Omnisubjectivity : an essay on God and subjectivity

Author / Creator

Zagzebski, Linda Trinkaus, 1946- author

Available as

Online

Physical

Summary

"This book explains and defends the idea that the God of the monotheistic religions has the property of omnisubjectivity, the property of perfectly grasping every conscious state of every conscious...

"This book explains and defends the idea that the God of the monotheistic religions has the property of omnisubjectivity, the property of perfectly grasping every conscious state of every conscious being from the first- person perspective of the subject. God not only knows all objective facts, such as the fact that someone is in pain, but God is present in the pain, grasping it the way the bearer of the pain grasps it. The book argues that this attribute is entailed by omniscience, omnipresence, divine love, and divine justice, and it is presupposed in common practices of prayer. Three models of omnisubjectivity are described: the empathy model, the perceptual model, and panentheism. The book then defends the idea that omnisubjectivity extends to the possible but non-actual conscious states of all possible conscious beings. God grasps all possible subjective states in his imagination. The book then shows how the Christian form of the attribute of omnisubjectivity affects the doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the infusion of the Holy Spirit. The book concludes that subjectivity and intersubjectivity are deep in the universe, deeper than the universe as it is objectively described"--

Show More