This textbook/anthology maps out the major controversies and key positions in the philosophy of religion. The traditional arguments for the existence of God are presented and critiqued (one is tempted to say, refuted), as is the argument from religious experience. The book then moves on to those other, equally thorny, problems — evil, the attributes of God, miracles, revelation, death, and immortality. Chapters also consider the relationship between faith and reason (currently a trial separation, with visitation rights), scientific and religious perspectives on evolution, the possibility of religious pluralism, and the connection between religion and ethics. The historical heavyweights are well represented, with excerpts from Aquinas, Hume, Anselm, Kant, James, Freud, Leibniz, Augustine, Plato, Russell, Pascal, Wittgenstein, and Kierkegaard. ~ Booknews

Table of Contents

• • Preface. Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion.
• PART I: TRADITIONAL ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
  • The Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God.
  • St. Thomas Aquinas: “The Five Ways.”
  • Samuel Clarke: “The Argument from Contingency.”
  • Paul Edwards: “A Critique of the Cosmological Argument.”
  • William Rowe: “An Examination of the Cosmological Argument.”
  • William Lane Craig: “The Kalam Cosmological Argument.”
  • Paul Draper: “A Critique of the Kalam Cosmological Argument.”
  • William Lane Craig: “Scientific Confirmation of the Cosmological Argument.”
  • The Teleological Argument for the Existence of God.
  • William Paley: “The Watch and the Watchmaker.”
  • David Hume: “A Critique of the Design Argument.”
  • Richard Swinburne: “The Argument from Design.”
  • The Ontological Argument.
  • Anselm and Gaunilo: “The Ontological Argument.”
  • Kant: “Critique of the Ontological Argument.”
  • Alvin Plantinga: “The Ontological Argument.”
  • William Rowe: “The Modal Version of the Ontological Argument.”
  • J.N. Findlay: “God’s Existence is Impossible.”
• PART II: ON THE VALIDITY OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE.
  • Selection of Mystic Experiences.
  • William James: “The Varieties of Religious Experience.”
  • C.D. Broad: “The Argument from Religious Experience.”
  • Wallace Matson: “Skepticism on Religious Experience.”
  • William Alston: “Religious Experience and Religious Belief.”
  • Louis Pojman: “A Critique of Arguments for the Validity of Religious Experience.”
  • Bibliography.
• PART III: THE PROBLEM OF EVIL AND OTHER ATHEOLOGICAL ARGUMENTS.
  • David Hume: “The Argument from Evil.”
  • Leibniz: “Theodicy.”
  • John Hick: “Evil, Theodicy, and Soul-Making.”
  • Edward Madden and Peter Hare: “A Critique of Hick’s Soul-Making Theodicy.”
  • John Mackie: “The Problem of Evil Proves Atheism.”
  • Alvin Plantinga: “The Free Will Defense.”
  • William Rowe: “The Inductive Argument from Evil Against the Existence of God.”
  • Sigmund Freud: “The Future of an Illusion.”
  • Paul Draper: “Evolution and the Problem of Evil.”
  • Bibliography.
• PART IV: THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.
  • Time and Eternity.
  • Stephen T. Davis: “Temporal Eternity.”
  • Hugh McCann: “Timeless Eternity.”
  • Omniscience and Freedom.
  • St. Thomas Aquinas: “Does God’s Omniscience Preclude Human Freedom?”
  • Nelson Pike: “God’s Omniscience Does Preclude Human Freedom.”
  • Alvin Plantinga: “God’s Omniscience Does Not Preclude Human Freedom.”
  • Omnipotence.
  • St. Thomas Aquinas: “Is God’s Power Limited?”
  • George Mavrodes: “Some Puzzles Concerning Omnipotence.”
  • Harry Frankfurt: “The Logic of Omnipotence.”
  • Nelson Pike: “Omnipotence and God’s Ability to Sin.”
  • Bibliography.
• PART V: MIRACLES AND REVELATION.
  • David Hume: “Against Miracles.”
  • Richard Swinburne: “For the Possibility of Miracles.”
  • J. L. Mackie: “Miracles and Testimony.”
  • Richard Purtill: “Miracles: What if They Happened?”
  • Richard Swinburne: “Miracles and Revelation.”
  • Biblography.
• PART VI: DEATH AND IMMORTALITY.
  • Plato: “Immortality of the Soul.”
  • David Hume: “Skepticism over Immortality of the Soul.”
  • Bertrand Russell: “The Finality of Death.”
  • John Hick: “On Immortality and Resurrection.”
  • Paul Edwards: “Against Survival: The Dependence of Consciousness on the Brain.”
  • Jeffrey Olen: “Personal Identity and Life after Death.”
  • Peter Van Inwagen: “The Possibility of Resurrection.”
  • Bibliography.
• PART VII: FAITH AND REASON.
  • The Challenge to Faith.
  • Anthony Flew, R. M. Hare, and Basil Mitchell: “Theology and Falsification.”
  • Michael Scriven: “The Presumption of Atheism.”
  • C. S. Lewis: “The Legitimacy of Belief.”
  • Pragmatic Justification of Religious Belief.
  • Blaise Pascal: “The Wager.”
  • W. K. Clifford: “The Ethics of Belief.”
  • William James: “The Will to Believe.”
  • Fideism: Faith Without/Against Reason.
  • Soren Kierkegaard: “Subjectivity and Truth.”
  • Robert Adams: “Kierkegaard’s Argument Against Objective Reasoning in Religion.”
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein: “A Lecture on Religious Belief.”
  • Norman Malcolm: “The Groundlessness of Religious Belief.”
  • Michael Martin: “A Critique of Fideism.”
  • Rationality and Justified Religious Belief.
  • John Hick: “Rational Theistic Belief without Proof.”
  • Alvin Plantinga: “Religious Belief without Evidence.”
  • Michael Martin: “A Critique of Plantinga’s Religious Epistemology.”
  • Louis Pojman: “Rationality and Religious Belief.”
  • Louis Pojman: “Faith, Doubt, and Hope.”
  • Bibliography.
• PART VIII: RELIGIOUS PLURALISM.
  • John Hick: “The New Map of the Universe of Faiths: A Defense of Religious Pluralism.”
  • Alvin Plantinga: “Pluralism: A Defense of Religious Exclusivism.”
  • David Basinger: “Reformed Epistemology and Hick’s Religious Pluralism.”
  • Paul Tillich: “Faith as Ultimate Concern.”
  • Joseph Runzo: “God, Commitment, and Other Faiths: Pluralism vs Relativism.”
  • Bibliography.
• PART IX: ETHICS AND RELIGION.
  • Plato: “On the Divine Command Theory of Morality.”
  • Patrick Nowell-Smith: “Morality: Religious and Secular.”
  • George Mavrodes: “Religion and the Queerness of Morality.”
  • Bibliography.