The Virtue Of Faith And Other Essays In Philosophical Theology

This collection brings together for the first time most of the work that Robert Merrihew Adams has contributed to the philosophy of religion. The sixteen essays, two never before published, include influential studies on several aspects of the relation between religion and ethics, including a comprehensive discussion of moral arguments for theistic belief, as well as treatments of the existence of God and the problem of evil in light of contemporary ideas about the metaphysics of individuality and modality. Adams defends belief in God from an epistemological standpoint that he characterizes as "skeptical realism."

Robert Merrihew Adams has been a leader in renewing philosophical respect for the idea that moral obligation may be founded on the commands of God. This collection of Adams' essays, two of which are previously unpublished, draws from his extensive writings on philosophical theology that discuss metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical issues surrounding the concept of God--whether God exists or not, what God is or would be like, and how we ought to relate ourselves to such a being. Adams studies the relation between religion and ethics, delving into an analysis of moral arguments for theistic belief. In several essays, he applies contemporary studies in the metaphysics of individuality, possibility and necessity, and counterfactual conditionals to issues surrounding the existence of God and problems of evil.

Faith lies at the heart of human life, and not just in religious contexts. But just what is faith? In this book William Lad Sessions ventures a new approach to this age-old problem. Viewing it in global terms, he provides an effective and insightful set of analytical tools for deepening our understanding of the ideas of belief.

When this book was originally published in 1957 there had been lively debates on the air and in the press about the bearing of modern philosophy upon Christianity, but there had been relatively little sustained discussion of the subject. This book of essays was the product of a small group of Oxford philosophers and theologians, who had met and talked informally for some years before writing it. It is an attempt to discuss with care and candour some of the problems raised for Christian belief by contemporary analytical philosophy. In asking the questions raised, this book makes articulate the perplexities of many intelligent people, both believers and unbelievers. The contributors concentrate on the way such concepts as God, Revelation, the Soul, Grace are actually used rather than asserting or denying some very general theory of meaning.

These essays consider the three traditional theological virtues—faith, hope, and love—alongside their opposites—doubt, despair, and hate, from a scholarly perspective. The volume includes contributions not just from philosophers of religion, but also from psychologists, sociologists, and film and literature scholars, to paint a complex and nuanced picture of these virtues, both of how we might understand them, and how we can hope to embody them ourselves. While these virtues make up a core part of the Christian tradition, the chapters here go far and wide in search of different cultural conceptions of these universal human concerns. Inquiries are made into these virtues within Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, and Islamic thought, alongside philosophers including Aristotle, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Levinas, and Murdoch. The resulting tapestry is often beautiful, sometimes horrific, but always thoroughly human. This text appeals to students and researchers working in these fields. Chapter [9] is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion draws on the expertise of an international team of scholars providing both an entry point into the sociological study and understanding of religion and an in-depth survey into its changing forms and content in the contemporary world. The role and impact of religion and spirituality on the politics, culture, education and health in the modern world is rigorously discussed and debated. The study of the sociology of religion forges interdisciplinary links to explore aspects of continuity and change in the contemporary interface between society and religion. Using a combination of theoretical, methodological and content-led approaches, the fifty-seven contributors collectively emphasise the complex relationships between religion and aspects of life from scientific research to law, ecology to art, music to cognitive science, crime to institutional health care and more. The developing character of religion, irreligion and atheism and the impact of religious diversity on social cohesion are explored. An overview of current scholarship in the field is provided in each themed chapter with an emphasis on encouraging new thinking and reflection on familiar and emergent themes to stimulate further debate and scholarship. The resulting essay collection provides an invaluable resource for research and teaching in this diverse discipline.

What is the philosophy of religion? How can we distinguish it from theology on the one hand and the psychology/sociology of religious belief on the other? What does it mean to describe God as 'eternal'? And should religious people want there to be good arguments for the existence of God, or is religious belief only authentic in the absence of these good arguments? In this Very Short Introduction Tim Bayne introduces the field of philosophy of religion, and engages with some of the most burning questions that philosophers discuss. Considering how 'religion' should be defined, and whether we even need to be able to define it in order to engage in the philosophy of religion, he goes on to discuss whether the existence of God matters. Exploring the problem of evil, Bayne also debates the connection between faith and reason, and the related question of what role reason should play in religious contexts. Shedding light on the relationship between science and religion, Bayne finishes by considering the topics of reincarnation and the afterlife. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

First Published in 2004. God and Goodness takes the experience of value as a starting point for natural theology. Mark Wynn argues that theism offers our best understanding of the goodness of the world, especially its beauty and openness to the development of richer and more complex material forms. We also see that the world's goodness calls for a moral response: commitment to the goodness of the world represents a natural extension of the trust to which we aspire in our dealings with human beings. Wynn argues that the goodness of the world provides a glimpse into what we should mean by 'God'. Here, he seeks to recover the mediaeval sense that the goodness of the world offers an image of the goodness of God, not simply in relation to the world, but in itself. This book will be an invaluable read for those interested in natural theology and philosophy of religion.