Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion

This is the first book in Blackwell’s “Contemporary Debates” textbook series. It is
designed to feature some of the most important current controversies in the philosophy
of religion. In the Western philosophical tradition, theism – the belief that an
omnipotent, omniscient, wholly good God exists – has been the focus of much philosophical
debate and discussion. Although not a living religion itself, theism forms a
significant conceptual component of three living religions: Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam. Moreover, beliefs within living religions – particularly beliefs of the historic
Christian faith – have also occupied the attention of philosophers of religion. So, in
staking out the territory for this book, we selected some issues related to classical
theism and some related to Christian faith in particular. Most Anglo-American philosophy is oriented toward the rigorous analysis of ideas, arguments, and positions – and this orientation certainly flourishes in the
philosophical treatment of religion. Since the analytic
approach lends itself to crisp,
straightforward debate, we have made “debate” the central motif of the book. With
its most notable origins in Socratic dialectic, debate is essentially the interplay
between opposing positions. Each debate here is organized around a key question on
which recognized experts take drastically different positions. For each question, one
expert on the subject presents an affirmative position and develops his or her argument,
and another presents a negative position with a corresponding argument. Brief
responses are also included to allow writers to clarify further their own positions,
identify weaknesses in the opposing position, and point out directions for further discussion.
Each debate on a given question has a short editorial introduction, and then
the following structure: affirmative essay, negative essay, reply to negative position,
reply to positive position.
Teach the conflicts! We are convinced of the pedagogical value of teaching
vigorous, well-argued debate for encouraging students to sharpen their own critical
abilities and formulate their own points of view. The noteworthy growth and vibrancy
of contemporary philosophy of religion provide a wide range of exciting topics for
debate. From this rich vein of discussion, we have chosen topics that fall into three
general categories: those involving attacks on religious belief, those involving arguments
for religious belief, and those involving internal evaluation of the coherence
or appropriateness of certain religious beliefs. In the first two categories, the debates
are waged between theists and nontheists; in the last category, the debates are largely
between religious believers who differ over the implications of their faith commitments.
In all, these debates provide an ideal format not simply for students but also
for professional philosophers and interested nonprofessionals to explore issues in the
philosophy of religion.

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