oa [God en moraal, ontdekking of uitvinding? Kritische analyse van Gerrit Manenschijns fundering van de morele en geloofswerkelijkheid, God and Morality, Discovery or Invention? Critical Analysis of Gerrit Manenschijn’s Foundation of Moral and Religious Reality]

In his book God is so great that He doesn’t have to exist, Gerrit Manenschijn claims that God exists in language. Religious language consists of metaphors and has a performative rather than a descriptive nature. Since religious reality is an invention rather than a discovery we cannot make truth-claims about God and other religious entities. Although Manenschijn claims that moral reality takes shape in the same way, there is a difference on the level of their foundations: religious reality rests on existential questions, whereas moral reality rests on moral sentiments. This enables morality to make truth-claims. When altered in such a way that his view on the foundation of moral reality matches the foundation of religious reality, Manenschijn’s theory not only becomes coherent but also provides us with a persuasive theory of Christian theology and morality which is in accordance with influential contemporary views on language and epistemology.