Ebook: The God of Metaphysics

I've been an admirer of Sprigge's work for going on a decade now, ever since his great book _The Vindication of Absolute Idealism_ (published in 1983) persuaded me that pantheistic/panpsychist absolute idealism was not only still defensible but very probably true.

In this massive work, Sprigge does for philosophical conceptions of God what he did for "existence" in his earlier (and much shorter) _Theories of Existence_. Essentially, he takes the reader on a tour of various philosophically interesting conceptions of God/the Absolute, providing in the process a series of expository chapters (which can be read as standalone essays) on the views of some important philosophers. In some cases (Spinoza, Hegel) these philosophers are well known today, and in others (Green, Royce, Bosanquet) even the names may not be familiar to readers not acquainted with the currently neglected history and development of absolute idealism.

But Sprigge has an overarching motive as well, beyond pure exposition: he wants to respond to the more or less Pascalian charge that metaphysics (and its allegedly rarefied, abstract deity) is incapable of providing genuinely religious motivation. Toward this end he examines, for each of the thinkers he considers, whether (and how far) the metaphysical system at issue is capable of serving as a personal or communal "religion."

As the list of thinkers thus far mentioned indicates, Sprigge's examination is focused largely (and naturally) on absolute idealism. But he also devotes an important chapter to Kierkegaard's criticism of Hegelian Christianity (Kierkegaard playing roughly the role here that Sartre played in _Theories of Existence_), and another to the process philosophy of Whitehead and Hartshorne. And a final chapter sets out the essentials of Sprigge's own pantheistic absolute idealism (which he characterizes as a synthesis of Spinoza and Bradley).

Since Sprigge's outlook is not far from Bradley's (though also influenced strongly by William James's criticisms of Bradleyan idealism), he does not devote a separate chapter to Bradley -- which is too bad for us Bradley fans, but I have to agree that it would have been highly redundant with the chapter setting out Sprigge's own views (not to mention Sprigge's earlier book on James and Bradley). At any rate he more than makes up for Bradley's near-total absence (there are of course brief mentions of him in other chapters) with his exposition of the thought of such (now) lesser-known figures as Green and Bosanquet, which are uniformly clear, informative, and entertaining (Sprigge's mildly puckish sense of humor peeks through here and there). And his chapter on Josiah Royce is probably the single finest essay I have ever read on that American idealist. (His exposition of Spinoza is also excellent and, I think, correct as against some other current interpretations. I am personally less interested in, and less qualified to comment on, his expositions of Hegel and Kierkegaard, but I did find them readable and enjoyable.)

In Sprigge's final analysis, the God of metaphysics does indeed have the power to provide religious motivation. His conclusion will be welcome news to Unitarians (of whom Sprigge is one) and others who associate themselves with some variety of religious liberalism and rationalism, and arguably less welcome to those who are more theologically conservative. I think his conclusion is sound. But whatever one thinks of the outcome of Sprigge's deliberations, this volume is also of great value simply for its exposition of a range of thought too seldom encountered today.

(By the way, since Sprigge does so well at incorporating Jamesian criticisms into a more self-critical absolute idealism, I would have enjoyed seeing a similar treatment of the work of Brand Blanshard, whose nontheistic rationalism is generally associated with absolute idealism but departed from it on several key issues. I think idealism is the stronger for Blanshard's influence as surely as for James's, and -- relevantly here -- I think consideration of Blanshard's criticisms might have helped Sprigge's case at one or two points.)

Highly recommended. Readers on a budget may prefer to wait longingly for a paperback edition, but I gladly bought the hardcover and have had no reason to regret it.