God and Goodness: A Natural Theological Perspective (Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Religion)

Mark Wynn's "God and Goodness" contains a sustained case for the existence of God and attempts to develop a religiously significant and attractive view of God. Besides for presenting original arguments, Wynn takes careful account of previous work. In Part I, he argues that the existence of God best explains various features of the world, including its beauty, the fine-tuning of natural laws and consciousness: these features are good and, therefore, are more likely to occur if there is a good God than otherwise. In Part II, Wynn responds to the problem of evil: if the goodness of the world confirms the existence of God, its apparent badness seems to disconfirm it. He develops a theodicy, integrating work on higher-order goods theodicies and divine inscrutability. Part III contains a moral case for belief in the existence of God. In particular, belief in the existence of God is good insofar as it contributes to a relationship of trust between oneself and one's parents. The first three parts of the book are original, insightful and carefully argued. Unfortunately, Part IV is disastrous. Here Wynn tries to develop the concept of God in an existentially significant way, and to show how the beauty of the world reflects the beauty of the God. The discussion here is very obscure, if not unintelligible. It's also a pity that the book is so expensive - $125 at the time of writing this review! Wynn's discussion of arguments for the existence of God and the problem of evil will be of great interest to philosophers of religion and philosophy students. Were it not for the final part of the book and its exorbitant price, I would have given it a much higher rating.