COURSE INFORMATION FOR PHL 1003

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

Course Description

A rational examination of the nature and content of religious belief through an examination of such issues as the relation of reason to faith, the existence and nature of God, religious experience, and the occurrence of evil.

3 credit hours

Syllabus Spring 2010

Concepts of God Assignment  
Faith and Reason Assignment 1 Faith and Reason Assignment 2
Arguments for the Existence of God Assignment  
Science and Religion Assignment  
Miracles and Religious Experiences Assignment  
Religious Diversity Assignment  
Challenge of Evil Assignment  

Recommended Readings: The Nature of God

Pseudo-Dionysius The Divine Names 12th cent.
Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica (Book I) 1256-74
Rudolf Otto The Idea of the Holy 1923
Charles Hartshorne The Divine Relativity 1948
Paul Tillich Systematic Theology (volume 1) 1951
Nelson Pike God and Timelessness 1970
John B. Cobb & David Ray Griffin Process Theology 1976
Richard Swinburne The Coherence of Theism 1977
Linwood Urban & Douglas N. Walton, editors The Power of God 1978
Anthony Kenny The God of the Philosophers 1979
Stephen T. Davis Logic and the Nature of God 1983
John F. Haught What is God? 1986
Thomas V. Morris, editor Divine and Human Action 1988
Karen Armstrong A History of God 1993
Clark H. Pinnock et al The Openness of God 1994
Richard Swinburne The Christian God 1994
Nicholas P. Wolterstorff Divine Discourse 1995
Gregory A. Boyd God of the Possible 2000
Clark H. Pinnock Most Moved Mover 2001
Michael Martin & Riki Monnier, editors The Impossibility of God 2003

Recommended Readings: Faith and the Search for Evidence

Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali The Incoherence of the Philosophers c. 1100
Abdul Walid ibn Rushd (Averroes) On the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy 12th cent.
Blaise Pascal Pensees (Thoughts) 1670
Johann Gottlieb Fichte The Vocation of Man 1800
Søren Kierkegaard Fear and Trembling 1843
Søren Kierkegaard The Sickness Unto Death 1849
Søren Kierkegaard Attack Upon "Christendom" 1854-5
Rudolf Otto The Idea of the Holy 1923
Sigmund Freud The Future of an Illusion 1927
John Baillie Our Knowledge of God 1939
Abraham Joshua Heschel God in Search of Man 1955
Paul Tillich Dynamics of Faith 1957
John Hick Faith and Knowledge 1966
Richard Swinburne Faith and Reason 1981
Keith M. Parsons God and the Burden of Proof 1989
Terence Penelhum, editor Faith 1989
Michael C. Banner The Justification of Science and the Rationality of Religious Belief 1990
R. Douglas Geivett & Brendan Sweetman, editors Contemporary Perspectives on Religious Epistemology 1992
Elizabeth S. Radcliffe & Carol J. White, editors Faith in Theory and Practice 1993
J. L. Schellenberg Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason 1993
Nancey C. Murphy Reasoning and Rhetoric in Religion 1994
William J. Wainwright Reason and the Heart 1995
John Paul II Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason) 1998
Alvin Plantinga Warranted Christian Belief 1999
Paul K. Moser Why Isn't God More Obvious? 2000
Michael Shermer How We Believe 2000
Daniel Howard-Snyder & Paul K. Moser, editors Divine Hiddenness 2002
J. L. Schellenberg The Wisdom to Doubt 2007
Paul K. Moser The Elusive God 2008

Recommended Readings: Arguments for and Against the Existence of God

Anselm Monologium 1076
Anselm Proslogium 1077-8
Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica (Book I) 1265-74
Paul Henri Thierry, Baron d'Holbach Good Sense 1772
Jeremy Bentham Analysis of the Influence of Natural Religion on the Temporal Happiness of Mankind 1822
Bertrand Russell Why I Am Not a Christian 1957
John Hick, editor The Existence of God 1964
William L. Rowe The Cosmological Argument 1975
Richard Swinburne The Existence of God 1977, 2004
Clark H. Pinnock Reason Enough 1980
J. L. Mackie The Miracle of Theism 1982
Richard Dawkins The Blind Watchmaker 1986
Michael Martin Atheism 1990
J. P. Moreland & Kai Nielsen Does God Exist? 1990
William Lane Craig & Quentin Smith Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology 1993
Merold Westphal Suspicion and Faith 1993
C. Stephen Evans Why Believe? 1996
Keith Ward God, Chance and Necessity 1996
Stephen T. Davis God, Reason and Theistic Proofs 1997
Paul Copan & Paul K. Moser, editors The Rationality of Theism 2003
Neil A. Manson, editor God and Design 2003
J. P. Moreland & William Lane Craig Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview 2003
Stan W. Wallace, editor Does God Exist? 2003
Richard Dawkins The God Delusion 2006
Michael Martin &Riki Monnier, editors The Improbability of God 2006
Christopher Hitchens, editor The Portable Atheist 2007

Recommended Readings: Understanding Miracles and Religious Experience

David Hume An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding 1748
William James The Varieties of Religious Experience 1905
John Baillie The Sense of the Presence of God 1962
Richard Swinburne The Concept of Miracle 1970
Wayne Proudfoot Religious Experience 1985
Caroline Franks-Davis The Evidential Force of Religious Experience 1989
Richard Swinburne, editor Miracles 1989
William P. Alston Perceiving God 1991
Keith Yandell The Epistemology of Religious Experience 1993
Nicholas P. Wolterstorff Divine Discourse 1995
R. Douglas Geivett & Gary Habermas, editors In Defense of Miracles 1997
Roy A. Clouser Knowing with the Heart 1999
Richard Swinburne The Resurrection of God Incarnate 2003

Recommended Readings: The Challenges of Evil

John Hick Evil and the God of Love 1966, 1978
Edward H. Madden & Peter H. Hare Evil and the Concept of God 1968
Alvin Plantinga God, Freedom and Evil 1974
Diogenes Allen Traces of God in a Frequently Hostile World 1981
Stephen T. Davis, editor Encountering Evil 1981
Marilyn McCord Adams & Robert M. Adams, editors The Problem of Evil 1990
Michael L. Peterson, editor The Problem of Evil 1992
Timothy Anders The Evolution of Evil 1994
Daniel Howard-Snyder, editor The Evidential Argument from Evil 1996
Gregory A. Boyd God at War 1997
Theodore M. Drange Nonbelief and Evil 1998
Michael L. Peterson God and Evil 1998
Richard Swinburne Providence and the Problem of Evil 1998
Marilyn McCord Adams Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God 1999
Amelie Oksenberg Rorty, editor The Many Faces of Evil 2001
Claudia Card The Atrocity Paradigm 2002
Gregory A. Boyd Is God to Blame? 2003

Recommended Readings: The Challenges of Religious Diversity

Rudolf Bultmann Jesus Christ and Mythology 1958
Wilfred Cantwell Smith Patterns of Faith Around the World 1962
Paul Tillich Christianity and the Encounter of World Religions 1963
Vatican II Council Nostra Aetate 1965
John Hick, editor Truth and Dialogue in World Religions 1974
John Hick God Has Many Names 1980
John Hick & Brian Hebblethwaite, editors Christianity and Other Religions 1980
John Hick Problems of Religious Pluralism 1985
Gavin D'Costa Theology and Religious Pluralism 1986
John Hick & Paul F. Knitter, editors The Myth of Christian Uniqueness 1987
Diogenes Allen Christian Belief in a Postmodern World 1989
John Hick An Interpretation of Religion 1989
Gavin D'Costa, editor Christian Uniqueness Reconsidered 1990
Dalai Lama XIV et al The Good Heart 1995
Thich Nhat Hanh Living Buddha, Living Christ 1995
Thomas D. Senor, editor The Rationality of Belief and the Plurality of Faith 1995
Philip L. Quinn & Kevin Meeker, editors The Philosophical Challenge of Religious Diversity 2000

Recommended Readings: Religion and Science

Richard Dawkins The Blind Watchmaker 1986
John Polkinghorne One World 1986
John Polkinghorne Science and Creation 1989
Ian Barbour Religion in an Age of Science 1990
Daniel C. Dennett Darwin's Dangerous Idea 1995
Philip Clayton God and Contemporary Science 1997
John Polkinghorne Belief in God in an Age of Science 1998
Stephen Jay Gould Rocks of Ages 1999
Kenneth R. Miller Finding Darwin's God 1999
John F. Haught God after Darwin 2000
John Polkinghorne Faith, Science and Understanding 2000
Michael Ruse Can a Darwinian Be a Christian? 2001
Paul Kurtz, editor Science and Religion 2003
John F. Haught Christianity and Science 2007

last updated 12/16/09