Professor David Stewart called upon his 30 years of teaching experience to introduce readers to the important study of faith and reason. Beginning students often find primary sources alone too difficult so this text offers primary source materials by a variety of significant philosophers–including a balanced blend of classical and contemporary authors–but the materials are supported by clearly written introductions, which better prepare readers to understand the subject matter.
Preface
Chapter One
The Varieties of Religious Experience
Introduction: Philosophy and Religion
Mystical Experience
Mysticism, William James
Intuitive Ways of Knowing
Personal Experience of God, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Critique of Mysticism
The Core of Religion, Walter Kaufmann
Varieties of Religious Understanding
The Pluralistic Hypothesis, John Hick
Retrospective: Religious Experience
Additional Sources
Chapter Two
Religion and Life
Introduction: Religion and Life
Life’s Goal Is to Obey God’s Will
Moral Obligation, William Paley
Life’s Goal Is to Achieve Greatness
The Joyful Wisdom, Friederich Nietzsche
Life Is Not Meaningful Without God
A Confession, Leo Tolstoy
Life Is Meaningful Without God
Ethics Without Religion, Kai Nielsen
Retrospective: Religion and Life
Additional Sources
Chapter Three
Religion and Human Destiny
Introduction: Religion and Death
The Immortality of the Soul
Phaedo, Plato
The Finality of Death
Letter to Menoeceus, Epicurus
The Hope for Resurrection
The Death of Death, NeilGillmann
Death in Buddhism
The Doctrine of No-Soul: Annata, Walpola Rahula
Retrospective: Religion and Death
Additional Sources
Chapter Four
Arguments for God’s Existence
Introduction: The Existence of God
The Ontological Argument
The Most Perfect Being, René Descartes
The Cosmological Argument
The Kalam Cosmological Argument, William Lane Craig
The Design Argument
Natural Theology, William Paley
The Moral Argument
God and Moral Reasoning, Immanuel Kant
Retrospective: The Existence of God
Additional Sources
Chapter Five
The Problem of Evil
Introduction: God and Evil
Evil and the Power of God
Divine Omnipotence, C. S. Lewis
Theodicy in Process Thought
God in Process, David Ray Griffin
Karma and Evil
Karma in Hindu Thought, Wendy Doniger
The “Vale of Soul-Making Theodicy”
Evil and the God of Love, John Hick
Retrospective: God and Evil
Additional Sources
Chapter Six
Faith and Reason
Introduction: Opinion, Belief, Knowledge
Belief and Falsification
The Falsification Debate, Antony Flew, R. M. Hare, Basil Mitchell
Will and Belief
The Will to Believe, William James
No Rational Basis for Faith
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, David Hume
The Leap of Faith
Objective and Subjective Reflection, Søren Kierkegaard
Retrospective: Faith and Reason
Additional Sources
Chapter Seven
Religion and Current Issues
Religion and Government
A Letter Concerning Toleration, John Locke
Religion and Women
The Female Nature of God, Rosemary Ruether
Religion and World Origins
Creative Evolution, Henri Bergson
Religion and Human Origins
Life’s Dominions, Ronald Dworkin
Retrospective
Additional Sources
Biographical Summaries
Glossary
Index