Re: Request for citations on types of religious belief

Jonathan Clarke (jdac@alphalink.com.au)
Thu, 01 Oct 1998 09:52:33 +1000

Ted Davis wrote in part:

> A recent exchange I have had elsewhere with theologian Phil Hefner leads me
> to suspect that the following words may *not* being used to mean the same
> things in different professional communities (e.g., theology, history of
> science, intellectual history, philosophy):
>
> theism
> deism
> pantheism
> panentheism
>
> Interested parties are requested to send me, off-board, full bibliographic
> references to articles/monographs/scholarly reference works containing
> definitions, either explicit or implicit, of one or more of the terms listed
> above.

I have found the following work invaluable in its discussion of the nature of,
and differences between, theism and deism.

Hooykaas, R 1959. Natural Law and Divine Miracle. E. J. Brill, Leiden. 237
p.

Hooykaas also used the very useful term "semi-deism" to cover those who argue
that God must periodically intervene in nature, that such interventions are, by
their nature, inexplicable, and are evidenced as gaps in the natural order.
Sounds familiar?

Regards

Jonathan