Keith Ward: Concepts of God

Images of the Divine in Five Religious Traditions

Oneworld 1998 (1987)    Amazon.co.uk

Book description:

Is there a universal concept of God? Do all the great faiths of the world share a vision of the same supreme reality? In an attempt to answer these questions, Keith Ward considers the doctrine of an ultimate reality within five world religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity. He studies closely the works of definitive, orthodox writers from each tradition – Sankara, Ramanuja, Asvaghosa, Maimonides, Al-Ghazzali and Aquinas – to build up a series of ‘images’ of God, a common core of belief. Ward discovers that while the great religious traditions of the world retain their differences, there are convergences of thought at the deepest level, with a broad similarity of structure in concepts of God. He concludes that a recognition of these beliefs, as well as encouraging a clearer acceptance of the mystery of the divine, might also lead to an increase in understanding and tolerance of other faiths, to the enrichment of one’s own.

About the author:

Keith Ward [was] Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University and a Canon of Christ Church. Among his influential books are God, Chance and Necessity, his exploration of the compatibility of a scientific worldview and the existence of a creator God, which was published to widespread critical acclaim in 1996. Also published by Oneworld are Ward’s God, Faith and the New Millennium and In Defence of the Soul.