Contemporary Philosophy of Religion

by Taliaferro, Charles

• ISBN13: 9781557864482
• ISBN10: 1557864489
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-02-12
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This volume provides a vivid and engaging introduction to contemporary philosophy of religion. It is distinctive in its coverage of world religions, its emphasis on the social and ethical consequences of religious and political convictions, and its focus on the current state of the field. Topics include the nature of religion, the relation of religious faith and evidence, alternative concepts of God, religious views of good and evil, religious tolerance, the possibility of an alternative and divine incarnation, religious diversity and experience. Including discussion questions and suggestions for further reading, the volume provides an excellent basis for an undergraduate course in the philosophy of religion.

Author Biography

Charles Taliaferro is Professor of Philosophy at St. Olaf College. He is author of Consciousness and the Mind of God (1994), and co-editor of A Companion to Philosophy of Religion (Blackwell 1997) and Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology (Blackwell 2002).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	x
Introduction	1	(13)
The Presentation and Order of Topics	5	(9)
1 Religious Beliefs	14	(22)
Five World Religions	14	(7)
Definitions of Religion	21	(3)
The Focus of Philosophy of Religion	24	(3)
Thought Experiments in Philosophy of Religion	27	(9)
2 Religious Practices and Pictures of Reality	36	(25)
Forms of Life	37	(3)
Three Reasons for Religious Nonrealism	40	(5)
Replies to Arguments for Religious Nonrealism	45	(7)
Common Ground?	52	(9)
3 Divine Power	61	(22)
An Analytical Prelude	62	(1)
Maximal Power	63	(11)
Perfect Power	74	(9)
4 Materialism, Positivism, and God	83	(23)
Eliminative Materialism and God	85	(3)
Essential Materialism and God	88	(2)
Positivism and Divine Activity	90	(2)
Theistic Replies to Essential Materialism	92	(5)
Theistic Replies to Positivism	97	(9)
5 Divine Intelligence and the Structure of the Cosmos	106	(37)
Preliminary Observations About Maximal Knowledge	108	(1)
Can God Know the Future?	109	(1)
Freedom, Determinism, and God	110	(6)
Three Theistic Proposals	116	(6)
The Means and Feasibility of Omniscience	122	(4)
An Overview of Naturalism and Theism	126	(17)
6 The Transcendence of the Sacred	143	(46)
God's Transcendence of Time: Arguments from Perfection and Creation	144	(4)
The Nature of Time: The "A" Theory and the "B" Theory	148	(5)
The Temporality of God: Replies to Arguments from Perfection and Creation	153	(3)
Four Reasons for Believing God Does Not Transcend Time	156	(7)
Arguments for Thinking God is Not an Individual Object	163	(3)
The Intelligibility of Believing God is Being	166	(6)
Monism	172	(6)
The Individual, Brahman, and Nirvana	178	(11)
7 God, Values, and Pluralism	189	(57)
Preliminary Distinctions	190	(3)
Reasons For and Against Moral Realism	193	(7)
Divine Command Theories	200	(6)
The Ideal Observer Theory	206	(5)
Theism and Values	211	(7)
Theistic Ethics in Practice	218	(10)
Religious Pluralism and Politics	228	(18)
8 Evidence, Experience, and God	246	(53)
The Nature and Sources of Evidence	247	(8)
Religious Claims and the Burden of Proof	255	(4)
Naturalism and the Burden of Proof	259	(5)
The Role of Religious Experience	264	(5)
Objections and Replies	269	(18)
Cumulative Arguments for Comprehensive Philosophies	287	(12)
9 The Problem of Evil and the Prospects of Good	299	(51)
Preliminary Distinctions	301	(4)
The Great Good Theodicy	305	(5)
Conditions for Divine Goodness	310	(4)
Objections and Replies	314	(7)
Evil and the Afterlife	321	(5)
The Suffering of God Defense	326	(5)
Limits of Inquiry	331	(2)
Appendix on Incarnations	333	(17)
10 Theism and Naturalism	350	(44)
A Monist Prelude	351	(2)
Cosmological Arguments	353	(12)
Teleological Arguments	365	(5)
Moral Arguments	370	(4)
Arguments from Miracles	374	(4)
Ontological Arguments	378	(3)
Wager Arguments	381	(3)
Another Cumulative Argument	384	(10)
Bibliography	394	(27)
Index	421