médiévale, 2 vols., 2d ed. (Paris, 1944), translated by A. H.
C. Downes as The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy (New York,
1936), emphasizes the assimilation of Greek philosophical
ideas by formative Christian thinkers such as Augustine,
Aquinas, Bonaventura, and Duns Scotus. James D. Collins’s
God in Modern Philosophy (1959; reprint, Westport, Conn.,
1978) examines critically much of the modern debate. In
chapter 8 of Indian Philosophy, 2d ed., vol. 2 (London, 1927,
1931), Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan expounds the main tenets
in the monistic system of S ́an ̇ kara, and, in chapter 9, he con-
trasts these with the theism of Ra ̄ma ̄nuja. Annemarie Schim-
mel’s Gabriel’s Wing: A Study into the Religious Ideas of Sir
Muh:ammad Iqbal (Leiden, 1963) gives a vivid account both
of Islamic thought and culture and of the reevaluation of the
essential tenets of Islam by the poet-philosopher Iqbal; fur-
ther, it provides a comprehensive bibliography.See H. P. Owen’s Concepts of Deity (New York, 1971) for discrim-
inating definitions of attributes of the traditional theistic
God and for contrasts with dominant themes in the work of
six twentieth-century thinkers; this book includes a select
bibliography. The studies by Eric L. Mascall, He Who Is, rev.
ed. (London, 1966), and Existence and Analogy: A Sequel to
“He Who Is” (1949; reprint, New York, 1967), are standby
expositions of theistic issues. Milton K. Munitz’s The Mystery
of Existence: An Essay in Philosophical Cosmology (New York,
1965) is included here for its searching critique of theistic ap-
proaches to mystery.
John Hick’s “Ontological Argument for the Existence of God,”
in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Paul Edwards,
vol. 5 (New York, 1967), is an able exposition of the argu-
ment (with solid bibliography). The specific analyses in The
Ontological Argument, edited by Alvin Plantinga (London,
1940), provide welcome context. John Laird’s Theism and
Cosmology (1940; reprint, Freeport, N.Y., 1969) examines
metaphysical issues relevant to the God of theism. The Cos-
mological Arguments: A Spectrum of Opinion, compiled and
edited by Donald R. Burrill (Garden City, N.Y., 1967), in-
cludes noteworthy excerpts from classical discussions of both
the cosmological and the teleological arguments as well as
commentary by recent and contemporary philosophers. Nat-
ural Theology: Selections, edited with an introduction by
Frederick Ferré (Indianapolis, 1963), is an abridged version
of William Paley’s Natural Theology, or Evidences of the Exis-
tence and Attributes of the Deity Collected from the Appearances
of Nature (London, 1802). The judicious introduction frees
Paley’s underlying teleology from shallow stereotypes. Fred-
erick R. Tennant’s Philosophical Theology, vol. 1, The Soul
and Its Faculties (Cambridge, 1928), and vol. 2, The World,
the Soul, and God (Cambridge, 1930), is probably the most
broadly based, yet closely reasoned, study, to date, issuing in
a teleological theism. The most systematic critique of it is
Delton L. Scudder’s Tennant’s Philosophical Theology (New
Haven, 1940).
For systematic presentation of ethical ideas and their objectivity
in relation to other arguments for God and his attributes,
there are few works that equal William R. Sorley’s Moral Val-
ues and the Idea of God, 3d rev. ed. (Cambridge, 1918). Her-
bert J. Paton’s The Modern Predicament (London, 1955) is
lucid in its exposition and evaluation of the issues evoked by
a moral approach to God’s nature and attributes. Edward H.
Madden and Peter H. Hare’s Evil and the Concept of God
(Springfield, Ill., 1968) finds both traditional and finitistic
theistic explanations of evil inadequate. Edgar S. Brightman’s
A Philosophy of Religion (1940; reprint, Westport, Conn.,
1969) includes a comprehensive survey of philosophic issues,
a brief historical exposition of absolutistic and finitistic the-
ism, and his defense of a “finite-infinite” God. It also pro-
vides an extensive bibliography and a helpful lexicon. John
Hick’s Evil and the God of Love, 2d ed. (London, 1977), ex-
plores traditional and recent accounts of evil and defends an
Irenaean view. S. Paul Schilling’s God and Human Anguish
(Nashville, 1977) stands out for its well-annotated account
of various historical and recent explanations of excess evil as
well as for his own temporalistic theism.
New Sources
Basinger, David. The Case for Freewill Theism. Downers Grove,
Ill., 1996.
Beaty, Michael, ed. Christian Theism and the Problems of Philoso-
phy. Notre Dame, Ind., 1990.
Cowan, Paul, and Paul Moser, eds. The Rationality of Theism.
New York, 2003.
Craig, William Lane, and Quentin Smith, eds. Theism, Atheism,
and Big Bang Cosmology. New York, 1995.
Frame, John. No Other God: A Response to Open Theism. Nashua,
N.H., 2001.
Morris, Thomas. God and the Philosophers: The Reconciliation of
Faith and Reason. New York, 1994.
O’Connor, David. God and Inscrutable Evil: In Defense of Theism
and Atheism. Lanham, Md., 1998.
Smart, J. J. C. and John Haldane. Atheism and Theism. 1996; rpt.
Malden, Mass., 2003.
PETER A. BERTOCCI (1987)
Revised BibliographyTHEOCRACY means “rule by God” and refers to a type
of government in which God or gods are thought to have
sovereignty, or to any state so governed. The concept has
been widely applied to such varied cases as pharaonic Egypt,
ancient Israel, medieval Christendom, Calvinism, Islam, and
Tibetan Buddhism.
The word was first coined in the Greek language
(theokratia) by the Jewish historian Josephus Flavius around
100 CE. Josephus noted that while the nations of the world
were variously governed by monarchies, oligarchies, and de-
mocracies, the polity of the Jews was theocracy. This, he
thought, went back to Moses, who was not attracted by the
model of these other polities and therefore “designated his
government a theocracy—as someone might say, forcing an
expression—thus attributing the rule and dominion to God”
(Against Apion 2.165).
From Josephus’s coinage the term found its way into
modern languages, though most early uses were references
to the government of ancient Israel, and thus faithful to the
original context. The poet John Donne, in a sermon of 1622,
stated that the Jews had been under a theocracy, and the An-9108 THEOCRACY