Exploring the Philosophy of Religion

by Stewart, David

• ISBN13: 9780131947238
• ISBN10: 0131947230
• Edition: 6th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-01-01
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Summary

This introduction to the philosophy of religion helps readers understand the primary sources that are essential for genuine philosophical understanding. Its careful selection of important classical and contemporary readings, along with a clear, understandable analysis and discussion of the topics, helps build a basic vocabulary of philosophical and religious termswhile becoming fluent in the main philosophical issues in religion. Chapter topics include the varieties of religious experience, religion and life, religion and human destiny, argument's for God's existence, the problem of evil, and religious language. This book presents an appealing mixture of classical and contemporary authorsfrom Descartes, Paley and Kierkegaard to Otto, James, and Buberto such current writers as Wendy Doniger, Mary Daly, and David Ray Griffin. For philosophersor anyone who likes to philosophizeabout important religious questions and their relation to life.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
The Varieties Of Religious Experience	1	(48)
Introduction: Philosophy And Religion	1	(5)
Mystical Experience	6	(10)
Mysticism, William James	9	(7)
The Experience of the Holy	16	(12)
The Idea of the Holy, Rudolf Otto	19	(9)
Critique of Mysticism	28	(8)
The Core of Religion, Walter Kaufmann	29	(7)
Varieties of Religious Understanding	36	(11)
The Pluralistic Hypothesis, John Hick	38	(9)
Retrospective: Religious Experience	47	(1)
Additional Sources	48	(1)
Religion And Life	49	(35)
Introduction: Religion And Life	49	(4)
Life's Goal Is to Obey God's Will	53	(5)
Moral Obligation, William Paley	55	(3)
Life's Goal Is to Achieve Greatness	58	(6)
The Joyful Wisdom, Friedrich Nietzsche	60	(4)
Life Is Not Meaningful Without God	64	(7)
A Confession, Leo Tolstoy	65	(6)
Life Is Meaningful Without God	71	(11)
Ethics Without Religion, Kai Nielsen	74	(8)
Retrospective: Religion And Life	82	(1)
Additional Sources	82	(2)
Religion And Human Destiny	84	(33)
Introduction: Religion And Death	84	(3)
The Immortality of the Soul	87	(10)
Phaedo, Plato	88	(9)
The Finality of Death	97	(5)
Letter to Menoeceus, Epicurus	99	(3)
The Hope for Resurrection	102	(6)
The Resurrection of the Body, 1 Corinthians 15	104	(4)
Death in Buddhism	108	(5)
The Doctrine of No-Soul: Anata, Walpola Rahula	110	(3)
Retrospective: Religion And Death	113	(1)
Additional Sources	114	(3)
Arguments For God's Existence	117	(42)
Introduction: The Existence Of God	117	(4)
The Ontological Argument	121	(9)
The Most Perfect Being, Rene Descartes	126	(4)
The Cosmological Arguments	130	(10)
The Kalam Cosmological Argument, William Lane Craig	134	(6)
The Design Argument	140	(9)
Natural Theology, William Paley	142	(7)
The Moral Argument	149	(7)
God as a Postulate of Practical Reason, Immanuel Kant	151	(5)
Retrospective: The Existence Of God	156	(1)
Additional Sources	157	(2)
The Problem Of Evil	159	(44)
Introduction: God And Evil	159	(7)
Philosophy and Evil	166	(5)
The Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius	167	(4)
Theodicy in Process Thought	171	(11)
God in Process, David Ray Griffin	174	(8)
Karma and Evil	182	(7)
Karma in Hindu Thought, Wendy Doniger	184	(5)
The ``Vale of Soul-Making Theodicy''	189	(9)
Evil and the God of Love, John Hick	192	(6)
Retrospective: God And Evil	198	(3)
Additional Sources	201	(2)
Faith And Reason	203	(54)
Introduction: Opinion, Belief, And Knowledge	203	(5)
Belief and Falsification	208	(13)
The Falsification Debate, Antony Flew, R. M. Hare, and Basil Mitchell	212	(9)
Will and Belief	221	(18)
The Will to Believe, William James	227	(12)
No Rational Basis for Faith	239	(8)
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, David Hume	240	(7)
The Leap of Faith	247	(7)
Objective and Subjective Reflection, Sren Kierkegaard	250	(4)
Retrospective: Faith And Reason	254	(1)
Additional Sources	255	(2)
Religious Language	257	(51)
Introduction: Religion And Language	257	(3)
The Verification of Religious Language	260	(16)
A Discussion on Religious Language, A. J. Ayer and F. C. Copleston	264	(12)
The Nonliteral Use of Language	276	(8)
On Analogy, St. Thomas Aquinas	279	(5)
Models for Theological Discourse	284	(12)
Talking of God: Models, Ancient and Modern, Ian Ramsey	285	(11)
Religious Language and Gender	296	(9)
The Female Nature of God, Rosemary Radford Ruether	298	(7)
Retrospective: Religious Language	305	(1)
Additional Sources	306	(2)
Biographical Summaries	308	(4)
Glossary	312	(7)
Index	319