Whither philosophy of religion?

2015 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 441-454
Author(s):  
BRIAN LEFTOW ◽  
PAMELA SUE ANDERSON ◽  
J. L. SCHELLENBERG
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Ontological Argument ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Deep Defect ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Post War

The post-war expansion of university faculties climaxed in the early 1970s. Since then, there have been more professional philosophers than ever before in history: a startling claim, but sober truth. In analytic philosophy, they have worked with more rigour and better training than even the Scholastics. It would take a surprising lack of talent among us, or perhaps argue some deep defect in the questions we ask, if the result werenotmore progress in philosophy than most periods can boast. And in fact, those who know what progress in philosophy looks like can see a lot of it: just compare Malcolm's 1960 piece on the ontological argument with Plantinga's 1974 treatment inThe Nature of Necessity, and then both with Oppy's book on the subject.

scholarly journals On the Polish Roots of the Analytic Philosophy of Religion

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Pouivet
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Post War

Philosophers of religion of the Cracow Circle (1934-1944) are the principal precursors of what is now called the analytic philosophy of religion. The widespread claim that the analytic philosophy of religion was from the beginning an Anglo-American affair is an ill-informed one. It is demonstrable that the enterprise, although not the label “analytic philosophy of religion,” appeared in Poland in the 1930’s. Józef Bocheński’s post-war work is a development of the Cracow Circle’s pre-war work in the analytic philosophy of religion, or at least of important elements of that earlier work. Bocheński’s approach in his Logic of Religion is quite original and might still be profitably studied and discussed by philosophers of religion of the analytic persuasion. 

Meaning and Saying in Religion: Beyond Language Games

1974 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Raschke
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
Language Games ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Philosophical Investigations ◽  
The Subject ◽  
New Perspective

So much commentary and discussion concerning the significance of religious language has been marketed for consumption during the two decades since Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations first altered the grounds of inquiry in contemporary philosophy of religion that any new contribution to the subject is apt to kindle as much excitement as the average Sunday sermon. The progressive exhaustion of the topic, it may be argued, has resulted largely from this shift, inasmuch as philosophers of religion have thereby so narrowed the horizons of their researches in pursuing the “logical” dimensions of religious utterances that, once this side of the issue has been thoroughly charted, nothing substantial is left to explore. It does not require any prophetic cry in the wilderness to contend, therefore, in the manner that I propose here that (1) the “logical” or neo-Wittgensteinian approach to the problem of religious language must be transcended and that (2) any new perspective need not renounce with counter-revolutionary animus the achievements of analytic philosophy in this field, but merely attempt to arrive at a more subtle understanding of how religious language is employed.

Beyond Perennialism and Constructivism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayon Maharaj
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Common Core ◽  
Mystical Experience ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Cultural Conditioning ◽  
Mystical Experiences

This chapter draws upon Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings and mystical testimony in order to develop a new conceptual framework for understanding the nature of mystical experience. In recent analytic philosophy of religion, two approaches to mystical experience have been especially influential: perennialism and constructivism. While perennialists maintain that there is a common core of all mystical experiences across various cultures, constructivists claim that a mystic’s cultural conditioning plays a major role in shaping his or her mystical experiences. After identifying the strengths and limitations of these two positions, Maharaj argues that Sri Ramakrishna champions a “manifestationist” approach to mystical experience that provides a powerful dialectical alternative to both perennialism and constructivism. According to Sri Ramakrishna, mystics in various traditions experience different real manifestations of one and the same impersonal-personal Infinite Reality. Sri Ramakrishna’s manifestationist paradigm shares the advantages of both perennialism and constructivism but avoids their respective weaknesses and limitations.

scholarly journals Special Issue: Analytic Philosophy of Religion

Manuscrito ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
FÁBIO M. BERTATO ◽  
NICOLA CLAUDIO SALVATORE
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Special Issue

Conceptions of Faith

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Continental Tradition ◽  
Belief Model ◽  
Historical Accounts

This entry focuses on the recent resurgence of discussion of faith in contemporary analytic philosophy of religion. One prominent position that perhaps runs contrary to the popular-level view of the matter is that faith does not require belief. This—whether faith requires belief—is one of the most discussed issues in the literature, with some arguing that a different, weaker attitude than belief, such as acceptance or hope, is sufficient for faith. Other alternatives to the belief model of faith include imaginative faith in ultimism, faith as doxastic venture, and faith as trust. Additional topics in this entry include whether faith is consistent with evidentialism or whether it inherently requires a type of irrationality, and finally the degree to which skepticism is consistent with faith. In order to keep this entry a manageable size we will not address historical accounts of faith or those found within the Continental tradition. Additionally, we will not discuss non-Western conceptions of faith; the literature we examine focuses on propositional faith as found in the Judeo-Christian tradition (which is the focus of much contemporary philosophy of religion). Finally, given space constraints we focus on work produced after 2000, with the exception of particularly influential pieces.

Pathologie Infantile

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1955 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 738-739
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Original Text ◽  
French School ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Post War

The first edition of this textbook, published during the difficult years 1943-1946, has long since been out of date. With the participation of some 40 contributing authors the 3 original editors, whose names are well known to pediatricians everywhere, have extensively revised their original text and have incorporated the principal advances gleaned during the highly productive post-war period. Their 2 volumes cover quite thoroughly the subject matter of clinical pediatrics and may be regarded as truly representative of the modern French school.

Dodds and Educational Policy for a Defeated Germany

2019 ◽  
pp. 244-263
Author(s):  
David Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Educational Policy ◽  
History Of Education ◽  
The State ◽  
University Teachers ◽  
Nazi Ideology ◽  
Foreign Office ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Post War ◽  
German Universities

This chapter examines the work of E.R. Dodds during preparations for the post-war occupation of Germany. In 1940, Dodds joined Arnold Toynbee’s ‘Foreign Research and Press Service’, which had moved to Oxford, and he began to work on the history of education in Germany. Arnold’s group eventually became the Foreign Office Research Department (FORD), and Dodds produced for it lengthy memoranda to inform others working on the subject. He also lectured at many meetings and published a pamphlet, Minds in the Making, a study of the hollowness and barbarity of Nazi ideology and its effects on education. For FORD he also chaired committees on re-education and on textbook production. In 1947, he led a delegation to Germany of the Association of University Teachers, which produced a damning report on the state of German universities. He proved to be one of the most significant people involved in shaping educational policy as it developed in the British Zone of Germany.

Divine Attributes as a Topic in Analytic Theology

2020 ◽  
pp. 83-97
Author(s):  
Michael C. Rea
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Analytic Approach ◽  
Divine Attributes ◽  
Distinctive Character ◽  
Philosophical Literature ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Distinguishing Features ◽  
The Way

Analytic theology differs from other forms of theology primarily in its methodology: its ambitions, its style, its conversation partners, and so on. This is where the most interesting differences between analytic philosophical discussions of the divine attributes and contemporary theological discussions of that topic are to be found. The main positive thesis of this chapter is that the most distinctive features of the approach to divine attributes that one finds in the analytic philosophical literature are simply instances of more general distinctives of analytic theology. The chapter focuses on some of the distinguishing features of the way in which the topic of divine attributes is approached in analytic philosophy of religion as contrasted with the way(s) in which many contemporary theologians are inclined to approach it. The end result is a clearer picture both of the nature of analytic theology in general and of the distinctive character of an analytic approach to the topic of divine attributes.

Nygren, Anders (1890–1978)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diogenes Allen
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Liberal Theology

Nygren hoped to recover the uniqueness of Christianity from the impurities introduced by the attempts of nineteenth-century liberal theology to free it from metaphysical speculation and confessional dogmatism. He aimed to do this by grounding all religion in an analytic philosophy of religion which would enable him to stress the objective character of Christian theology in contrast to the arbitrariness of confessional theology. He achieved international influence by his claim in Agapē and Eros (1930–6) that the uniqueness of Christianity is love in the sense of agapē, as opposed to Platonic eros.

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