Merricks, Trenton

Trenton Merricks is an American philosopher who has made significant contributions to metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of religion. Professor at the University of Virginia, Merricks earned his PhD from Notre Dame in 1994. In philosophy of religion, he has defended dualism about human persons while arguing for physicalism about resurrection, proposing that God recreates human bodies at the resurrection. His work on divine foreknowledge explores the compatibility of human freedom with God's omniscience. In "Truth and Ontology" (2007), Merricks develops a deflationary theory of truth with implications for theological language and religious metaphysics. He has also written extensively on the doctrine of the Trinity, defending a social trinitarian view while addressing philosophical puzzles about identity and composition. His rigorous analytical approach has influenced contemporary discussions of personal identity in relation to Christian doctrines of afterlife and resurrection.