Religion And Morality

by Wainwright,William J.

• ISBN13: 9780754616320
• ISBN10: 0754616320
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2005-04-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Religion and Morality addresses central issues arising from religion's relation to morality. Part one offers a sympathetic but critical appraisal of the claim that features of morality provide evidence for the truth of religious belief. Part two examines divine command theories, objections to them, and positive arguments in their support. Part three explores tensions between human morality, as ordinarily understood, and religious requirements by discussing such issues as the conflict between Buddhist and Christian pacifism and requirements of justice, whether virtue without a love of God is really a vice, whether the God of the Abrahamic religions could require us to do something that seems clearly immoral, and the ambiguous relations between religious mysticism and moral behavior.Covering a broad range of topics, this book draws on both historical and contemporary literature, and explores afresh central issues of morality and religion offering new insights for students, academics and the general reader interested in philosophy and religion.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
PART I: MORAL ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
1 The Nineteenth-Century Background	3	(3)
2 Kant, God, and Immortality	6	(22)
Kant's Ethical Position	6	(6)
The Postulate of Immortality	12	(6)
The Postulate of God's Existence	18	(5)
General Objections to Kant's Moral Arguments	23	(3)
Appendix	26	(2)
3 Newman and the Argument from Conscience	28	(21)
Preliminary Observations	28	(2)
Newman's Phenomenology of Conscience	30	(4)
Taking Conscience at Face Value	34	(3)
The Reliability of Conscience	37	(5)
Is Conscience a Natural Faculty?	42	(3)
Conclusion	45	(1)
Appendix	46	(3)
4 The Argument from the Objectivity of Value	49	(24)
The Objectivity of Value	49	(5)
W.R. Sorley and the Inference from Objective Values to a Supreme Mind	54	(3)
Robert Adams and the Transcendent Good	57	(11)
Conclusion	68	(1)
Appendix: Moral Commitment and the Objectivity of Values	68	(5)
PART II: DIVINE COMMAND THEORY AND ITS CRITICS
5 The Euthyphro Problem	73	(11)
Some Classical Statements of Divine Command Theory	73	(2)
Cudworth and Theological Voluntarism	75	(5)
Conclusion	80	(4)
6 Two Recent Divine Command Theories	84	(22)
Robert Adams's "Modified Divine Command Theory"	84	(13)
Philip Quinn's Causal Divine Command Theory	97	(5)
Adams, Quinn, and Traditional Divine Command Theory	102	(1)
Appendix: Are there Substantive Necessary Moral Truths?	103	(3)
7 Objections to Divine Command Theory	106	(18)
Semantic, Epistemic, and Logical Objections to Divine Command Theory	106	(4)
Moral Objections	110	(5)
Theological Objections	115	(2)
The Autonomy Objection	117	(5)
A Final Word	122	(2)
8 The Case for Divine Command Theory	124	(23)
The Arguments from Impeccability, Omnipotence, and Analogy	124	(2)
The Argument from God's Sovereignty and Independence	126	(4)
The "Immoralities" of the Patriarchs	130	(2)
The Love Commandment and Christian Practice	132	(3)
A Cumulative Case for Divine Command Theory?	135	(1)
An Appeal to Divine Authority	136	(5)
Is Divine Command Theory the Best Account of the Relevant Data?	141	(6)
PART III: HUMAN MORALITY AND RELIGIOUS REQUIREMENTS
9 Religious Ethics and Rational Morality	147	(33)
Buddhist and Christian Pacifism and the Demands of Rational Morality	148	(26)
Are Ordinary Virtues Real Virtues When Divorced from True Religion?	174	(5)
Conclusion	179	(1)
10 Abraham and the Binding of Isaac	180	(29)
Kierkegaard and Abraham	182	(5)
Three Recent Interpretations of Kierkegaard's Abraham	187	(8)
Quinn on Abraham's Dilemma	195	(6)
Adams on Abraham's Dilemma	201	(5)
Conclusion	206	(3)
11 Mysticism and Morality	209	(32)
Moral Ideals and Mysticism	210	(22)
Does Mysticism either Justify or Undermine Morality?	232	(6)
Conclusion	238	(3)
Bibliography	241	(8)
Index	249