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Believing Philosophy

Author : Dolores G. Morris

Publisher : Zondervan Academic

Page : 272 pages

File Size : 46,42 MB

Release : 2021-11-23

Category : Religion

ISBN : 031010954X

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Book Description

Believing Philosophy introduces Christians to philosophy and the tools it provides believers, helping them understand, articulate, and defend their faith in an age of unbelief. Philosophy has been a part of Christianity since its earliest days, and theistic philosophy predates Christianity by thousands of years. But Christians today often don't realize or are skeptical of all that philosophy can offer them. In Part 1, author Dolores G. Morris explains why Christians should read and study philosophy. She begins with a historical overview of Christian philosophy from the church fathers to contemporary philosophers and then introduces the basic resources of philosophical reasoning: the role and aim of reason, distinctions between truth and reason and provability, and learning to read like a philosopher. These chapters address three foundational questions: What is philosophy? Why should a Christian study philosophy? How should a Christian study philosophy? In Part 2, Morris introduces students to philosophical arguments and questions relevant to Christians. She presents arguments by three key branches of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, and practical philosophy. Building on concepts introduced in Part 1, she explains what philosophical arguments are and how they ought to be evaluated from a philosophical and Christian perspective. The following chapters examine specific questions most pressing for Christians today: The problem of evil Rationality and faith Free will Skeptical theism The moral argument for the existence of God Reformed epistemology Each chapter introduces the problem, explains Christian responses, discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each response, and leaves the final verdict to the reader. Finally, each chapter concludes with a list of recommended further readings.



Believing Philosophy

Author : Dolores G. Morris

Publisher : Zondervan Academic

Page : 240 pages

File Size : 23,94 MB

Release : 2021-11-23

Category :

ISBN : 9780310109525

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Book Description

Believing Philosophy introduces Christians to philosophy and the tools it offers believers, helping them understand, articulate, and defend their faith in an age of unbelief.



Philosophy, Reasoned Belief, and Faith

Author : Paul Herrick

Publisher : University of Notre Dame Pess

Page : 624 pages

File Size : 49,19 MB

Release : 2022-06-01

Category : Philosophy

ISBN : 0268202672

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Book Description

This clear, readable introduction to philosophy presents a traditional theistic view of the existence of God. There are many fine introductions to philosophy, but few are written for students of faith by a teacher who is sensitive to the intellectual challenges they face studying in an environment that is often hostile to religious belief. Many introductory texts present short, easy-to-refute synopses of the traditional arguments for God’s existence, the soul, free will, and objective moral value rooted in God’s nature, usually followed by strong objections stated as if they are the last word. This formula may make philosophy easier to digest, but it gives many students the impression that there are no longer any good reasons to accept the beliefs just mentioned. Philosophy, Reasoned Belief, and Faith is written for philosophy instructors who want their students to take a deeper look at the classic theistic arguments and who believe that many traditional views can be rigorously defended against the strongest objections. The book is divided into four sections, focusing on philosophy of religion, an introduction to epistemology, philosophy of the human person, and philosophical ethics. The text challenges naturalism, the predominant outlook in the academic world today, while postmodernist relativism and skepticism are also examined and rejected. Students of faith—and students without faith—will deepen their worldviews by thoughtfully examining the philosophical arguments that are presented in this book. Philosophy, Reasoned Belief, and Faith will appeal to Christian teachers, analytic theists, home educators, and general readers interested in the classic arguments supporting a theistic worldview.



Belief in God

Author : T. J. Mawson

Publisher : Oxford University Press

Page : 283 pages

File Size : 30,7 MB

Release : 2005

Category : Philosophy

ISBN : 0199276315

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Book Description

"Belief in God answers two questions: what, if anything, is it that Jews, Christians, and Muslims are agreeing about when they join in claiming that there is a God; and what, if any, prospects are there for rationally defending or attacking this claim?" "In the context of a sustained argument for particular answers to these questions, Tim Mawson tackles many of the most prominent topics in the philosophy of religion. He argues that those who believe that there is a God are best interpreted as believing that there is a being who is essentially personal, transcendent, immanent, omnipotent, omniscient, eternal, perfectly free, perfectly good, and necessary; and non-essentially creator of the world and value; revealer of Himself; and offerer of everlasting life. Having explored the meaning and consistency of this conception of God in the first half of the book, Mawson goes on to consider whether or not belief or the absence of belief in such a God might be the sort of thing that does not rationally require argument and, if not, what the criteria for a good argument for or against such a God's existence might be."--BOOK JACKET.





Don't Think for Yourself

Author : Peter Adamson

Publisher : University of Notre Dame Pess

Page : 249 pages

File Size : 39,41 MB

Release : 2022-10-15

Category : Philosophy

ISBN : 0268203385

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Book Description

How do we judge whether we should be willing to follow the views of experts or whether we ought to try to come to our own, independent views? This book seeks the answer in medieval philosophical thought. In this engaging study into the history of philosophy and epistemology, Peter Adamson provides an answer to a question as relevant today as it was in the medieval period: how and when should we turn to the authoritative expertise of other people in forming our own beliefs? He challenges us to reconsider our approach to this question through a constructive recovery of the intellectual and cultural traditions of the Islamic world, the Byzantine Empire, and Latin Christendom. Adamson begins by foregrounding the distinction in Islamic philosophy between taqlīd, or the uncritical acceptance of authority, and ijtihād, or judgment based on independent effort, the latter of which was particularly prized in Islamic law, theology, and philosophy during the medieval period. He then demonstrates how the Islamic tradition paves the way for the development of what he calls a “justified taqlīd,” according to which one develops the skills necessary to critically and selectively follow an authority based on their reliability. The book proceeds to reconfigure our understanding of the relation between authority and independent thought in the medieval world by illuminating how women found spaces to assert their own intellectual authority, how medieval writers evaluated the authoritative status of Plato and Aristotle, and how independent reasoning was deployed to defend one Abrahamic faith against the other. This clear and eloquently written book will interest scholars in and enthusiasts of medieval philosophy, Islamic studies, Byzantine studies, and the history of thought.



The Hiddenness Argument

Author : J. L. Schellenberg

Publisher : OUP Oxford

Page : 157 pages

File Size : 38,55 MB

Release : 2015-07-02

Category : Philosophy

ISBN : 0191047376

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Book Description

In many places and times, and for many people, God's existence has been rather less than a clear fact. According to the hiddenness argument, this is actually a reason to suppose that it is not a fact at all. The hiddenness argument is a new argument for atheism that has come to prominence in philosophy over the past two decades. J. L. Schellenberg first developed the argument in 1993, and this book offers a short and vigorous statement of its central claims and ideas. Logically sharp but so clear that anyone can understand, the book addresses little-discussed issues such as why it took so long for hiddenness reasoning to emerge in philosophy, and how the hiddenness problem is distinct from the problem of evil. It concludes with the fascinating thought that retiring the last of the personal gods might leave us nearer the beginning of religion than the end. Though an atheist, Schellenberg writes sensitively and with a nuanced insider's grasp of the religious life. Pertinent aspects of his experience as a believer and as a nonbeliever, and of his own engagement with hiddenness issues, are included. Set in this personal context, and against an authoritative background on relevant logical, conceptual, and historical matters, The Hiddenness Argument's careful but provocative reasoning makes crystal clear just what this new argument is and why it matters.



Critiques of God

Author : Peter Adam Angeles

Publisher :

Page : 404 pages

File Size : 13,22 MB

Release : 1997

Category : Religion

ISBN :

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Book Description

Essays on atheism by Kurt Baier, John Dewey, Paul Edwards, Antony Flew, Sigmund Freud, Erich Fromm, Sidney Hook, Walter Kaufmann, Corliss Lamont, Wallace I. Matson, H.J. McCloskey, Ernest Nagel, Kai Nielsen, Richard Robinson, Bertrand Russell, and Michael Scriven.



Cicero on the Philosophy of Religion

Author : J. P. F. Wynne

Publisher : Cambridge University Press

Page : 321 pages

File Size : 25,74 MB

Release : 2019-10-17

Category : History

ISBN : 1107070481

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Book Description

Do the gods love you? Cicero gives deep and surprising answers in two philosophical dialogues on traditional Roman religion.



The Predicament of Belief

Author : Philip Clayton

Publisher : OUP Oxford

Page : 261 pages

File Size : 36,91 MB

Release : 2011-10-27

Category : Religion

ISBN : 019162067X

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Book Description

Does it make sense - can it make sense - for someone who appreciates the explanatory power of modern science to continue believing in a traditional religious account of the ultimate nature and purpose of our universe? This book is intended for those who care about that question and are dissatisfied with the rigid dichotomies that dominate the contemporary debate. The extremists won't be interested - those who assume that science answers all the questions that matter, and those so certain of their religious faith that dialogue with science, philosophy, or other faith traditions seems unnecessary. But far more people today recognize that matters of faith are complex, that doubt is endemic to belief, and that dialogue is indispensable in our day. In eight probing chapters, the authors of The Predicament of Belief consider the most urgent reasons for doubting that religious claims - in particular, those embedded in the Christian tradition - are likely to be true. They develop a version of Christian faith that preserves the tradition's core insights but also gauges the varying degrees of certainty with which those insights can still be affirmed. Along the way, they address such questions as the ultimate origin of the universe, the existence of innocent suffering, the challenge of religious plurality, and how to understand the extraordinary claim that an ancient teacher rose from the dead. They end with a discussion of what their conclusions imply about the present state and future structure of churches and other communities in which Christian affirmations are made.