PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION[1]

Briercrest College

PHI455

                                                                             

 

Joel L. From, Ph.D.                                                                    Office: Room # 132

Fall 2006                                                                                   Office Hours: M/W 4:00-5:00

3 Credit Hours                                                                           Office Phone: 756-3203

<jfrom@briercrest.ca>                                                                Home Phone: 756-2847

Web-page: www.joelfrom.com

 

 

COURSE TEXTBOOKS:

 

Peterson. Michael et al., ed. Reason and Religious Belief: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion. 3d ed.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.  ISBN: 0195156951.  [Hereafter, R&RB]

 

Peterson, Michael et al., ed. Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings. 3d ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.  ISBN: 0195188292.  [Hereafter, PR]

 

Course Package: Each student is required to purchase a Philosophy of Religion course package from the bookstore. The bookstore will send your instructor a notice to confirm your purchase.

 

Class Notes:  Each student is required to purchase a voucher for the Philosophy of Religion class notes at the bookstore. These notes will be distributed throughout the term. The bookstore will send your instructor a notice to confirm your purchase.

 

Quick Reference Format Guide 2006-2007: Each student is required to have a copy of the current Briercrest College Format Guide. If you do not possess one, purchase one at the bookstore.

 

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

 

N. B.: The topics covered in the philosophy of religion unit in PHI101 will not be revisited in this course.

 

A.      To familiarize students with some of the major debates in contemporary philosophy of religion.

 

B.      To develop students’ abilities to assess formal philosophical arguments.

 

C.      To increase students’ awareness of the relation between philosophical issues, other disciplines, and the questions of everyday life.

 

D.      To develop students’ philosophical research, writing, peer-review, and public defense competencies.

 

 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

 

A.      Each student will read the Required Readings prior to the relevant class session. Students will be assigned a grade for their class participation. Your instructor reserves the right to give unannounced quizzes on the required readings if necessary. 

          Value:          10%

 

B.      Each student will participate in a semester-long project involving philosophical research, writing, peer-review, and public defense. In order to accomplish this, each student will select an important issue within philosophy of religion. (Please clear your topic with your instructor.) It is imperative that your project focus on a philosophy of religion issue.

 

Each student will produce a draft of a thesis-defense paper (10-12 pages in length) on this philosophical problem by November 9, 2006. Students should bring copies of their drafts for their peers in their evaluation group as well as their instructor.

 

Each student is expected to produce a 2-3 page evaluation of the argument contained in their peers’ drafts. By November 16th a copy of each peer’s evaluation should be returned to the draft’s author and to your instructor. By November 23rd your instructor will provide an evaluation of each draft and the peer-to-peer evaluations. Students will be expected to revise their papers in light of these evaluations.

 

Oral defenses of the second drafts will occur between November 30th and December 7th. Students will be randomly assigned to defense dates. Class periods may be modified in order to accommodate the defenses. Please give your instructor a copy of your presentation (second) draft 24 hours prior to your defense. He will make copies for each member of the class.

 

Each student will submit a final draft of his or her paper no later than 5:00 p.m. on December 12th. These drafts must be clearly responsive to the issues raised orally and in the written comments of your evaluators.

 

The grade for this project is itemized as follows:

 

Assignment

Value

Due Date

 

 

 

First Draft

20%

Nov. 9

Evaluations

10%

Nov. 16

Second Draft

15%

24 hours prior to defense

Oral Defense

10%

As scheduled

Final Draft

5%

Dec. 12

 

 

C.      Each student will build a portfolio of his or her work in the class. Your portfolio must accompany each draft submitted to your instructor. Submissions without portfolios will not be accepted.

 

D.      Each student will write a Final Exam (as scheduled by the Registrar) worth 30% of the final grade.

 

 

 

 

COURSE OUTLINE AND REQUIRED READINGS:

 

Unit

Section Title

Required Readings

 

 

 

 

Introduction

R&RB, Chapter 1

 

 

 

Unit 1.

Faith and Reason

R&RB, Chapter 3

 

 

James, PR, 110-18

Kierkegaard, PR, 118-22

Evans, PR, 123-30

 

 

 

Unit 2.

The Divine Attributes (Selected)

 

R&RB, Chapter 4

 I.

Introduction

 

 

  II.

Necessary Being

Findlay, “God’s Necessary Existence”

Hick, PR, 133-38

 

 III.

Omnipotence

Aquinas, PR, 143-46

Geach, “Omnipotence”

 

IV.

Timelessness

Boethius, PR, 155-58

Wolterstorff, PR, 159-67

Stump & Kretzmann, “Eternity”

 

 

 

Unit 3.

Religious Language

R&RB, Chapter 11

 

 

Aquinas, PR, 427-30

Alston, PR, 447-67

 

Unit 4.

Life After Death

R&RB, Chapter 10

 

 

Price, PR, 500-09

Swinburne, PR, 510-20

Hick, PR, 529-39

 

 

 

Unit 5.

Religious Diversity as Pluralism

R&RB, Chapter 13

 

 

Hick, PR, 607-18

 

 

Twiss, “The Philosophy of Religious Pluralism . . .”

 

 

 

Unit 6.

Philosophy and Theological Doctrines

Peterson, et al., “Philosophy and Theological Doctrine . . . “

  I.

The Incarnation

Morris, “God in Christ: The Possibility of Rational Belief.”

 II.

The Atonement

Quinn, “The Traditional Understanding of the Atonement . . .”

Porter, “Swinburnian Atonement . . .”

III.

Petitionary Prayer

Stump, “Why Petition God?”

 

 

 

Unit 7.

Class Presentations

 

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

 

Adams, Marilyn M. “Cur Deus Homo? Priorities Among the Reasons?” Faith and Philosophy 21:2 (April 2004): 141-58.

 

Adams, Robert M. “Divine Necessity.” The Journal of Philosophy 80 (November 1983).

 

________. “Kierkegaard’s Arguments Against Objective Reasoning in Religion.” Reprinted in God Matters, 209-18.

 

Alston, William P. Divine Nature and Human Language. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989.

 

________. “Hartshorne and Aquinas: A Via Media.” Unpublished Essay, July 1981.

 

________. Perceiving God: The Epistemology of Religious Experience. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991.

 

________. “Philosophy of Religion, Problems of,” s.v. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Vol. 6. Edited by Paul Edwards. New York: Macmillan/Free Press, 1967.

 

The Analytic Theist: An Alvin Plantinga Reader. Edited by James F. Sennett. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998.

 

Augustine. The Confessions of St. Augustine. Trans. Edward B. Pusey. New York: Random House, 1949.

 

The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edited by Paul Edwards. 8 vols. New York: Macmillan/The Free Press, 1967.

 

Evans, Stephen C. “Critical Dialog in the Philosophy of Religion.” In Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings, 3d ed., 123-30.

 

Faith and Rationality: Reason and Belief in God. Edited by Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983.

 

Findlay, J. N. “God’s Necessary Existence is Impossible.” In Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings, 97-103.

 

Flint, Thomas, and Alfred Freddoso. “Maximal Power.” In The Existence and Nature of God. Edited by Alfred Freddoso. Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 1983.

 

Geach, Peter T. “Omnipotence.” Philosophy. 48 (April 1973). Reprinted in Philosophy of Religion. 3d ed. Edited by William L. Rowe and William J. Wainwright. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998, 63-75.

 

God Matters: Readings in the Philosophy of Religion. Edited by Raymond Martin and Christopher Bernard. New York: Pearson Education, 2003.

 

Hasker, William. God, Time, and Knowledge. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989.

 

Hartshorne, Charles. Creative Synthesis and Philosophical Method. London: SCM Press, 1970.

 

Hick, John. God has Many Names. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1982.

 

________. An Interpretation of Religion: Human Responses to the Transcendent. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.

 

________. “The Logic of God Incarnate.” Religious Studies 25 (1989).

 

________. “Necessary Being,” Scottish Journal of Theology.  Reprinted in Philosophy of Religion, 14-27.

 

________. “Religious Pluralism and Salvation.” Faith and Philosophy 5 (October 1988).

 

Mavrodes, George. Belief in God. New York: Random House, 1970.

 

Morris, Thomas V. “God in Christ: The Possibility of Rational Belief.” In Anselmian Explorations: Essays in Philosophical Theology. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1987, 215-29.

 

________. The Logic of God Incarnate. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986.

 

________. Our Idea of God. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1991.

 

Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis. Edited by Steven Katz. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.

 

Peterson, Michael et al. “Philosophy and Theological Doctrine: Can Philosophy Illumine Religious Belief? In Michael Peterson et al., eds. Reason and Religious Belief, 2d ed., 302-23.

 

Peterson, Michael et al., eds. Reason and Religious Belief: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion.  2d ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

 

________. Reason and Religious Belief: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion. 3d ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

 

________. Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

 

________. Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings. 2d ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

 

________. Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings. 3d ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

 

Philosophy of Religion. Edited by William Rowe and William Wainwright. New York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1973.

 

Plantinga, Alvin. God, Freedom and Evil. New York: Harper & Row, 1974.

 

________. The Ontological Argument. New York: Doubleday, 1965.

 

________. “Reason and Belief in God.” In Faith and Rationality. Edited by Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983.

 

________. Warranted Christian Belief. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

 

Porter, Steven L. “Swinburnian Atonement and the Doctrine of Penal Substitution.” Faith and Philosophy 21:2 (April 2004): 228-41.

 

Quinn, Philip L. “The Traditional Understanding of the Atonement Must Be Modified.” In Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings, 560-68.

 

Quinn, Philip L. and Kevin Meeker, eds. The Philosophical Challenge of Religious Diversity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

 

Readings in the Philosophy of Religion. Edited by Kelly James Clark. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2000.

 

Sennett, James F. Modality, Probability, and Rationality: A Critical Examination of Alvin Plantinga’s Philosophy. New York: Peter Lang, 1992.

 

Smith, John E. “Faith, Belief, and the Problem of Rationality in Religion.” In Rationality and Religious Belief, Edited C. F. Delaney. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1979.

 

Stump, Eleonore, and Norman Kretzmann. “Eternity.” Journal of Philosophy 79 (1981): 429-58.

 

________. “Why Petition God?” American Philosophical Quarterly 16:2 (April 1979): 81-90.

 

Swinburne, Richard. The Coherence of Theism. rev. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

 

________. The Concept of Miracle. London: Macmillan, 1970.

 

________. The Existence of God. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979.

 

________. Faith and Reason. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.

 

Thiselton, Anthony C. A Concise Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Religion. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005.

 

Twiss, Sumner. “The Philosophy of Religious Pluralism: A Critical Appraisal of Hick and His Critics.” The Journal of Religion 70 (1990): 533-68.  Reprinted in The Philosophical Challenge of Religious Diversity, 67-98.

 

Wielenberg, Erik J. “Omnipotence Again.” Faith and Philosophy 17:1 (January 2000).

 

Wierenga, Edward. The Nature of God. New York: Cornell University Press, 1989.


[1]Course content, requirements, and examinations are subject to change in the event of extenuating circumstances.