William of Ockham

William of Ockham (1287-1347) was an English Franciscan friar and influential medieval philosopher whose theological and philosophical work profoundly shaped debates about God, divine simplicity, and religious epistemology. Best known for "Ockham's Razor," the principle that explanations should not multiply entities beyond necessity, he challenged prevailing Scholastic arguments for God's existence, particularly rejecting complex metaphysical proofs in favor of faith-based approaches. Ockham argued that reason alone could not demonstrate God's existence or attributes, positioning revelation and faith as the primary sources of theological knowledge. His nominalist philosophy denied the real existence of universals, impacting how divine attributes were understood and discussed. Ockham's emphasis on divine omnipotence and absolute freedom influenced later Reformed theology, while his epistemological skepticism about natural theology anticipated modern philosophical critiques of rational proofs for God's existence.