Talk:Theophilia

I added the cross reference to eutheism since that is considered a synonymous word to theophilia. I'm not sure that summum bonum and eutheism are necessarily the same thing. Eutheism simply specifies that God is good; summum bonum depicts God as the ultimate good, the center of all good, etc. These are related, but I don't think they're equivalent.

There is also the issue of what theophilia really means in context. There is a contrast in focus between the words "theophilia" and "eutheism". Eutheism defines God to be good; theophilia does not address God's nature, but rather his worshippers' attitudes towards him. It seems to me there are people who, when confronted with the contradictions found in theodicy, throw up their hands and say so what, who cares, but still "love God" whether or not he is "morally good". These would qualify as theophiles, I would think. This can be an attitude of resignation, or even an acceptance of might makes right mentality—no matter what we say, God is the 400 pound gorilla, and you'd better listen to him. Such people, I would imagine, fit into the theophile category even though they might even agree that God is not necessarily good. But this is far too much conditional theology for a small article. So I'm not sure what to do. :-)

Craig zimmerman 22:54, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Eutheism is the belief in a summum bonum (see my relpy there). I am not sure "Theophilia" even exists as a term in theology. Like "Maltheism" it seems like it was made up on the internet. "Made up" as a theological term, I mean. It's a girl's name, of course. dab 08:54, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)