Readings in Philosophy of Religion: Ancient to Contemporary

General Introduction.

I The Philosophical Treatment of Religion.

Introduction.

1 The Nature of the Gods, Book 1 (Cicero).

II Classical Arguments for Theism.

Introduction.

A Teleological Arguments .

1 The Design Argument (Cicero).

2 The Fifth Way (Thomas Aquinas).

3 The Watch and the Watchmaker (William Paley).

4 Critique of the Design Argument (David Hume).

5 The Teleological Argument (Robin Collins).

6 The Argument from the Appearance of Design (J. J. C. Smart).

B Cosmological Arguments.

1 Plato’s Cosmological Argument (Plato).

2 The Eternality of Motion and the Unmoved Mover (Aristotle).

3 The Kalām Cosmological Argument (Al-Ghazali).

4 The Existence and Oneness of God (Moses Maimonides).

5 The First Three Ways (Thomas Aquinas).

6 The Argument from Dependent Beings (Samuel Clarke).

7 Critique of the Cosmological Argument (David Hume).

C Ontological Arguments.

1 Anselm’s Ontological Argument (Anselm).

2 Descartes’s Ontological Argument (René Descartes).

3 Kant’s Critique of the Three Traditional Proofs (Immanuel Kant).

4 The Ontological Argument (Alvin Plantinga).

III: Other Approaches to Religious Belief.

Introduction.

A Experience and Revelation as Grounds for Religious Belief.

1 The Numinous (Rudolf Otto).

2 Mysticism and Religious Experience (William J Wainwright).

3 The Existence of God and the Existence of Homer: Rethinking Theism and Revelatory Claims (Sandra Menssen and Thomas D. Sullivan).

B Fideism.

1 Truth is Subjectivity (Søren Kierkegaard).

2 Kierkegaard’s Arguments against Objective Reasoning in Religion (Robert M Adams).

3 Lectures on Religious Belief (Ludwig Wittgenstein).

C Naturalistic Re-interpretations of Religious Belief.

1 Origin of Religion (David Hume).

2 The Essence of Religion in General (Ludwig Feuerbach).

3 The Future of an Illusion (Sigmund Freud).

IV: Who or What is God?.

Introduction.

1 On Being (Melissus of Samos).

2 The Final Cause (Aristotle).

3 The Divine Darkness (Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite).

4 Perfect Being (Anselm).

5 On the Trinity (Richard of St Victor).

6 Omnipotence (Peter Geach).

7 Omniscience and Immutability (Norman Kretzmann).

8 Atemporal Personhood (William L Craig).

V: Fate, Freedom, and Foreknowledge.

Introduction.

1 The Sea Battle Argument (Aristotle).

2 On Fate and On Divination (Cicero).

3 God’s Timeless Knowing (Boethius).

4 Ockham on God’s Foreknowledge, and Future Contingents (Marilyn Adams).

5 Middle Knowledge (William Hasker).

VI: Religion and Morality.

Introduction.

A Is Religion Needed for Morality?

1 God is the Measure of All Things (Plato).

2 The Moral Argument for the Existence of God (Immanuel Kant).

B Devine Command Theory and Devine Motivation Theory.

1 The Euthyphro Dilemma (Plato).

2 Questions on the Books of the Sentences (Pierre d’Ailly).

3 Lectures on Romans (Martin Luther).

4 Divine Commands (Robert M Adams).

5 The Virtues of God and the Foundations of Ethics (Linda Zagzebski).

C Natural Law.

1 Selections from Treatise on Law (Thomas Aquinas).

VII: The Problem of Evil.

Introduction.

1 God is Not the Author of Evil (Plato).

2 On the Anger of God (Lactantius).

3 That Which Is, Is Good (Augustine).

4 On the Free Choice of the Will (Augustine).

5 Formal Summary of the Theodicy (Gottfried Leibniz).

6 Myth of the Goddess Pallas (Gottfried Leibniz).

7 Evil and Omnipotence (J L Mackie).

8 The Free Will Defense (Alvin Plantinga).

9 Soul-making Theodicy (John Hick).

10 Friendly Atheism, Skeptical Theism, and the Problem of Evil (William L Rowe).

11 Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God (Marilyn Adams).

VIII: Death and Immortality.

Introduction.

1 Death is Nothing to Us (Epicurus).

2 Death (Thomas Nagel).

B Life after Death.

1 The Separation of the Soul from the Body (Plato).

2 The Future Life (Averroes (Ibn Rushd)).

3 The Possibility of Immortality (René Descartes).

4 Personal Identity and Consciousness (John Locke).

5 Do We Survive Death (Bertrand Russell)?

6 Religious and Near-death Experiences in Relation to Belief in a Future Life (Paul Badham).

IX: The Diversity of Religions.

Introduction.

1 Religious Pluralism and Salvation (John Hick).

2 The Bodhgaya Interview (1981) (The Dalai Lama).

3 Christianity and the Non-Christian Religions (Karl Rahner).

4 Self-trust and the Diversity of Religions (Linda Zagzebski).

X: Faith, Reason, and the Ethics of Belief.

Introduction.

A Faith and Reason.

1 How Justin Found Philosophy (Justin Martyr).

2 Prescriptions against the Heretics (Tertullian).

3 In What Respect Philosophy Contributes to the Comprehension of Divine Truth (Clement of Alexandria).

4 The Decisive Treatise, Determining the Nature of the Connection between Religion and Philosophy (Averroes (Ibn Rushd)).

5 Faith and Reason (Thomas Aquinas).

6 Belief in God is Natural (John Calvin).

7 Faith, Reason, and Enthusiasm (John Locke).

8 Return to Reason: The Irrationality of Evidentialism (Kelly James Clark).

B Pragmatism and the Ethics of Belief.

1 The Wager (Blaise Pascal).

2 Pascalian Wagering (Thomas V Morris).

3 The Ethics of Belief (W K Clifford).

4 The Will to Believe (William James).

XI: Science, Religion, and Naturalism.

Introduction.

A Miracles.

1 Miracles (Thomas Aquinas).

2 A Discourse of Miracles (John Locke).

3 Of Miracles (David Hume).

4 David Hume and the Probability of Miracles (George I Mavrodes).

B Science, Religion, and Naturalism.

1 Letter to Castelli (Galileo Galilei).

2 Signs of Intelligence (William A Dembski).

3 Atheism and Evolution (Daniel C Dennett).

4 Darwin, Design, and Divine Providence (John F Haught).

5 How Naturalism Implies Skepticism (Alvin Plantinga).

6 A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand: Plantinga on the Self-defeat of Evolutionary Naturalism (Timothy O’Connor).