Is God’s creation a fictional world?
Abstract
Abstract Samuel Lebens argues that we may understand God’s act of creation by analogy with an author’s creation of fictional characters. I argue that, in the relevant sense of ‘fictional characters’, authors do not create such beings; rather, they invite us to imagine that such beings exist. I also argue that Lebens’s view would make authorship morally problematic in implausible ways. Along the way I briefly offer an account of the being of fictional characters and consider the relations between truth-in-fiction and truth.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Ethics
Aesthetics
and Art
Karl Barth and Christian Theology
Study and Philosophy of Religion
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Religious Studies
- Pages
- 1–6
- Publication date
- 11 February 2026
- Language
- EN