philosophy of religion Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3 ed.)
... of religion . The notion of the philosophy of religion as a distinct discipline was the creation of the Enlightenment . Its aim is the philosophical investigation of the group of phenomena covered by the terms ‘religion’ and ‘religious experience’. It studies the essence, content, origin, and, to some extent, the value of religion as a factor in human life, and examines the claims of religion to be true. The ‘ natural theology’ of earlier writers could be considered as philosophy of religion in its broadest sense, but whereas natural theology was...
Philosophy of religion Reference library
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
... of religion . Philosophical thought about religion. The term was first used in Germany in the late 18th cent., for the philosophical investigation of the origin, essence, and content of religion, and for the critique of its value and truth. Modern philosophy of religion is much concerned with assessing the reasons for religious belief, especially arguments for God's existence ( see NATURAL THEOLOGY ), investigating the nature of religious language, and considering the philosophical problems raised by religion. These problems include the coherence of...
philosophy of religion Reference library
Richard Swinburne
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (4 ed.)
... of religion This expression was used in the 19th cent. and the first half of the 20th cent., especially in continental Europe, to denote the philosophical examination of phenomena covered by the terms ‘religion’ and ‘religious experience’. It studies the essence, content, origin, and value of religion, Christian or non-Christian, as a factor in human life, and may sometimes include natural theology and overlap with comparative religion. But since the 1950s ‘philosophy of religion’, as practised in the English-speaking world and now to some extent...
Religion, Philosophy of Reference library
Paul E. Walker
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam
...recovery of a “philosophy of religion” follows closely the results of political philosophy. The establishment of a philosophy of religion depended on al-Fārābī’s concept of political science—a point made fairly explicit by his use of the term “religious community” ( millah ) in a treatise on religion exactly where he used the word “city” ( madīnah ) in a more political work. In another context he states, “ Millah and dīn (religion) are almost synonymous.” The connection between religion and politics is the key to al-Fārābī’s philosophy of religion. Prior to...
religion, philosophy of Reference library
The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy
...Wittgenstein's philosophy explicitly in the direction of religion. One of the best known is D. Z. Phillips , who was especially concerned, in a series of books beginning with The Concept of Prayer ( 1965 ), with the kind of understanding that the philosopher should seek of religion. In a historical context in which philosophy of religion was conceived as virtually identical with natural theology Phillips is of particular interest for his complete repudiation of the project of natural theology. Because of this he has been accused of fideism, but he is...
religion, philosophy of Quick reference
A Dictionary of Philosophy (3 ed.)
..., philosophy of The attempt to understand the concepts involved in religious belief: existence , necessity , fate, creation, sin , justice , mercy, redemption, God. Until the 20th century the history of western philosophy is closely intertwined with attempts to make sense of aspects of pagan, Jewish, or Christian religion, whilst in other traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism , or Taoism , there is even less distinction between religious and philosophical enquiry. The classic problem of conceiving of an appropriate object of religious belief is that...
religion, history of the philosophy of Reference library
Mark D. Jordan
The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (2 ed.)
...the forgiveness of sin, mystical experience, and personal immortality. ‘Philosophy of religion’ and its equivalents in other European languages are fairly new, as philosophical terms go. They were coined towards the end of the eighteenth century as replacements or specifications of the earlier term ‘natural theology’. Hence in texts of the 1780s and 1790s the content of ‘philosophy of religion’ is a set of rationally discoverable truths helpful to religion and accessible to philosophy. This Enlightened philosophy of religion is the means of accommodating a...
religion, problems of the philosophy of Reference library
R. G. Swinburne
The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (2 ed.)
..., problems of the philosophy of . The philosophy of religion is an examination of the meaning and justification of religious claims. Claims about how the world is, often embodied in creeds, are more typical of Western religions—Christianity, Judaism, and Islam—than of Eastern religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism. These latter tend to concentrate much more on the practice of a way of life than on a theoretical system by means of which (among other things) to justify that practice. Hence Western religions have proved a more natural target...
Religion, Philosophy of in Islam Reference library
The Biographical Encyclopaedia of Islamic Philosophy
..., Philosophy of in Islam The standard conception of philosophy of religion In their helpful introduction to the subject, Michael Peterson et al . ( 1991 : 8) suggest that the enterprise of philosophy of religion be defined as ‘the attempt to analyse and critically evaluate religious beliefs’. Taken as a broad understanding of the discipline, this definition serves its purpose, for, by virtue of the nature of philosophy as involving a critical examination of issues relevant to human thought, it is certainly true that philosophers of religion are...
philosophy of religion
An Islamic Response to Imperialism Reference library
Sayyid Jamāl and Al-Dīn Al-Afghānī
Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives (2 ed.)
...of science, while noting that Islamic civilization has lagged in this area as a result of the practices of the clergy over many centuries. He holds that science is the key to progress, though philosophy “shows the sciences what is necessary.” Islam contains the philosophical outlook needed for advancement of the human prospect, but the ‘ulama’ (professional men of religion) have perverted the study and application of scientific principles. In the human world the bonds that have been extensive . . . have been two. One is this same unity of language of...
Islam: The Religion of Reason and Nature Reference library
Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khān
Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives (2 ed.)
...or which can be contested by assertions and principles which the ‘ ulamā ’ of former times have established. . . . One highly neces-sary subject has been neglected by the ‘ ulamā ’. They did much to confront Greek wisdom and philosophy, but nothing or very little to satisfy the heart of the denier or doubter of Islam, by the way they would present to them the religion of Islam. It is neither sufficient for the firm believer, nor does it satisfy the mind of the doubter, to say simply that in Islam this has been taught in this way and has to be accepted. [Need...
The Evolution and Devolution of Religious Knowledge Reference library
Abdul-Karim Soroush
Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook
...other words, philosophical understanding of the text precedes the philosophical justification of it. Therefore, the desired reconciliation between religion and philosophy cannot be purchased except at the expense of one being colored by the other; that is, only a conceptually philosophical religion (or, more meticulously put, a philosophized comprehension of a religious text) can be reconciled with philosophy, and a conceptual mystification of the religion would always precede the mystical justification of it, and so forth. Mystical and...
Natural Philosophy (Science) Reference library
An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age
...views of the natural order. The radical direction of his thought was censured by thinkers like Burke, but not the fact that he mixed science and religion. Coleridge also sought to build moral and social commitments on a different natural philosophy informed by new chemical theories and the emerging organic sciences. But the exciting array of sciences that attracted him was itself a portent of the disintegration of his intellectual world, and the style of natural philosophy it supported. What were some of the signs of this shift from natural philosophy to the...
Islam in Secular India Reference library
Mushīr Ul-Haq
Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives (2 ed.)
...after the partition of the country they could not retreat from their stand. The Muslim community of India also welcomed the idea of a secular state because they feared the alternative would be a “Hindu state.” . . . All through the freedom struggle hardly any national leader dared to question the importance of religion. The leaders of both the Hindu and the Muslim communities most of the times used a religous vocabulary in their speeches and writings to achieve political ends. In the case of the Hindu community one may say that religion did not mean a...
Tolerance and Governance: A Discourse on Religion and Democracy Reference library
Soroush Abdolkarim
Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives (2 ed.)
...and Governance: A Discourse on Religion and Democracy Born in Tehran and initially trained as a pharmacologist and philosopher, Abdolkarim Soroush studied history and philosophy of science, particularly the philosophy of Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn, in the United Kingdom. During the months preceding the Islamic revolution of Iran, Soroush had a major role in the gatherings of young Muslims, opponents of the Shah's regime, that took place in the London imam-barah . His book Dialectical Antagonism , a compilation of his lectures delivered in the ...
Dialogue Between East and West Reference library
Mohammad Khatami Ayatollah
Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives (2 ed.)
...of the history of philosophy. Some of these tales were first told in the East and some originated in the West. It is significant to note that the Eastern tales explain the Oriental side of man's being while the Western tales reveal the properties of his Occidental side. Man is in fact the meeting point of the soul's East and the reason's West. Denying the existence of any part of his essence would impair our understanding of the significance of his being. In our effort to grasp the meaning of the person, we should watch out not to fall into the trap of...
Islam and the Malay Civilizational Identity: Tension and Harmony Between Ethnicity and Religiosity Reference library
Bakar Osman
Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives (2 ed.)
...philosophy from Temple University in America. He served as the Deputy Vice Chancellor/Vice President of Academics and the first (1992) holder of the Chair of the Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Malaya (Kuala Lumpur). From 2000 to 2005 he was the holder of the Malaysia Chair for the Study of Islam in Southeast Asia in the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. Among his publications are The History and Philosophy of Islamic Science, Islam & Civilizational Dialogue, Tawhid & Science , and Classification of...
A Separate Muslim State in the Subcontinent Reference library
Muhammad Iqbāl
Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives (2 ed.)
...single person has captured the minds and imaginations of Muslims in India-Pakistan as has Iqbāl. After an early classical Islamic education, he studied at Cambridge and Munich, earning a doctorate in philosophy as well as a law degree. Conversant with Western philosophical and scientific thought, Iqbāl advocated a fundamental rethinking of Islamic thought as reflected in his The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam . A prolific author, his poetry and prose touched every area of Muslim life—religion, politics, and society. Iqbal here highlights a theme...
A Criticism of Religious Thought Reference library
Sadiq Al-‘azm
Islam in Transition: Muslim Perspectives (2 ed.)
...of Religious Thought The descendent of a prominent Syrian political family and graduate of American University of Beirut, he holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale University. His Marxist criticism of religious thought published in 1970 caused a scandal. He was brought to trial in Beirut in the same year on charges of provoking religious troubles but was acquitted. The first edition of the work from which this selection comes, was published in 1969. In this excerpt, ‘Azm attacks the misuse of Islam by “reactionaries” and urges a scientific critique of...
