Authoritative and accessible, this book is a concise and comprehensive introduction to the philosophy of religion. It shows how philosophers have used the tools of philosophy to examine the validity of religious ideas and values.
Distinguished North American, British, and Australian authors explain how philosophers of the past and present have approached key concepts of religious faith: Does God exist? Can God’s existence be proved? If so, what might God be like? Is there life after death? Is faith in an unseen God rationally tenable at all in a post-Enlightenment, postmodern, scientific age in which different faith traditions coexist and make claims to the ownership of eternal truths?
This book is an essential reader and reference for scholars, teachers, and students of religion and for anyone who seeks to answer key questions challenging the life of faith today.
Table of Contents
1. Philosophy and Religion
(a) Ancient and Early Medieval Thinking
Gregory Reichberg
(b) From the Thirteenth Century to the Twentieth Century
Joseph Koterski, SJ
(c) Philosophy, Religion, and Twentieth-Century Theologians
Peter Groves
(d) Wittgenstein and the Philosophy of Religion
Gareth Moore, OP, and Brian Davies, OP
(e) Foundationalism and Philosophy of Religion
John Greco
2. Arguments for God’s Existence
(a) Cosmological Arguments
David Braine
(b) Ontological Arguments
Peter van Inwagen
(c) Design Arguments
Mark Wynn
(d)God and Religious Experience
William Alston
3. The Attributes of God
(a) Simplicity
David Burrell, CSC
(b) Eternality
Paul Helm
(c) Omnipotence
Gerard Hughes, SJ
(d) Personality
Charles Taliaferro
4. Religious Language
James Ross
5. Creation, Providence and Miracles
William Lane Craig
6. The Problem of Evil
Brian Davies, OP
7. Faith and Revelation
John Jenkins, CSC
8. Philosophy and Christianity
Hugo Meynell
9. Morality and Religion
H.O. Mounce
10. People and Life after Death
Hugo Meynell
11. Philosophy and World Religions
Julius Lipner
12. Science and Religion
Dominic Balestra
Further Reading
Index of Names
Index of Subjects
About the Author
Brian Davies, OP, is a professor of theology at Fordham University and the author of The Thought of Thomas Aquinas (Oxford University Press, 1992).
