Preface

Summary

Anyone going to a major university library and searching for books on “philosophy of religion” would think that this area of philosophy was quite new. By all appearances, it would seem that the philosophy of religion emerged sometime in the middle of the twentieth century, and then blossomed rapidly over the period between then and now. Yet this appearance would be deceiving. Philosophical reflection on religious themes has been a central part of philosophy from the time of its origin to the present. In the Western philosophical tradition this is due at least in part to the fact that most philosophers in the West either have been theists themselves or have written in intellectual climates dominated by theistic presuppositions. Yet while philosophy of religion is not itself new, what is new is the attempt to tease out some of the questions that philosophers raise when discussing religion and to treat them together under a single heading. That is what contemporary philosophers of religion do, and it is what this book aims to do as well.

Some of the issues that philosophers raise when discussing religion are of perennial interest: Is there a God? How could God permit evil? Does morality depend on God in some fashion? And so on. Other questions become more or less important as the discipline of philosophy itself changes and the culture in which this philosophical reflection goes on changes.