Thinking About God: Historical Perspectives

We are pleased to announce the upcoming conference ‘Thinking about God: Historical Perspectives’. We invite scholars, early career researchers, and graduate students working in philosophy, theology, and related disciplines to the University of Edinburgh to explore the views of historical philosophers on the relationship between God and the human mind. The conference will take place on the 16-17th April 2026, in room G.32, 7 George Square. 

God is no ordinary entity. Historically, many philosophers have taken God to be infinite, transcendent, eternal, and simple. Such conceptions appear to demand an account of how it is possible to think of such a being. In apophatic traditions, philosophers like Plotinus argued that we cannot think about God in positive terms at all. Others, such as Aquinas, argued that the human mind can at best infer certain things about God. Others still, such as Descartes, held that the divine essence could be understood positively by pure intellection. The aim of this conference, then, is to discuss the views of various historical thinkers on the question of how, if at all, it is possible to think about God. 

The conference program is as follows:

April 16

9:15 Welcome Remarks

Session 1

9:30-10:15 ‘Thinking About God in Islamic Theology: A Case for Moderate Apophaticism’ Mesfer Alhayyani (Kuwait University)

10:15-11:00 (Online) ‘Knowing God and the Limits of Human Cognition in Ibn Sīnā’ Husayn Ibrahim (LMU München)

11:00-11:15 Break

Session 2

11:15-12:00 ‘God Exists: Is That True?’ Zahra Nayebi (University of Freiburg)

12:00-12:45 ‘Spinoza on God’s Two Kinds of Necessary but Non-essential Properties’ Antonio Salgado Borge (University of Nottingham)

12:45-14:15 Lunch Break

Session 3

14:15-15:00 ‘Spinoza on Virtue and the Knowledge of God’ Kenneth Novis (University of Oxford)

15:00-15:45 (Online) ‘Mirrors of God: Leibniz’s Understanding of the Divine’ Charles Joshua Horn (University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point)

15:45-16:15 Break

Keynote

16:15-17:15 (Online) TBC Fatima Amijee (University of British Columbia)

April 17

Session 1 

9:30-10:15 ‘Thinking of God in Relational Terms in the Middle Ages: The Account of Gerald Odonis (ca. 1285/90–1349)’ Kamil Majcherek (Cambridge University/KU Leuven)

10:15-11:00 ‘Albert the Great and the Four Stages of Ethical Ascent: From Moral Virtue to Divine Intellect’ Tracy Wietecha (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science)

11:00-11:15 Break

Session 2

11:15-12:00 ‘The Lovable Idea of God for an Embodied Mind: A Phenomenology of Belief and Affectivity from a Cartesian Perspective’ Chloé Mathys (Université de Genève/ENS-Lyon)

12:00-12:45 ‘Thinking about Divine Subjectivity: Aquinas and Zagzebski’ Heather Perfect (University of York)

12:45-14:15 Lunch Break

Session 3

14:15-15:00 ‘Human Cognition and Divine Longings: Plato on God, Knowledge, and Epistemic Transcendence’ Cristiana Sessini (University of Oxford)

15:00-15:45 ‘How Can We Speak of the Ineffable? Expressing the One in Plotinus’ Philosophy’ Raminta Ignatavičiūtė (Vilnius University)

15:45-16:15 Break

Keynote & Thomistic Institute Lecture

16:15-17:15 ‘Raising the Mind to God: Thomas Aquinas’s Triplex Via (Causality, Negation, and Eminence)’ Daniel De Haan (University of Oxford)

The conference is hybrid and can be attended online via the following Zoom link:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/83183813442

Meeting ID: 831 8381 3442
Passcode: 0C4Ab1kM

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Join by SIP
• [email protected]
Passcode: 71568202

This conference is supported by Edinburgh University’s School of Philosophy, Psychology, and Language Sciences, the British Society for the History of Philosophy, the Scottish Philosophical Association, and the Thomistic Institute.

For any inquiries, please contact Boxiang Yu ([email protected]) or Karim Shoaib ([email protected]). 

Organizers: Boxiang Yu, Karim Shoaib, Emma Cohen-Edmonds