Keith Ward, a theologian for today Anthony Redmond
My Theology: Personal Idealism by Keith Ward (Darton, Longmann & Todd, (£8.99 / €12.59)
Keith Ward was Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University. He is an ordained priest in the Church of England. He has written over 20 books on various aspects of philosophy and theology and is regarded as an important Christian apologist refuting the so-called new atheists. I have seen him interviewed many times on television and he comes across as a down-to-earth man with a sense of humour who speaks in a manner understandable to the average intelligent person.
His latest book, My Theology: Personal Idealism, is an easy-to-read work that makes us think.
Keith Ward is an Idealist in that he believes in mind and consciousness and freewill. He opposes the atheist view that we are merely determined, programmed robots devoid of freewill. He believes in objective, self-vindicating moral values which couldn’t exist without the reality of a transcendent God.
Atheist
Roughly stated, the atheist believes (if he or she puts their beliefs into practice) that a human being is merely a complicated machine, completely determined by forces outside his control. And, of course, a machine has no spiritual dimension. In a world of machines there can be no absolute moral or aesthetic values. As Ivan Karamazov says: “If God does not exist, then everything is permitted.”
If the atheists and determinists are right and God does not exist then we are not free to choose, and we are not responsible for our actions. All praise and condemnation become meaningless. There would be no objective moral difference between Hitler and Mother Teresa. Both are enslaved by forces outside their control. Even an atheist cannot live by this philosophy. The atheist’s life is usually a contradiction of this belief. Atheists like Sartre and Camus opposed Nazism as a great evil.
Keith Ward believes in an infinitely compassionate, loving God. He doesn’t appear to believe in an eternal Hell where the sinful are tortured and punished for all eternity.
Crucial
He writes: “A crucial feature of the Gospels is Jesus’ teaching that he came to find those who were lost in hatred and greed (in ‘sin’) and invite them to turn again to the God who always wishes for their liberation and fulfilment. The parable of the Prodigal Son teaches that anyone who wishes, if only after long and bitter experience, to turn from hatred to love, will be met with joy by God, who will empower them to do so. There is judgment on those who have caused immense harm and frustrated the purposes of God. There is punishment, though that is not a set penalty imposed by God, whatever the consequences for them. If God is indeed good, punishment will be corrective, intended to bring them to turn back from evil and accept the liberating power of the spirit.
“And punishment will be self-imposed, not torture by God (no loving God could torture anyone), but the regret and bitterness of finding themselves in the company of those who are filled with hate and greed, now exposed in its full destructive power, and shut out from joy and true friendship.”
I think this is quite powerful. When we come face to face with God, we will realise our own imperfections and sinfulness and that realisation will be quite a punishment. We will see ourselves as we really, truly are.
As I was reading Keith Ward’s fascinating book I thought of something the theoretical physicist, Freeman John Dyson, said about human beings and the universe: “It’s as if the universe knew we were coming.” The properties of the universe are such to allow human beings to arrive and evolve. We call this ‘The Anthropic Principle’.
The notion of pure random chance seems utterly preposterous. The belief that morality has no intrinsic value or meaning, is purely subjective and is just a matter of opinion, is not a belief anyone can really live by. It simply doesn’t make sense.
We need people like Keith Ward to encourage our faith and to refute the philosophy of atheism.