The Untamed God: A Philosophical Exploration of Divine Perfection, Simplicity, and Immutability
"Jay W. Richards'sThe Untamed Godis a commendably clear, well-researched introduction to the power of essentialist metaphysics to help us think clearly and correctly about God. It models well the ways philosophy and theology both support and balance each other. Allies and opponents of his views will join their own debates with greater precision and fruitfulness for having worked through his book." (W. Jay Wood, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Wheaton College)"Using the robust new tools of Christian analytic philosophy, Jay Richards offers a power model of God. It reflects biblical teaching, fits deep intuitions and conserves traditional themes. Yet it carefully updates traditional notions and so provides a compelling alternative to contemporary views of God that stray from biblical  moorings. This is just the kind of contribution analytic philosophers ought to make to theology. I greatly appreciate this book." (David K. Clark, Professor of Theology, Bethel Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota)"Jay Richards's book is an important contribution to the much-needed but almost nonexistent dialogue between theologians and analytic philosophers of religion. Equally well-informed and sure- footed in both disciplines, Richards's discussion is at every point accurate and perceptive. He takes note of an important cluster of problems within the classical concept of God and, after a careful analysis of the solutions offered by Karl Barth and Charles Hartshorne, develops a solution of his own in which he skillfully employs the contributions of the analytic philosophers.   It's a book I will want to come back to! (Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology, Yale University)"The renaissance of Christian philosophy which has come  about during the last forty years has gone largely unnoticed or  been ignored by the contemporary generation of systematic   theologians. There are signs that the dividing wall of partition  is now at last beginning to break down. Jay Richards seeks to  foster the dialogue between theologians and philosophers with  respect to understanding such traditional attributes of God as  simplicity and immutability. A harbinger of things to come,The Untamed Godis a model of theological and philosophical integration, ably illustrating the usefulness, even  indispensability, of philosophical analysis to the task of  systematic theology." (William Lane Craig, Research Professor of Philosophy, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, La Mirada, California)"The Untamed Godis truly a remarkable book. It combines an exceptionally good, readable survey of technical philosophical issues surrounding modal logic and essentialism with a detailed discussion of theological treatments of issues at the heart of debates about divine perfection, immutability, simplicity, self-existence and sovereignty. Along the way, Richards defends a biblically faithful depiction of the nature of God in the classical tradition that avoids the excesses of open theism on the one hand and the problematic aspects of the classical model on the other. Anyone interested in current debates about these matters will have to interact with this book." (J. P. Moreland, Professor of Philosophy, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University)