Is Gratitude to an Impassible God Appropriate with Dr. Marcus Hunt | (MoR No. 22)

Does classical theism entail that gratitude to God is unfitting or inappropriate? I’m joined by Dr. Marcus Hunt to discuss this very question in connection to his recent article published in IJPR.  

Argument Outline  

(1) If someone cannot be benefited, then they cannot be a fitting target of prepositional gratitude. 

(2) The God of classical theism cannot be benefited. 

Therefore, 

(3) The God of classical theism cannot be a fitting target of prepositional gratitude.

For premise (1):  

Step 1: A necessary condition for prepositional gratitude is a desire to benefit one’s benefactor. 

Step 2: A desire to benefit a benefactor is fitting only if it is metaphysically possible for the benefactor to be benefited.  

For premise (2):  

Step 1: Classical theism (in particular, divine impassibility) entails that God is perfectly blessed. 

Step 2: If God is perfectly blessed, then nothing could possibly benefit God -- God has all possible benefits necessarily and ‘already’ (as it were).  

Curious to learn more about this argument? 

Check out his IJPR paper: 

(1) https://link.springer.com/content/pdf... OR (2) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tETh...   

Marcus’s link: https://philpeople.org/profiles/marcu...  

My book: https://www.amazon.com/Majesty-Reason...

My website: https://majestyofreason.wordpress.com/