Worship and Command of Faith within the Framework of Theological Voluntarism: Maimonides and Crescas
Sleptsova Valeriya Valerievna
The Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences
Submitted: 14.11.2020
Abstract. The study aims to prove that faith as a voluntary act cannot be a command due to an issue arising within the divine command theory (DCT). This issue was explicated in the article "I can’t make you worship me" by the prominent religious philosophers Campbell Brown and Yujin Nagasawa, published in the journal "Ratio" in 2005, and it consists in the fact that it is impossible to combine the DCT and moral obligation to worship the God. It is proved that the critical approach proposed by C. Brown and Yu. Nagasawa is applicable not only to worship but also to the command of faith. Scientific novelty of the research lies in utilising a number of texts by the medieval Jewish philosophers in the analysis and considering them through the lens of the methods belonging to modern analytical philosophy of religion so that the author can provide arguments to support her position. As a result of the study, the idea that there are a number of human actions that cannot be commanded under the DCT was substantiated.
Key words and phrases: вера, Крескас, Маймонид, теологический волюнтаризм, философия иудаизма, faith, Crescas, Maimonides, theological voluntarism, Judaic philosophy
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