Religions, Reasons and Gods: Essays in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Religion

by John Clayton , Prepared for publication by Anne M. Blackburn , Thomas D. Carroll

• ISBN13: 9780521126274
• ISBN10: 0521126274
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-01-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Traditional theistic proofs are often understood as evidence intended to compel belief in a divinity. John Clayton explores the surprisingly varied applications of such proofs in the work of philosophers and theologians from several periods and traditions, thinkers as varied as Ramanuja, al-Ghazali, Anselm, and Jefferson. He shows how the gradual disembedding of theistic proofs from their diverse and local religious contexts is concurrent with the development of natural theologies and atheism as social and intellectual options in early modern Europe and America. Clayton offers a fresh reading of the early modern history of philosophy and theology, arguing that awareness of such history, and the local uses of theistic argument, offer important ways of managing religious and cultural difference in the public sphere. He argues for the importance of historically grounded philosophy of religion to the field of religious studies and public debate on religious pluralism and cultural diversity.

Table of Contents

Claims, contexts and contestability

Introduction to Part I

Thomas Jefferson and the study of religion

Common ground and defensible difference

Religions, reasons and gods

Introduction to Part II

Ramanuja, Hume and 'comparative philosophy'

Piety and the proofs

The otherness of Anselm

Introduction to Part III

The debate about God in early-modern French philosophy

The debate about God in early-modern German philosophy

The debate about God in early-modern British philosophy

Beyond the 'enlightenment project'?

Appendix: Hulsean sermon

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.