Reddit mentions of The Soul of the World

Wow, the more you describe, the more I see us having much in common! I would love to see the sights of Rome and medieval Europe. I'm studying Ancient Rome in university right now, and I'm planning on majoring in Medieval Studies, so that will be helpful in giving context to these old European buildings! And I hope you can continue to attend Mass and appreciate the traditions, instead of feeling resentful towards them :)

I do not believe that God is the same as the universe. To reduce some philosophical arguments extremely, God's nature is absolutely simple, not composed of parts. Because God exists necessarily (rather than depending upon anything else in order to exist), there is no way in which God's nature could change. Things that exist in a finite, limited sense (like you, me, a tree, the universe) are defined by the fact that they change, that they have the potential to become something that they are not. I don't exist necessarily, but contingently.

There are definitely a lot of implications that need to be worked out, which I definitely haven't (but I'm pretty sure other philosophers have). I'm not necessarily trying to prove God with this, I'm just giving you a rationale for why I don't think God and the universe are the same. However, I do believe that all things depend on God's existence in order to exist. Because things exist contingently, depending upon things outside of their own existence in order to be, if that is the case with everything in the universe, then nothing could ever come to exist in the first place on its own. As I understand it, there must be some source that is by definition independent of anything (that is, God) that sustains the existence (in an ontological sense) of everything that can't sustain itself. So the relationship that I see between God and the world is that all things come from God (not in the sense that a son comes from a father, in which the former does not cease to exist when the latter dies; more like the way that light comes from a flame, where the blowing out of a flame results in the end of its light), that God has set the laws of nature in motion, and even sustains those laws for all eternity, as everything ultimately depends on God's existence at all times. In this way, I see finite reality to be inherently good, because it has been created by God, and it depends upon God's existence at every moment.

So yes, I very much agree with Thomas Paine. I'm very interested in the topic of aesthetics, and I'd like to read the writings of philosophers like Hegel and Burke on the nature of the sublime that exists in nature. I find creation to be one of the clearest reflections of God's power.

The most influential book that has informed my thinking is The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss by David Bentley Hart. It's an incredible work, a bit difficult to get through at times because it gets kind of technical, but overall it is easy to follow. It's basically a 300+ page definition of God that is found in pretty much all major theistic religious traditions and philosophies. Highly recommended!

One philosopher whose work I love is an Anglican writer named Roger Scruton. He's Anglican, and defends Christianity, but he's not very dogmatic about it; in fact, as far as I know he doesn't believe in the Virgin Birth or the Resurrection. He draws more universal meditations out of Christianity that are more philosophical. He's written a lot of books, has a lot of lectures on YouTube, and is an all-around wonderful human being. My favourite that I have read is The Face of God. Another book that might be of interest is The Soul of the World, though I haven't read it, but I'm sure it's great. I hope this helps!