Rei. Stud. mlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA 22, pp. 3°7.323 GAR Y LEGENHAUSEN Texas Southern University IS GOD A PERSON? The most striking difference between Christian and Muslim theologies isthat while, for Christians, God is a person, Muslims worship an impersonal deity. Despite the importance of this difference for a host of theological issues, it is a difference which has gone largely unnoticed by Christians and Muslims alike. Yet Christians everywhere will affirm that God is a person, while the average Muslim will readily deny this. Theism is often defined by philo- sophers of religion who work in the Christian tradition in such a manner as to require the belief that God is a person. Thus The Encyclopedia oj Philosophy has it that, 'THEISM signifies belief in one God (theos) who is (a) personal, (b) worthy ofadoration, and (c) separate from the world but (d) continuously active in it ';' John H. Hick admits that, 'Theism ... is strictly belief in a deity, but isgenerally used to mean belief in a personal deity;" Richard Swinburne states that a theist is one who believes that there is a God who is a 'person without a body (i.e. a spirit) who is eternal, free, able to do anything, knows everything, is perfectly good, is the proper object of human worship and obedience, the creator and sustainer of the universe', 3 and J. L. Mackie, while arguing the case ofatheism, endorses Swinburne's definition oftheism. 4 Both theists and atheists in the Christian tradition agree that theism commits one to the view that God is a person of some sort, but there is no corresponding unanimity among Muslim theologians and philosophers in the claim that God isnot a person. There have been Muslim theologians who have held that God quite literally sits upon his throne in heaven. Nevertheless, within the fold ofIslam (at least among theologians), belief in a personal God is a minority position. The theological and philosophical groundwork for the Muslim claim that God is not a person is found in both Sunni and Shi'ite sources; however, in this paper I will concentrate on Shi'ite views on this issue. This paper consists of two parts in which some arguments for and against the view that God is a person are summarized, and the strengths and weaknesses of these arguments are evaluated. None of these arguments will be defended as conclusive. However, it ismy hope that this exposition ofboth 1 H. P. Owen, 'Theism', The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1972, VIII, p. 97. 2 John Hick, Philosophy of Religion, znd ed. (Englewood Cliffs, ~.J.: Prentice Hall, 1973), p. 5. 3 Richard Swinburne, The Coherence of Theism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), p. I. 4 J. L. Mackie, The Miracle of Theism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), p. I.