I've been reading Edward Feser's book Five Proofs for the Existence of God.
I think impressions would vary widely about the book. While it's an introductory treatment, much of the book is pretty technical and analytical. Perhaps oddly, I've enjoyed the book as devotional reading.
Here's why.
I don't know how persuasive "proofs" are for the existence of God. But when you look at these proofs, especially those in Feser's volume, many of them engage in a characteristic train of reflection. We start with what we observe in the world around us and begin to ask questions, following those questions deeper and deeper into first and primary realities. Reason digs down into the ground of being. Our minds move toward the Source. We seek the Origin.
Of course, like I said, reasoning toward an "Unmoved Mover," an "Uncaused Cause," or an "Actualizing Actualizer" might be convincing for some and less so for others. Regardless, what is obvious is that our minds are driving toward something fundamental. And that's what I'm finding devotional about Feser's book. I don't know if any of his proofs really work as proofs. But I have allowed Feser's arguments to lead my mind toward the mystery of existence. And that experience makes you appreciate the sheer miracle of why anything exists at all. You just look around in astonishment at the of simplest things.
This radical contingency is what Psalm 100 confesses. We are not the source of our own being. Nor can we hold ourselves in being. Contemplating that contingency draws your mind toward God. Our existence comes from beyond ourselves.
He made us.
