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Theism: Problems
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Beyond this vague analogy between Indian theism and the Whiteheadian conception of God, there is a larger and more profound sense in which the two types of panentheism are alike. This involves the rapport, not between God and actuality, but between God and the universal. There is a striking resemblance between the way brahman is related to Isvara and the way creativity is related to God. In the history of Indian thought the problem of relating Brahman and God was the central problem of the Bhagavad Gita. The Gita’s solution was to relate them, as well as the Sankhya absolutes of prakriti and purusha, through the conception of panentheism. The inclusion of prakriti and purusha was necessary due to the early contact of the Bhagavatas with the emerging system of Sankhya-Yoga thought.
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A central contention of process theism is that the problem of evil is aggravated by flawed accounts of omnipotence commonly assumed by theists and their critics. Most theists agree with Aquinas that God cannot bring about logically impossible states of affairs, like creating a circle with unequal radii (Summa Contra Gentiles II, ch. 25, para. 14). This is not, Aquinas argues, a limitation on God but a condition of responsible theological discourse. To say, as Descartes does, that God can make such irregularly shaped circles, is to utter nonsense according to Aquinas (Kenny 1979, 17-20). Whitehead remarks that some medieval and modern philosophers got into the unfortunate habit of paying God “metaphysical compliments” — that is to say, attributing properties to God that seem to make the divine more worthy of devotion but that are contrary to sound metaphysical reasoning (Whitehead 1925, 258).
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The price that orthodoxy was forced to pay for its alliance with theism was twofold. It had to concede to an identification of Vasudeva with the old Vedic god Vishnu... granting the former a place in the orthodox Vedic tradition. The other concession was accepting as orthodox Bhagavat monotheism with its bhakti-oriented form of worship and ethic (12:495). The reconciliation of bhakti with the central concepts of Brahmanic and Upanishadic ethics -- karma and jnana -- is particularly obvious in the Gita. A definitive solution to the problem of the relation of brahman and God is much more difficult to end.
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Part of the problem is that so many Christians have been content to speak of theism as if theism was a good step along the way to Christianity. It is not. Theism more often than not–as it seems to me–allows man to continue in his rebellion against God while maintaining some appearance of reverence. This is Anthony Flew’s condition. His acceptance of some type of theism or deism is not a victory for Christian apologetics but a condemnation.
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Dystheism is a form of theism which holds that God is malevolent as a consequence of the problem of evil. Dystheistic speculation is common in theology, but there is no known church of practicing dystheists.
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