God in the Act of Reference: Debating Religious Realism and Non-Realism

by Appelros,Erica

• ISBN13: 9780754605447
• ISBN10: 0754605442
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781351932776
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-12-28
• Publisher: Routledge
• More Book Details

Summary

To claim to believe in God without accepting that God exists independently of human minds would mean reducing God to merely a human construct, thus not real enough for being the object of religious worship. This book sets out to challenge this common view on existence and religious belief. Arguing from concrete examples of language use in children's make-believe play and other ordinary situations, Erica Appelros suggests that what makes us consider something to be real involves our capacities to relate to our surroundings - not only on grounds of their physical characteristics but also on grounds of human construction. This book makes a substantial contribution to the contemporary debate within philosophy of religion on religious realism and non-realism, and suggests innovative and constructive solutions to the perennial philosophical and religious issue of what is meant by talking about God and God's existence.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
Realists and non-realists	1	(16)
Reality as conceptualized	17	(40)
Reference as context dependent	57	(48)
Reference and reality in make-believe contexts	105	(32)
An analysis of reference and reality in religion	137	(40)
Concluding remarks	177	(6)
Bibliography	183	(20)
Index	203