ask the question what is God. After all, many of us have mental images of God, images that I like to call the "cartoon God". Perhaps we see God as an old man in the clouds passing judgment on the earth. Perhaps our God is a divine Santa Claus who gives us stuff that we ask Him. Some theologians encourage us to think of God as our Mother. All of these are caricatures and limit our imaginations when it comes to God. Even Jesus' own teaching that we should address God as "Our Father" falls short in this respect. Although the image of God as Father is a wonderful portrayal of our relationship with God, the fact is that God is much more than any human father ever could be.

In this book, Adler encourages us to step out of our comfort zone and examine the philosophical concept of God. In order to do this, we must examine the nature of being itself. What gives reality its shape? When we consider the world around us, we see not just quantities of objects but qualities as well. We see beauty and recognize that some things are more beautiful than others. We see complexity and realize that some things are complex and others are simple. So what does perfect simplicity look like? What is the perfection of beauty? The Bible speaks of God in such superlative terms. When God introduced Himself to Moses at the burning bush, he referred to Himself as "I AM". This is not to say that God merely exists, but rather it means that God encompasses all existence, and that nothing exists without Him. Similarly, in the Prologue to St. John's gospel, Jesus is described as "The Word", not just because He has a name, but because He is the meaning behind all words, that without Him no word makes any sense at all. Finally, when the Pharisees addressed Jesus as "Good Teacher", Jesus asks them, "why do you call me good? There is nobody good except God." By this Jesus doesn't mean that there is no good in the universe but God, but rather that all goodness has God for its source, and that there is no good except from God.

If we consider that all things that are have a beginning and an end, then we must consider what is the origin of the cosmos. Now, many philosophies and scientists believe that the cosmos has no beginning. But if they do, then they must concede that Something gave shape to the world. This is one of the sticky points behind the Big Bang Theory. If you believe in the Big Bang Theory then you must believe that something caused the Big Bang. But what was it? What started the process of explosion and creation? It must be something that itself had no beginning. Furthermore, if you feel that the universe was created for a purpose, then that purpose must come from somewhere. It comes from a source beyond all purpose, a Primary Cause if you will. That is the thing that we call God.

Adler points out that it is very tricky to prove the existence of God, because since God is the Primary Purpose and Primary Cause, then any argument made from causality begs the questions about God's existence. In fact, I believe that it is impossible to prove the existence of God the way that you can prove that the squares of the two legs of a right triangle add up to the square of the hypotenuse. This is why faith is a virtue, and to receive it is a blessing. But it is possible to explore the possibility of God through rationalism alone. Adler does so in this book and gives the reader plenty to think about.

This is a very short and very easy to read book. Even if you have never taken a philosophy class in your life, you should understand Adler's arguments. I would highly recommend this book, not just for philosophers or for "pagans", but for believers as well.