Thomas M Ward

John Duns Scotus (1265-1308), beatified by Pope St. John Paul II in 1993, is widely recognized as one of the most original and influential philosophers and theologians of the Middle Ages. Ordered by Love offers a sympathetic exploration of a wide range of Scotus's thought. Topics covered include his understanding of the relationship between faith and reason, his doctrine of individuation by "haecceity" (thisness), his theory of the univocity of the concept of being, his emphasis on God's freedom and its supposed consequences for moral theory, his defense of Mary's immaculate conception, and his teaching on the primacy of Christ.

John Duns Scotus (1265-1308), beatified by Pope St. John Paul II in 1993, is widely recognized as one of the most original and influential philosophers and theologians of the Middle Ages. Ordered by Love offers a sympathetic exploration of a wide range of Scotus's thought. Topics covered include his understanding of the relationship between faith and reason, his doctrine of individuation by "haecceity" (thisness), his theory of the univocity of the concept of being, his emphasis on God's freedom and its supposed consequences for moral theory, his defense of Mary's immaculate conception, and his teaching on the primacy of Christ.

This Element defends a version of the classical theory of divine ideas, the containment exemplarist theory of divine ideas. The classical theory holds that God has ideas of all possible creatures, that these ideas partially explain why God's creation of the world is a rational and free personal action, and that God does not depend on anything external to himself for having the ideas he has. The containment exemplarist version of the classical theory holds that God's own nature is the exemplar of all possible creatures, and therefore that God's ideas of possible creatures are in some sense ideas of himself. Containment exemplarism offers a monotheism fit for metaphysics, insofar as it is coherent, simple, and explanatorily powerful; and offers a metaphysics fit for monotheism, insofar as it leaves God truly worthy of the unconditional worship which Christians, along with Jews and Muslims, aspire to offer to God.