Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

John Macqurrie

Scottish Theologian and Philosopher

"If God is being and not a being, then one can no more say that God is than that being is. God (or being) is not but rather lets be. But to let be is more primordial than to be, so that, as has already been said, being ‘is’ more ‘beingful’ than any possible being which it lets be; and this justifies us in using such expressions as ‘being is’, provided we remain aware of their logically ‘stretched’ character... So it can be asserted that ‘God exists’ is strictly inaccurate and may be misleading if it makes us think of him as some being or other, yet it is more appropriate to say ‘God exists’ than ‘God does not exist’, since God’s letting-be is prior to and the condition of the existence of any particular being."

"Men are only too ready to be swayed by senseless passion."