A Selection of Books on the Existence of God - Theist (Revised)

Below I have revised my previous list. This one is much a more thorough list, with a more detailed preamble. I'm certain that there many more scholarly books on the existence of God that are not on this list, but I am unaware of them.

I have mainly included works can be divided into two groups: (1) works that have some historical significance to the debate on the existence of God; and (2) serious recent contributions to the debate. The works are listed chronologically. Most of the earlier works are included because of their historical significance. The more recently published works are included primarily because of their quality and in-depth discussion of the subject. For the most part, I have avoided listing popular works, as these typically lack the quality of more academic works. The works are divided into two columns: theist and atheist/agnostic. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the column with the most works listed is the list of theistic works, partly because theists have been discussing the existence of God in print for much longer than atheists have and partly because a greater number of theistic philosophers are actively interested in the philosophy of religion than atheist philosophers are.

Many atheist philosophers of the early-mid twentieth century tended to assume (erroneously, as it turned out) that philosophy had moved beyond asking questions about God’s existence. This was partly due to the influence of logical positivism (and its less intellectual twin, scientism), which dominated Anglophonic philosophy throughout much of the twentieth century. The debunking of logical positivism in the 1950s saw the unexpected resurrection of theistic philosophy in subsequent decades. Throughout the 60s’, 70s’ and 80s’, theistic philosophers such as John Hick, Alvin Plantinga, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Richard Swinburne, Brian Davies, Bruce R. Reichenbach, Mortimer J. Adler, Keith Ward, William Lane Craig and others dominated the discussion on God’s existence. During this period a handful of atheist and agnostic philosophers (i.e., Wallace I. Matson, Anthony Flew, Anthony Kenny, J.L. Mackie, William L. Rowe, J.J.C. Smart) have kept up with the rise in theistic arguments. More recently, a new generation of atheist and agnostic philosophers (e.g., Graham Oppy, Michael Martin, Kai Neilsen, Richard Gale, Quentin Smith, Nick Trakakis, etc.) have been working to redress the imbalance. Unfortunately their generally high-quality contributions to the philosophy of religion seem to have had little influence among the leading advocates of ‘pop atheism’ (e.g., Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Lawrence Krauss), who still advocate arguments/ideas derived from scientistic and/or positivist philosophies and repeat popular (misinformed) objections to theism derived from Russell and Hume, e.g. the ‘If God caused the universe, then what caused God?’ objection to the cosmological argument.

The list below is far from exhaustive. Other works also have had significant influence on the development of historical atheism, but are not included here largely because they don’t deal with the existence of God in any substantial detail. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the writings of Karl Marx (and other Communists), George Bernard Shaw (and other socialists) and August Comte (and other positivists) largely presuppose the falsity of theism, rather than attempting to argue against it. Similarly, the writings of atheist existentialists Jean-Paul Satre and Albert Camus, and post-modernists like Michel Foucault and others add little to the discussion of  the rationality of belief in God, despite their considerable influence on twentieth century philosophy.

Still more books not included here are the populist, highly-polemical writings of the so-called ‘New Atheists’ (e.g. Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great), largely because these books add nothing of any intellectual interest to the discussion (nor, indeed, do they present anything like a coherent, well-informed critique of theism). Their primary claim to fame is that they have become international best-sellers, due largely to increased attention on (and resentment of) organised religion in the wake of rising Islamic extremism. As such the ‘New Atheism’ would be better termed ‘Pop Atheism’, for it is its popularity in contemporary culture that makes it distinctive. The only New Atheist book that is of philosophical interest is Alex Rosenberg’s The Atheist’s Guide to Reality. It is of interest primarily because it carefully expounds the metaphysical implications of scientism, a philosophy widely believed among pop atheists, though generally rejected by philosophers. (‘Scientism’ is a term used by its critics. Few advocates of scientism actually identify themselves as being advocates of scientism, even though their views fit within the spectrum of ideas commonly identified as ‘scientism’.) Many historically significant theistic writers have, also, written influential works of theology without arguing for the existence of God, e.g. Martin Luther and John Calvin. Others (e.g., Augustine of Hippo) did argue for the existence of God, but their arguments are not well-known or widely-discussed today. Some works deserve note, though they are not listed here, such as C.S. Lewis’ popular works Mere Christianity and Miracles. Instead, some of the more substantial academic texts upon which Lewis drew (i.e., Sorley’s Moral Values and Balfour’s Theism and Humanism) are included in the list. Other popular works of Christian apologetics, e.g. Lee Strobel’s The Case for a Creator, John Lennox’s God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? and Francis Schaeffer’s The God Who Is There and He Is There and He is Not Silent, are not listed either, precisely because they are popular, rather than scholarly works.

Immanuel Kant’s works are included within the list of theistic works (because he was a theist, obviously), even though he is most famous in the philosophy of religion for his critique of the ontological and cosmological arguments and for his scepticism of humans’ ability to rationally know about God. It is largely because of the influence of Kant (and David Hume) that discussion of the cosmological argument and other classical theistic arguments more generally, declined significantly during the nineteenth century. The Kantian moral argument (the only argument Kant advanced for God’s existence) and the Paleyan design argument (advanced by William Paley in his influential Natural Theology) replaced the classical arguments as the most-discussed argument for God’s existence throughout the nineteenth century. Almost all works on the existence of God during this period focus primarily of these two arguments, either to defend or critique them. However, these arguments also later declined somewhat in popularity, as well, due partly to the rise of utilitarianism and Darwinism in the late nineteenth century. In the place of theistic philosophy, a combination of metaphysical naturalism and positivism rose to become the dominant ideology of Western academia. For theists, the main alternative to this paradigm was the anti-realist existentialism of Nietzsche, Sarte, Camus, etc. or (later) the postmodernism of Michel Foucault and others. Many theists (whether consciously or not) also shifted toward the anti-realist philosophies of fideism or the Christian existentialism of Soren Keirkegaard. From the 1920s onward, the logical positivism of the Vienna Circle would go even further, attacking the meaningfulness of metaphysical (including theological) language, and leading to a further decline in discussion of theistic arguments.

Although the general trend during this period (from Kant in the late sixteenth century to the  early twentieth century) was toward a decline of interest in the philosophy of religion, this does not mean that high-quality discussions of the existence of God were not written during this period. In fact, interest in writing works of natural theology seems to have exploded during the nineteenth century. (This is may be explained partly by the considerable increase in the number of publishing companies and partly as a reaction to the rising scepticism of and hostility toward religion by intellectuals in the period.) A number of notable intellects wrote on natural theology during this period, including William Paley, Thomas Chalmers, William Whewell and Franz Brentano. There was also a revival of interest in classical Medieval arguments for the existence of God among some Catholic philosophers during this period. In fact, during the nineteenth century, some Catholic philosophers and theologians, most notably Gaetano Sanseverino, Giovanni Cornoldi, Josef Kllutgen, and Desire-Joseph Mercier (author of A Manual of Scholastic Philosophy), contributed to a revival of Scholasticism, the philosophy that had dominated the Medieval Period. This new brand of Scholasticism came to be known as ‘neo-Scholasticism’ and with it also came increased interest in Scholastic arguments for God’s existence, particularly Thomas Aquinas’ famous ‘Five Ways’ from the Summa Theologiae. The revival of Scholasticism, particularly Thomism, was also reflected in the works of early twentieth-century Catholic philosophers such as Peter Coffey (author of Ontology, or the Theory of Being), Etienne Gilson (author of God and Philosophy and Being and Some Philosophers), Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange (author of God: His Existence and Nature) and Jacques Maritain (author of Approaches to God) and even a few non-Catholic philosophers such as Anglicans E.L. Mascall (author of He Who Is: A Study of Traditional Theism) and F.R. Tennant (author of a two-volume Philosophical Theology). These philosophers enabled the revival of Medieval ideas that influenced prominent twentieth-century Catholic philosophers like Frederick Copleston, Elizabeth Anscombe, Peter Geach, Mortimer Adler, Alasdair MacIntyre, Brian Davies, C. J. F. Williams, John Haldane and others, who worked to re-introduce these ideas into mainstream philosophy.

Another notable event late in this period was the institution of the Gifford Lectures in Scotland in the 1890s. These annual lectures, established by the will of Adam Lord Gifford (died 1887), were intended to "promote and diffuse the study of natural theology in the widest sense of the term — in other words, the knowledge of God." Throughout the twentieth century, the Gifford Lectures have produced a number of notable works on subjects related to the existence of God, including Arthur Balfour’s Theism and Humanism, William Sorely’s Moral Values and the Idea of God, Etienne Gilson’s The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy, Alfred North Whitehead’s Process and Reality, etc.

Despite these contributions, it was not until the late twentieth century that there was a revival of the philosophy of religion within mainstream philosophy, and the works of these philosophers tended to remain on the sideline. However, this began to change with the publications of Antony Flew and Alasdair MacIntyre’s New Essays in Philosophical Theology (1955). The main focus of this volume was to explore the question of whether theological language (i.e, statements about God) could be meaningful. The answer of many of the contributors (still somewhat influenced by the logical positivists' arguments) was negative, but the book nevertheless re-opened discussion of philosophical theology, taking theological questions seriously. It was soon followed, over the next few decades, by an explosion of interest in the philosophy of religion, with dozens of scholarly books (and thousands of articles) being written before the end of the century, more than in any previous period in the history of philosophy. Indeed, the philosophy of religion was one of the fastest-growing areas of philosophy during the late twentieth century, and has continued to grow in the twenty-first.

Due to the work of philosophers such as Bruce R. Riechenbach (author of The Cosmological Argument: A Reassessment), William Lane Craig (author of The Kalam Cosmological Argument and The Cosmological Argument from Plato to Leibniz), Richard Swinburne (author of The Existence of God), Mortimer J. Adler (author of How to Think About God) and others, the cosmological argument, traditionally seen as the central argument for the existence of God, was revived and revitalized in the 1970s and 80s. Since the 1970s, other arguments have also received increased consideration. The ‘argument from consciousness’ has been primarily champion by championed by J.P. Moreland (author of Consciousness and the Existence of God); the ‘argument from reason’ (initially defended by Balfour in Theism and Humanism), has been defended by Alvin Plantinga (author of Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion & Naturalism) and Victor Reppert (author of C.S. Lewis’ Dangerous Idea: In Defence of the Argument from Reason); and the moral argument has been defended by Paul Copan, Mark Linville, C. Stephen Evans (author of Natural Signs and Knowledge of God) and others. A new argument, which first emerged in the 1970s, is the fine-tuning argument, a version of the teleological argument that has been developed and defended by Richard Swinburne, Robin Collins, William Lane Craig, John Polkinghorne and Rodney Holder, among others. This argument has rapidly become a favourite among theistic philosophers and scientists. Versions of the ontological argument have also received increased interest in the writings of Norman Malcolm, Alvin Plantinga, Robert E. Maydole and Daniel A. Dobrowski.

Another area in which interest in the existence of God has grown is in public debates. Public debates over the existence of God were not really popular (or practical) until the twentieth century. The main reason for this was that atheists were quite uncommon up until the twentieth century. Also, atheism had a social stigma attached to it that made public professions of atheism unlikely and uncommon. Strictly speaking David Hume (author of Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion) was not an atheist but a ‘sceptic’. John Stuart Mill’s anti-religious essays (Three Essays on Religion) were published posthumously and George Romanes published his work (A Candid Examination of Theism) under the pseudonym ‘Physicus’. Other atheists were more interested in advancing their own particular secular ideologies (e.g., Karl Marx's communism and Mikhail Bakunin's anarchism) than publicly debating the existence of God.

This began to change in the early twentieth century, when a number of public figures openly avowed atheism/agnosticism. Then public debate became possible and even popular. Figures such as George Bernard Shaw, Clarence Darrow, and Bertrand Russell (on the atheist/agnostic side) and G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis and Frederick Copleston (on the theist side) participated in discussions/debates on God’s existence. Lewis even helped found a debate forum at Oxford called the Socratic Club, where many influential theists (e.g., Elizabeth Anscombe and Basil Mitchell) and atheists (e.g. Anthony Flew) participated in discussions or debates attended by Oxford faculty and students. Unfortunately, the transcripts of many of these debates (if there were any originally) appear to be largely unavailable today. Some presentations and responses were published in journals or books like New Essays on Philosophical Theology. 

In recent decades, debates have become increasingly common, though they vary dramatically in quality – those including ‘new atheists’ like the late Christopher Hitchens being among the poorest quality. Not surprisingly, a number of the best debates have been published in book form, often with commentary by other philosophers. Some of these works are listed below, after the lists of theistic and atheist/agnostic books. The transcripts of a few debates are also available online.

One final point of importance: The almost complete absence of atheistic texts in the ancient and medieval sections of this list may raise a few eyebrows, considering that certain ancient Greek philosophical schools were materialist, just like contemporary atheists, and therefore didn't believe in God - at least not in the sense used by Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Anselm, Avicenna, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, etc., i.e. the God of theism. However, these groups were not atheists in the strict contemporary sense. For example, many Epicrueans (including Epicurus himself) believed in the Greek gods - a belief not incompatible with materialism, since in virtually all polytheistic religions the gods exist as part of the cosmos, in contrast the the God of theism, who is the immaterial creator of the cosmos. Even Lucretius, the ancient philosopher who is most commonly referred to as an 'atheist', was most likely an unorthodox polytheist.

The Stoics held a somewhat different view, for they were typically monotheists, but of a radically different type to Christians, Jews, Muslims, neo-Platonists and Aristotelians. Specifically, Stoics argued for the existence of a material god - a being that is part of the comos like the gods of ancient Greek polytheism, but much more pervasive and powerful, responsible for imposing order on the chaos of the primordial world. In other words, a lot like Plato's Demiurge, only composed of matter. (See this podcast by philosophy professor Peter Adamson for details on Stoic theology.) This Sotic view is also similar to, and may have influenced, Thomas Hobbes' view of god in Leviathan. Hobbes was often criticised in his own time for being an atheist, because he insisted that god had to be a material being. In some respects this criticism was valid, considering that Hobbes conception of god was radically different from those theists around him. Historically, for theists immateriality is an essential characteristic of God and to deny the existence of immaterial being was to deny the existence of God, hence 'atheism', albeit of a highly unorthodox kind.

Apart from the Sotics and Epicureans, it is rare to find extant copies of works by ancient materialists. Even complete works by Sotics and Epicureans are rare, the best known and most widely available Stoic work being the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, a polytheist, and the best known Epicurean work being Lucretius' On the Nature of Things. Whether there were any Stoics or Epicureans who were genuine atheists is hard to tell based on the available evidence.

However, there was one group in ancient philosophy who might be considered agnostics, though again not in the contemporary sense. Contemporary agnostics typically tend to be more like contemporary atheists: that is, they accept, broadly, the same naturalistic/materialistic worldview that atheists accept. They just wish the suspend judgement on whether, in addition to this picture of reality, there might exist a God-like being. While this is not true of all agnostics, it does seem to be the general view. By contrast, the most influential group of ancient sceptics, known at the time as 'Academics' because of their association with Plato's Academy, would have considered any endorsement of naturalism/materialism as being far too dogmatic. Such a metaphysical worldview, they would point out, contains many unproven and potentially impossible to prove claims. Instead, they would have insisted that the truly wise person should suspend judgement on the matter and most likely have regarded theism and atheism as being philosophical equals. In this sense, they were truer agnostics than most modern agnostics.

A few things to note about the list below: Where the books listed below are available for free on the internet, I have provided weblinks. The most historically significant and/or influential works are in bold. Except for the ‘Debates’ column, the works are listed so that works published at (roughly) the same time are listed next to each other in the columns.

Theistic works:

Organised into pagan, Jewish, Christian and Muslim works (or works about Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars). Works by/on pagan writers are marked with a +, Jewish writers with a #, Christians with a * and Muslims with a ^.

Ancient Period:

+ Plato, Laws (4th-Century B.C.).

+ Plato, Timaeus (4th-Century B.C.)

+ Aristotle, Physics (4^th-Century B.C.)

+ Aristotle, Metaphysics (4^th-Century B.C.)

Late Antique Period:

+ Plotinus, The Enneads (3^rd century A.D.). Particularly the Sixth Ennead.

+ Proclus Lycaeus, Elements of Theology (Mid-Late 5^th century).

* John Philoponus, Against Proclus on the Eternity of the World (529 A.D.)

Early Middle Ages:

* John Scottus Eriugena, Periphyseon (On the Division of Nature) (between 860-867)

^ Al-Farabi, The Gems of Wisdom (Early-Mid 10^th Century).

^ Al-Farabi, The Sources of Questions (Early-Mid 10^th Century).

^ Al-Farabi, The Knowledge of God (Early-Mid 10^th Century).

# Saadia Gaon, The Book of Beliefs and Opinions (933 A.D.)

^ Avicenna (Ibn Sina), ‘The Science of Divine Things’ in The Book of Healing (1027).

11^th Century A.D.:

* Anselm, Monologion (Late 11^th-century).

* Anselm, Proslogion (Late 11^th-century).

^ Al-Ghazahli, The Incoherence of the Philosophers (Late 11^th-century).

12^th Century:

^ Averroes (Ibn Rushd), The Incoherence of the Incoherence (Mid-Late 12^th-century).

# Moses Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed (Late 12^th-century).

13^th Century:

* Bonaventure, The Mind’s Road to God (or The Journey of the Mind into God) (Mid 13^th Century).

* Bonaventure, Commentary on the Sentences of Lombard (Mid 13^th-century).

* Thomas Aquinas, Disputed Questions on the Power of God (Quaestiones disputatae de potential dei) (Mid 13^th Century, completed by 1268).

* Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, Vol. 1: God (Mid 13^th-century, completed 1261-3).

* Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Part 1: God (Mid-Late 13^th-century, composed 1265-73 – never completed).

* John Duns Scotus, A Treatise on God as First Principle (Late 13^th-Century).

Early-Modern Period:

* Marsilio Ficino, Platonic Theology (1474).

* Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, On Being and the One (1495-6).

* Thomas Cajetan, Commentary of St. Thomas' Summa Theologiae (1540).

* Francisco Suarez, Metaphysical Disputations, 28-29 (1597).

* Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy (1641). With criticisms and responses.

* Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism or, A Appeal to the Naturall Faculties of the Minde of Man, whether there be not a God (1655).

* Richard Baxter, The Reasons of the Christian Religion (1667).

* John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689).

* Richard Bentley, The Folly and Unreasonableness of Atheism (1693).

* Samuel Clarke, A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God (1705).

* Gottfried Leibniz, Theodicy (1710).

* George Berkeley, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710).

* George Berkeley, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Pilonous (1713).

* Gottfried Leibniz, The Monadology (1714).

* George Berkeley, Alciphron, or The Minute Philosopher (1732).

* Samuel Colliber, An Impartial Inquiry into the Existence and Nature of God: Being a More Modest Essay towards a more Intelligible Account of the Divine Perfections (1735).

* Thomas Reid (auth.) & Elmer Duncan (ed.), Lectures on Natural Theology (1780/1).

* Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (1781).

# Moses Mendelssohn, Morning Hours, or Lectures on the Existence of God (1785).

* Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason (1788).

* Immanuel Kant, Religion Within the Bounds of Mere Reason (1793).

19^th Century:

* William Paley, Natural Theology, or Evidence of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, collected from the appearances of nature (1802).

* Francois Fenelon, A Demonstration of the Existence and Attributes of God, Drawn from the Knowledge of Nature, From Proofs Purely Intellectual, and from the Idea of the Infinite Itself (William Gilmore, 1811).

* Alex Crombie, Natural Theology; or Essays on the Existence of Deity, and of Providence, and on the Immateriality of the Soul (R. Hunter, 1829).

* William Whewell, Astronomy and General Physics: Considered with Reference to Natural Theology (William Pickering, 1836).

* Thomas Chalmers, On Natural Theology, Volumes 1 and 2 (Robert Carter & Brothers, 1845).

* James Beaven, Elements of Natural Theology (Francis & John Rivington, 1850).

* John Bovee Dods, Immortality Triumphant: The Existence of God and Human Immortality Philosophically Considered and the Truth of Divine Revelation Vindicated (Fowlers & Wells, 1852).

* Stephen Charnock, Discourses Upon the Existence and Attributes of God, Vol. 1 and 2 (Robert Carter & Brothers, 1853).

* Edward Steere, An Essay on the Existence and Attributes of God (Bell and Daldy, 1856).

* Luther Lee, Natural Theology or, the Existence, Attributes and Government of God (Wesleyan Methodist Publishing House, 1866).

* Charles E. Lord, Evidences of Natural and Revealed Theology (J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1869).

* William Jackson, The Philosophy of Natural Theology: An Essay in Confutation of the Scepticism of the Present Day (Hodder & Stoughton, 1874).

* John Bascom, Natural Theology (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1880).

* George Park Fisher, Manual of Natural Theology (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1893).

* William George Ward, Essays on the Philosophy of Theism, Volumes 1 and 2 (Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1881, 1884).

* William D. Wilson, The Foundations of Religious Belief: The Methods of Natural Theology Vindicated Against Modern Objections (D. Appleton & Company, 1883)

* M. Valentine, Natural Theology or, Rational Theism, 2nd edition (John C. Buckbee & Co., Publishers, 1885).

* Richard F. Clarke, The Existence of God: A Dialogue, in Three Essays (Catholic Truth Society, 1887).

* Franz Brentano, On the Existence of God: Lectures given at the Universities of Warzburg and Vienna (1868-1891) (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1987).

* Bernard Boedder, Natural Theology – Manuals of Catholic Philosophy (Longmans, Green & Co., 1891).

* James Houghton Kennedy, Natural Theology and Modern Thought: The Donnellan Lectures, Delivered before the University of Dublin, 1888-9 (Hodder & Stoughton, 1891).

* G.G. Stokes, Natural Theology, Vol. 1: Being the Gifford Lectures Delivered Before the University of Edinburgh in 1891 (Adam and Charles Black, 1891).

* G.G. Stokes, Natural Theology, Vol. 2: Being the Gifford Lectures Delivered Before the University of Edinburgh in 1893 (Adam and Charles Black, 1893).

* George Park Fisher, Manual of Natural Theology (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1893).

* Arthur James Balfour, The Foundations of Belief: Being Notes Introductory to the Study of Theology (Longmans, Green & Co., 1895).

* William Wallace, Lectures and Essays on Natural Theology and Ethics (Clarendon Press, 1898).

20^th Century:

* Francis Aveling, The God of Philosophy (Sands & Company, 1906).

* Arthur James Balfour, Theism and Humanism: Being the Gifford Lectures Delivered at the University of Glasgow in 1914 (Hodder & Stoughton, 1915).

* Cardinal Desire-Joseph Mercier, A Manual of Scholastic Philosophy, Vol. 2: Natural Theology (Theodicy), Logic, Ethics, History of Philosophy, translated by Peter Coffey (Kegan Paul, Trench, Turner & Co., Ltd., 1916 & 1917).

* Leander S Keyser, A System of Natural Theism (German Literary Board, 1917).

* W.R. Sorley, Moral Values and the Idea of God: The Gifford Lectures Given in the University of Aberdeen in 1914 and 1915 (Cambridge University Press, 1918).

* G. H. Joyce, Principles of Natural Theology (Longmans, Green & Co., 1923).

* F.R. Tennant, Philosophical Theology, Vol. 1: The Soul & Its Faculties (Cambridge University Press, 1928).

* F.R. Tennant, Philosophical Theology, Vol. 2: The World, the Soul and God (Cambridge University Press, 1930).

* A.E. Taylor, The Faith of a Moralist: Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of St. Andrews, 1926-1928, Series 1 – The Theological Implications of Morality (Macmillan and Co., 1930).

* A.E. Taylor, The Faith of a Moralist: Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of St. Andrews, 1926-1928, Series 2 – Natural Theology and Positive Religion (Macmillan and Co., 1930).

* Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, God: His Existence and Nature (St. Louis University Press, 1934).

* Etienne Gilson, God and Philosophy (Yale University Press, 1941).

* E.L. Mascall, He Who Is: A Study of Traditional Theism (Longman, Green & Co., 1943).

* A.E. Taylor, Does God Exist? (Macmillan, 1947).

* Henri Renard, The Philosophy of God (Bruce Publishing Company, 1951).

* Celestine Bittle, God and His Creatures (Bruce Publishing Company, 1953).

* Jacques Maritain, Approaches to God (Harper & Bros., 1954).

* Stuart C. Hackett, The Resurrection of Theism: Prolegomena to Christian Apology (Roger Wasson Company, 1957).

* Maurice Holloway, An Introduction to Natural Theology (Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1959).

* G. E. M. Anscombe and P. T. Geach, Three Philosophers: Aristotle, Aquinas, Frege (Basil Blackwell, 1961).

* John Hick, The Existence of God (Macmillan, 1964).

* Alvin Plantinga, The Ontological Argument from St. Anselm to Contemporary Philosophers (Doubleday & Company, 1965).

* Charles Hartshorne, Anselm’s Discovery: A Re-Examination of the Ontological Proof for God’s Existence (Open Court Publishing, 1965).

* Charles Hartshorne, A Natural Theology for Our Time (Open Court Publishing, 1966).

* John Hick, Evil and the God of Love (Palgrave Macmillan, 1966).

* Alvin Plantinga, God and Other Minds: A Study of the Rational Justification of Belief in God (Cornell University Press, 1967).

* David Burrill, The Cosmological Argument (Doubleday & Co., 1967).

* John Hick, Arguments for the Existence of God (Herder and Herder, 1971).

* Bruce R. Reichenbach, The Cosmological Argument: A Reassessment (Charles C. Thomas, 1972). Related article here.

* Dennis Bonnette, Aquinas’ Proofs for God’s Existence: St. Thomas Aquinas on: “The per accidens necessarily implies the per se” (Martinus Nijhoff, 1972).

* Alvin Plantinga, God, Freedom and Evil (William B. Eerdman Publishing, 1974).

* Alvin Plantinga, The Nature of Necessity (Oxford University Press, 1978).

* Hans Kung, Does God Exist? An Answer for Today (SCM Press, 1978).

* William Lane Craig, The Kalam Cosmological Argument (Macmillan, 1979).

* William Lane Craig, The Cosmological Argument from Plato to Leibniz (Macmillan, 1980).

+ Mortimer J. Adler, How to Think About God: A Guide for the 20^th-Century Pagan (Macmillan, 1980).

* Keith Ward, Rational Theology and the Creativity of God (Basil Blackwell, 1982).

* Stephen T. Davis, Logic and the Nature of God (Macmillan, 1983).

* Donald Wayne Viney, Charles Hartshorne and the Existence of God (State University of New York Press, 1985)

* Brian Hebblethwaite, The Ocean of Truth: A Defence of Objective Theism (Cambridge University Press, 1988).

* Barry Miller, From Existence to God: A Contemporary Philosophical Argument (Routledge, 1992).

* Richard Taylor, Metaphysics, 4^th edition (Prentice Hall, 1992). Excerpt here.

* Richard Swinburne, The Coherence of Theism, Revised Edition (Clarendon Press, 1993).

* David Braine, The Reality of Time and the Existence of God: The Project of Proving God’s Existence (Clarendon Press, 1993).

^ Ian Richard Netton, Allah Transcendent: Studies in the Structure and Semiotics of Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Cosmology (Routledge, 1994).

* Gerard Hughes, The Nature of God (Routledge, 1995).

* Barry Miller, A Most Unlikely God: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Nature of God (University of Notre Dame Press, 1996).

* Stephen T. Davis, God, Reason & Theistic Proofs (Edinburgh University Press, 1997).

Norman Kretzmann, The Metaphysics of Theism: Aquinas’s Natural Theology in Summa Contra Gentiles I (Clarendon Press, 1997).

* Christopher F.J. Martin, Thomas Aquinas: God and Explanations (Edinburgh University Press, 1997). Excerpt here.

* John Polkinghorne, Belief in God in an Age of Science (Yale University Press, 1998).

* Stephen R.L. Clark, God, Religion and Reality (SPCK, 1998).

21^st Century:

* John F. Wippel, The Metaphysical Thought of Thomas Aquinas (Catholic University of America Press, 2000).

* David Conway, The Rediscovery of Wisdom: From Here to Antiquity in Search of Sophia (Macmillan, 2000).

* Alvin Plantinga, Warranted Christian Belief (Oxford University Press, 2000).

* William Lane Craig & J.P. Moreland (eds.), Naturalism: A Critical Analysis (Routledge, 2000).

* W. Norris Clarke, The One and the Many: A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics (University of Notre Dame Press, 2001).

* William C. Rea, Word Without Design: The Ontological Consequences of Naturalism (Oxford University Press, 2002).

* William F. Vallicella, A Paradigm Theory of Existence: Onto-Theology Vindicated (Springer-Science+Business Media, 2002).

^ Cafer S. Yaran, Islamic Thought on the Existence of God: Contributions and Contrasts with Western Philosophy of Religion (Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2003).

* J.P. Moreland & William Lane Craig, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (Intervarsity Press, 2003).

* Paul Copan and Paul K. Moser (eds.), The Rationality of Theism (Routledge, 2003).

* Stephen M. Barr, Modern Physics and Ancient Faith (Notre Dame University Press, 2003).

* Ralph M. McInerny, Characters in Search of the Author – The Gifford Lectures, Glasgow, 1999-2000 (University of Notre Dame, 2003).

* Victor Reppert, C.S. Lewis’ Dangerous Idea: In Defence of the Argument from Reason (Intervarsity Press, 2003).

* Richard Swinburne, The Existence of God, 2^nd edition (Clarendon Press, 2004).

* Paul Copan & William Lane Craig, Creation Out of Nothing: A Biblical, Philosophical and Scientific Exploration (Baker Books, 2004).

* Rodney D. Holder, God, the Multiverse and Everything (Ashgate, 2004).

* George P. Rocca, Speaking the Incomprehensible God: Thomas Aquinas on the Interplay of Negative and Positive Theology (Catholic University of America Press, 2004).

* John Foster, The Divine Lawmaker: Lectures on Induction, Laws of Nature and the Existence of God (Clarendon Press, 2004).

^ Jaferhusein I. Laliwala, Islamic Philosophy of Religion: Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy (Sarup & Sons, 2005).

* James Sennett and Douglas Groothius’ (eds.) In Defense of Natural Theology: A Post-Humean Assessment (Intervarsity Press, 2005).

* Daniel A. Dobrowski, Rethinking the Ontological Argument: A Neoclassic Theistic Response (Cambridge University Press, 2006).

* Alexander R. Pruss, The Principle of Sufficient Reason: A Reassessment (Cambridge University Press, 2006).

* Peter van Inwagen, The Problem of Evil (Clarendon Press, 2006).

* Brian Davies, The Reality of God and the Problem of Evil (Continuum, 2006).

* W. Norris Clarke, The Philosophical Approach to God: A New Thomistic Perspective (Fordham University Press, 2007).

* Mark R. Nowacki, The Kalam Cosmological Argument for God (Barnes & Noble, 2007).

* Timothy O’Connor, Theism and Ultimate Explanation: The Necessary Shape of Contingency (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008).

* Owen Anderson, The Clarity of God’s Existence: The Ethics of Belief after the Enlightenment (Wipf & Stock, 2008).

* Edward Feser, The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism (St. Augustine’s Press, 2008).

* William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics, 3^rd edition (Crossway Books, 2008). Excerpt here.

* J.P. Moreland, Consciousness and the Existence of God: A Theistic Argument (Routledge, 2008).

* Dean L. Overman, A Case for the Existence of God (Rowan & Littlefield, 2009). Excerpt here.

* William Lane Craig & J.P. Moreland (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009). Excerpts here, here, here, here, here, and here.

* Robert C. Koons & George Bealer (eds.), The Waning of Materialism (Oxford University Press, 2010).

* C. Stephen Evans, Natural Signs and Knowledge of God: A New Look at Theistic Arguments (Oxford University Press, 2010).

* Robert J. Spitzer, New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy (William B. Eerdmans, 2010).

* Alvin Plantinga, Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion & Naturalism (Oxford University Press, 2011).

* Mortimer J. Adler (auth.) & Ken Dzugan (ed.), How to Prove there is a God: Mortimer J. Adler’s Writings and Thoughts About God (Open Court, 2011).

* Emanuel Rutten, Towards a Renewed Case for Theism: A Critical Assessment of Contemporary Cosmological Arguments (Vrije Universiteit, 2012).

* David Bentley Hart, The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss (Yale University Press, 2013).

* Benjamin C. Jantzen, An Introduction to Design Arguments (Cambridge University Press, 2014).

* Gaven Kerr, Aquinas’ Way to God: The Proof in De Ente et Essentia (Oxford University Press, 2015).

* Edward Feser, Five Proofs of the Existence of God (Ignatius Press, 2017).

Debates:

* Antony Flew & Alisdair MacIntyre (eds.), New Essays in Philosophical Theology (Macmillan, 1955).

* Bertrand Russell & Fredrick Copleston, “A Debate on the Existence of God.” In The Existence of God, John Hick, ed. (Macmillan, 1964).

* J.P. Moreland & Kai Nielsen, Does God Exist? The Debate Between Atheists and Theists (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990).

* William Lane Craig & Quentin Smith, Theism, Atheism and Big Bang Cosmology (Oxford University Press, 1993).

* Stan W. Wallace (ed.), William Lane Craig & Anthony Flew, Does God Exist? The Craig-Flew Debate (Ashgate Publishing, 2003).

* Richard M. Gale & Alexander R. Pruss, The Existence of God (Ashgate Publishing, 2003).

* J.J.C. Smart & J.J. Haldane, Atheism & Theism, 2^nd edition (Blackwell Publishing, 2003). Excerpts here and  here.

* William Lane Craig & Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, God? A Debate Between a Christian and an Atheist (Oxford University Press, 2004).

* Robert Stewart (ed.), The Future of Atheism: Alister McGrath and Daniel Dennett in Dialogue (Fortress Press, 2008).

* Alvin Plantinga & Michael Tooley, Knowledge of God (Blackwell Publishing, 2008).

* Robert K. Garcia & Nathan L. King (eds.), Is Goodness without God Good Enough? A Debate on Faith, Secularism, and Ethics (Rowan & Littlefield, 2009).