Tracing a dialectical path, The Maturing of Monotheism emphasises the plausibility of Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and kindred forms of monotheism and responds to anti-theistic challenges of our day. These include materialism, determinism, the denial of objective value, the pervasiveness of evil, and predictions of human individual and collective extinction. The book reviews traditional metaphysical ways of arguing for monotheism but employs a cumulative, more experiential approach. While agnosticism affects humanity's most basic beliefs, Garth Hallett demonstrates that there remains ample room for rational, theistic faith. Of keen interest to students and researchers alike, The Maturing of Monotheism offers new insights and approaches in this steadily advancing field.

The claim has repeatedly been made, and has often been contested, that a single transcendent being is present or active in all of the world's major religions. In this view, names such as "God," "Allah," "nirvana," "Vishnu," and "Brahman" all refer to the same transcendent reality. Absent from the debate and here provided is a serious study of such claims in the light of the most pertinent philosophical literature, namely that concerning questions of identity and individuation. Of necessity, the terms that the claims employ are very general and abstract: the world's religions, it is said, all refer to the same "thing," "being," or "reality." Although analogy, rightly understood, can back the transcendent extension of descriptive expressions such as "wise," "good," and "powerful," it cannot do likewise for expressions such as "one," "same," and "many." So pluralists' identity claims appear empty. Hallett scrutinizes the soundness of this critique, its broad implications, and the possibility of replacing empty identity claims with suitable parables or comparisons.

The purpose of this book is to examine and explicate a definition given in Philosophical Investigations. The definition of the meaning of a word is that the meaning of a word is its use in the language. Hallet understands this as a definition in the strict sense of the word. In Chapter I, the author look to the Tractatus for its treatment of the picture theory of meaning and the Bedeutung/Sinn distinction. The conclusion which he pulls from the early work is that, for Wittgenstein, meaning was already in a proposition by way of the meaning (Bedeutung) of names (simples). Yet, only in the use or application, i.e. in a proposition with sense (Sinn) is meaning revealed. Although the Tractatus is far from saying that meaning is use, certain guiding themes are elaborated and carried into later works; namely, the search for meaning, the impossibility of meaning outside use, and meaning as revealed by use. Chapter II, III, and especially IV bear the brunt of establishing Hallet's thesis that Wittgenstein presented a significant and sound definition. He begins by showing what Wittgenstein proved meaning not to be: meaning is not images, objects, mental referents, nor feelings. All of these theories have convincing confirmation in certain respects, yet analysis, i.e. observation of the actual working of language, shows each to be too narrow. In making his transition to the true definition, the author shows Wittgenstein elaborating theses that meaning is to be found in the system or context of language (depth grammar). These are elaborated only to be cast aside as were the previous suggestions. The pattern elicited from these examinations is that meaning is use and, hence, defined as such. To explicate the definition, Hallett presents and examines seven characteristics of use: complexity, regularity and utility, abstraction, openness, vagueness, variety, and family resemblances. The book concludes with a consideration of the major objections to Wittgenstein's definition.-The Review of Metaphysics

The claim has repeatedly been made, and has often been contested, that a single transcendent being is present or active in all of the world's major religions. In this view, names such as "God," "Allah," "nirvana," "Vishnu," and "Brahman" all refer to the same transcendent reality. Absent from the debate and here provided is a serious study of such claims in the light of the most pertinent philosophical literature, namely that concerning questions of identity and individuation. Of necessity, the terms that the claims employ are very general and abstract: the world's religions, it is said, all refer to the same "thing," "being," or "reality." Although analogy, rightly understood, can back the transcendent extension of descriptive expressions such as "wise," "good," and "powerful," it cannot do likewise for expressions such as "one," "same," and "many." So pluralists' identity claims appear empty. Hallett scrutinizes the soundness of this critique, its broad implications, and the possibility of replacing empty identity claims with suitable parables or comparisons.

Tracing a dialectical path, The Maturing of Monotheism emphasises the plausibility of Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and kindred forms of monotheism and responds to anti-theistic challenges of our day. These include materialism, determinism, the denial of objective value, the pervasiveness of evil, and predictions of human individual and collective extinction. The book reviews traditional metaphysical ways of arguing for monotheism but employs a cumulative, more experiential approach. While agnosticism affects humanity's most basic beliefs, Garth Hallett demonstrates that there remains ample room for rational, theistic faith. Of keen interest to students and researchers alike, The Maturing of Monotheism offers new insights and approaches in this steadily advancing field.