R.T. Mullins
Philosopher/Theologian
Temporality and Eternity
Nine Perspectives on God and Time
De Gruyter 2022
Is time a creation of God? How can God be considered eternal, if he is responsible for the existence of time? Is God temporal or is he timeless? The relationship between God and time has been an object of inquiry in philosophical and theological traditions around the world for centuries. This volume takes up these and other questions, presenting a range of answers not only as brought forth in European philosophical traditions and in early Christianity, Judaism and Islam, but also positions taken by mediaeval Indian theologians and in the influential traditions of early Buddhism.
Traditionally, discussions have focused on questions such as whether time is a necessary concomitant of God’s existence, or whether time should be identified with God. But there is a further question: did these traditions develop their own unrelated and independent view of God and time? Or are there similarities in their reflections? This volume, with contributions of scholars from various relevant fields, offers a novel approach to these inquiries. When taken as a whole, it provides new momentum to contemplation on an age-old enigma.
The Divine Nature
Personal and A-Personal Perspectives
Routledge (December 2021)
This book is the first systematic treatment of the strengths and limitations of personal and a-personal conceptions of the divine. It features contributions from Jewish, Islamic, Chinese, Indian and naturalistic backgrounds in addition to those working within a decidedly Christian framework.
This book discusses whether the concept of God in classical theism is coherent at all and whether the traditional understanding of some of the divine attributes need to be modified. The contributors explore what the proposed spiritual and practical merits and demerits of personal and a-personal conceptions of God might be. Additionally, their diverse perspectives reflect a broader trend within the analytic philosophy of religion to incorporate various non-Western religious traditions. Tackling these issues carefully is needed to do justice to the strengths and limitations of personal and a-personal accounts to the divine.
The Divine Nature: Personal and A-Personal Perspectives will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of religion and philosophical theology.
Impeccability and Temptation
Understanding Christ’s Divine and Human Will
Routledge (April 2021)
In Christian theology, the teaching that Christ possessed both a human and divine will is central to the doctrine of two natures, but it also represents a logical paradox, raising questions about how a person can be both impeccable and subject to temptation. This volume explores these questions through an analytic theology approach, bringing together 15 original papers that explore the implications of a strong libertarian concept of free will for Christology. With perspectives from systematic theologians, philosophers, and biblical scholars, several chapters also offer a comparative theology approach, examining the concept of impeccability in the Muslim tradition.
Therefore, this volume will be of interest to scholars and graduate students working in analytic theology, biblical scholarship, systematic theology, and Christian-Islamic dialogue.
God and Emotion
Cambridge University Press (15 September 2020)
The book shall examine the emotional life of God with a special focus on love, empathy, and moral judgments. This book focuses on the debate over divine impassibility, and the relationship between emotions and morality. It examines the cognitive nature of emotions in identifying value, and the role emotions play in motivating moral actions. It offers a critical engagement with biblical scholarship on the nature of divine suffering, the book of Hosea, divine love, and divine wrath. It also engages with contemporary psychological research on the nature of empathy.
T&T Clark Handbook of Analytic Theology
T&T Clark Handbooks (February 2021)
This handbook provides theological and philosophical resources that demonstrate analytic theology's unique contribution to the task of theology. Analytic theology is a recent movement at the nexus of theology, biblical studies, and philosophy that marshals resources from the analytic philosophical tradition for constructive theological work. Paying attention to the Christian tradition, the development of doctrine, and solid biblical studies, analytic theology prizes clarity, brevity, and logical rigour in its exposition of Christian teaching.Each contribution in this volume offers an overview of specific doctrinal and dogmatic issues within the Christian tradition and provides a constructive conceptual model for making sense of the doctrine. Additionally, an extensive bibliography serves as a valuable resource for researchers wishing to address issues in theology from an analytic perspective.
Love, Divine and Human: Contemporary Essays in Systematic and Philosophical Theology
T&T Clark; 1 edition (October 31, 2019)
This volume offers an array of newly commissioned essays, addressing the topic of love in the Christian tradition. Drawn from a range of expert theologians and philosophers in contemporary analytic and non-analytic theology, these essays join current debates within the theology of love, and aim to propose new avenues for future research.
Including the last essay written by Marilyn McCord Adams, Love, Divine and Human deals with a rich variety of issues related to divine and human love. The broad scope of the book includes divine transcendence and its methodological bearing on the doctrine of divine love, the nature and scope of divine love, the interrelation between God's love and wrath, the plausibility of an impassable God of love, and the application of various conceptions of divine love to the problem of divine hiddenness, human ethics, and human free will, among other topics. This unified collection of cutting-edge papers will advance discussion for all those focused on the theology of love.
The End of the Timeless God
(Oxford Studies In Analytic Theology) 1st Edition, Kindle Edition
The claim that God is timeless has been the majority view throughout church history. However, it is not obvious that divine timelessness is compatible with fundamental Christian doctrines such as creation and incarnation. Theologians have long been aware of the conflict between divine timelessness and Christian doctrine, and various solutions to these conflicts have been developed. In contemporary thought, it is widely agreed that new theories on the nature of time can further help solve these conflicts. Do these solutions actually solve the conflict? Can the Christian God be timeless? The End of the Timeless God sets forth a thorough investigation into the Christian understanding of God and the God-world relationship. It argues that the Christian God cannot be timeless.
Christian Physicalism?
I have two papers in this volume on philosophical and theological anthropology. The first, "Physicalism, Divine Eternality, and Life Everlasting," is co-authored with R. Keith Loftin. It focuses on issues related to personal identity over time and life after death. The second, "Physicalist Christology and the Two Sons Worry," argues that physicalism cannot avoid the threat of Nestorianism.
Being Saved: Explorations in Human Salvation
In this collection of essays, one will find my paper, "Identity Through Time and Personal Salvation."
The Christian Doctrine of Humanity
In this collection of essays, one will find a paper that I co-authored with Joanna Leidenhag called, "Flourishing in the Spirit: Distinguishing Incarnation and Indwelling for Theological Anthropology."