Editing Charles Renouvier (section)

==Religious views==

In his religious views, Renouvier makes a considerable approximation to [[Gottfried Leibniz]]. He holds that we are [[rationality|rationally]] justified in affirming human [[immortality]] and the existence of a [[finite God]] who is to be a constitutional ruler, but not a despot, over the souls of people. He nevertheless regards [[atheism]] as preferable to a belief in an infinite Deity.<ref name=EB1911/>

Renouvier rejected [[absolute idealism]], [[Spinozism]] and classical [[Christian theology]] finding its views on an infinite, omniscient and omnipotent God to be deterministic.<ref name="Cooper 2006">{{cite book |last=Cooper|first= John W. |date=2006 |title=Panentheism: The Other God of the Philosophers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aokfbkOdjuEC |publisher=Baker Publishing Group |page=143 |isbn=978-1585584048}}</ref> Instead he posited a finite personal God that was good but limited in knowledge and power. His theology preserved human free will and absolved God from evil that humans commit. He described God as the "permanent personality in the world".<ref name="Cooper 2006"/>