It has often been claimed that since God is a maximally great being, God must create the best possible world. For if God makes a less-than-best world, then God’s creative work is morally surpassable which is supposed to be impossible. The first two articles in this issue examine whether God must create the best possible world on the assumption that such a world is possible. Alternatively, some argue that for any possible world God could create, there is always a slightly, if not vastly, better possible world such that there is no unique best possible world. But then God’s choice of a world is never morally justified. These considerations have been leveraged to formulate an argument for atheism known as the Problem of No Best World—the final three articles in this issue address this argument. In different ways, each article in this Religious Studies Archive focuses on whether God could ever be justified in creating a less-than-best world.

-Kirk Lougheed

·       Introduction: God’s Choice of a World, Kirk Lougheed

·       This world, ‘Adams worlds’, and the best of all possible worlds, Stephen Grover, Religious Studies Volume 39 Issue 2 (2003): 145–163.

·       A morally unsurpassable God must create the best, Erik J. Wielenberg, Religious Studies, Volume 40 Issue 1 (2004): 43–62.

·       Why an unsurpassable being cannot create a surpassable world, Jesse R. Steinberg, Religious Studies, Volume 41 Issue 3 (2005): 323–333.

·       Can God Be Free? Rowe’s Dilemma for Theology, William Hasker, Religious Studies Volume 41 Issue 4 (2005): 453–462.

·       Is motivated submaximization good enough for God?, Klaas J. Kraay, Religious Studies, Volume 57 Issue 3 (2021): 403–417.