Evolutionary Religion

J. L. Schellenberg offers a path to a new kind of religious outlook, one founded on the realization of where we find ourselves in relation to the deep past and the deep future. He argues that we should transform our view of religion and evolution as adversaries: reflection that intelligent life is in its infancy leads to scepticism about religion, but also offers a new answer to the problem of faith and reason, and the possibility of a new, evolutionary form ofreligion. Schellenberg concludes by suggesting what this new religion might look like: grounded in imagination rather than belief, it aims to be both grand in conception and morally attractive, while retaining better prospects for long-term survival among inquiring minds than the prevalent religionsof today.

J. L. Schellenberg is Professor of Philosophy at Mount Saint Vincent University and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Dalhousie University. He is the author of the seminal Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason (Cornell University Press, 1993), which introduced the now well-known hiddenness argument for atheism, and of an acclaimed trilogy on the philosophy of religion: Prolegomena to a Philosophy of Religion, The Wisdom to Doubt: A Justification of Religious Skepticism, and The Will to Imagine: A Justification of Skeptical Religion (Cornell University Press, 2005; 2007; 2009). In 2013 the journal Religious Studies will publish a special issue dedicated to Schellenbergs philosophy of religion.