Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/The nature of God in Western theology


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   delete. Seraphimblade Talk to me 11:49, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

The nature of God in Western theology

 * – ( View AfD View log  Stats )

Long-standing personal essay, not salvageable. The ostensible subject is already covered by God in Christianity, God in Judaism, and God in Islam. Qzd (talk) 09:31, 28 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Delete but look who wrote the article back in 2001... Curro2 (talk) 15:15, 28 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Hah! I didn't notice that. Qzd (talk) 01:21, 29 December 2015 (UTC)


 * Keep. Preserve There is significant scholarship about the concept of God in Western theology generally, rather than within the context of a specific religion. See, for example, this book, this book, this book, this book, and this book. At the very least, this topic serves the unique function of explaining the relationship between various conceptions of God in Western theology. Although this article may need to be WP:TNT'd, I think we should follow WP:ATD's mandate that "if editing can improve the page, this should be done rather than deleting the page." As an aside, the Wikipedia community should discuss ways to preserve institutional memory to teach future generations about some of the earliest contributions to the encyclopedia (a Wikipedia archives, of sorts). It would be a shame if the original version of this page was lost to the sands of time. -- Notecardforfree (talk) 08:44, 29 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Follow-up comment: I will concede that almost every reliable source uses the term "Western theology" synonymously with "Christian theology." I did find an abundance of sources that talk about the nature of God in Abrahamic religions, but we already have an article for that (see God in Abrahamic religions). If this were any run-of-the-mill article I would say we should delete it, but I think this article has some special historic significance to the encyclopedia and we should make some effort to preserve institutional memory. Perhaps we can move this material to Larry Sanger's page, or perhaps even a WP:ESSAY to show what Wikipedia was like in the early days? -- Notecardforfree (talk) 18:43, 2 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Religion-related deletion discussions. shoy (reactions) 14:32, 29 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Christianity-related deletion discussions. shoy (reactions) 14:32, 29 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Islam-related deletion discussions. shoy (reactions) 14:32, 29 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Judaism-related deletion discussions. shoy (reactions) 14:32, 29 December 2015 (UTC)


 * Delete: Clearly an essay. The books cited above are mostly using "Western theology" to refer to Western Christianity, which is quite different to the what the article says. I'm not even sure Western theology in the article's sense of the word is a notable subject, let alone this specific topic. StAnselm (talk) 14:48, 29 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Merge into Conceptions of God which has a more general framework for the topic. Andrew D. (talk) 23:53, 29 December 2015 (UTC)

Comment This is one of the first wikipedia's article, which is written by User:Larry Sanger.  This is like a Fossil from the former era of wikipedia. Due to the fact that Larry is not active anymore, let's ask @Jimbo's idea about this fossil.-- Seyyed(t-c) 15:54, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Preserve it I think we can preserve it for Wikipedia museum to show people how the earliest articles were.-- Seyyed(t-c) 16:01, 31 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Perhaps we need WP:NOTMUSEUM. StAnselm (talk) 16:35, 31 December 2015 (UTC)
 * But I think WP needs one for itself.-- Seyyed(t-c) 16:36, 31 December 2015 (UTC)


 * Delete as ESSAY. It ends with "Originally based on lecture notes by Larry Sanger."  That is not up to the current WP standard.  I am not saying that the subject is not important, but I think we have other articles.  There may be a case for having a WP museum of early articles, but it ought to be distinct from the main WP.  Peterkingiron (talk) 19:13, 31 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Delete' How did it last this long? &#39;&#39;&#39;tAD&#39;&#39;&#39; (talk) 02:59, 4 January 2016 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.