Paul Copan and Chad Meister, eds. Philosophy of Religion: Classic and Contemporary Issues (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), vi +283 Pps. $37.95.
Paul Copan is Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida. He has authored and edited a variety of books including Loving Wisdom: Christian Philosophy of Religion (2007), The Rationality of Theism (with Paul Moser, 2003), and Creation out of Nothing (with William Lane Craig, 2004). Chad Meister is Director of Philosophy at Bethel College in Mishawaka, Indiana. His various books include Introducing Philosophy of Religion (2008), The Philosophy of Religion Reader (2007) and the Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion (with Paul Copan, 2007). Philosophy of religion is currently undergoing a renaissance, as witnessed to by this text. In eighteen original essays from leading scholars, this accessible text, designed for introductory philosophy course use, offers a wide variety of viewpoints for a well balanced perspective on both traditional and cutting-edge topics in philosophy of religion. In what follows, a general overview shall be given, and then salient points from select chapters will be highlighted.
In this volume, Copan and Meister use the phrase ‘philosophy of religion’ to refer philosophical reflection on religious ideas. ‘Philosophical reflection’ includes careful analyses of terms, positions, reasons, and evidences for claims and hypotheses. These analyses involve issues about metaphysics (i.e. the nature of what is real) and epistemology (how one may know things). ‘Religious ideas’ involve alleged encounters with the divine, the relation between science and religion, conflicting truth claims among different faith traditions, the nature and existence of God, and the meaning of human existence. The topics covered by this text are divided into four categories: 1) religious experience and knowledge, 2) the existence of God, 3) the nature and attributes of God, and 4) emerging themes.
The first five chapters deal with religious experience and knowledge. William Mann explores the relation between religious experience and religious knowledge in chapter one. John Polkinghorne investigates whether religious experience and knowledge (personal encounters) ever intersects with scientific ‘experience’ and knowledge (repeatable experiments) in chapter two. Polkinghorne also considers whether knowledge about nature gives one any knowledge about the divine. In chapter three, R. van Woudenberg argues that belief in God is properly basic, and thus needs no further justification. Jospeh Runzo offers six possible ways how conflicting truth claims from different faith traditions may be dealt with in chapter four. The section on religious experience and knowledge is wrapped up by the essay from Harold Netland, who examines the notion of religious exclusivism, and then contrasts it with inclusivism and pluralism.
The next six chapters all deal with the existence of God. William Lane Craig presents two different versions of the cosmological argument in chapter six, both of which give credence to the notion of an uncaused, metaphysically necessary, personal Creator of the universe. Chapter seven is an essay by Robin Collins that provides a version of the teleological argument, one that is based on the laws of nature, the constraints of physics, and the presumed initial conditions of the universe. A version of the ontological argument is given in chapter eight by Graham Oppy. Paul Copan presents a version of the moral argument for the existence of God in chapter nine, highlighting the existence and nature of moral beliefs and their possible origin. Paul Draper formulates a rigorous and challenging Bayesian argument from evil against theism in chapter ten. In chapter eleven, Quentin Smith builds upon Draper’s contribution, and shows that naturalism is a plausible position.
Chapter twelve begins the section on the nature and attributes of God with a contribution by Charles Taliaferro, who examines the coherence of theism, and whether it is possible for a maximally great being to possess the attributes historically ascribed to the Judeo-Christian God. Robin Le Poidevin considers the question of whether God is an impossibility in chapter thirteen while examining the implications of asserting that ‘God is a perfect being’. In chapter fourteen, Katherin Rogers explores whether it is possible for humans to have genuine free will and for Gods to have complete omniscience at one and the same time. Paul Moser looks at the issues of death and the hiddenness of God in chapter fifteen.
Part four deals with what the authors entitle ‘emerging themes’. Chapter sixteen by Bruce Benson begins this section by working through the ideas of several key continental thinkers regarding the relation of faith and reason and the role of self in relation to God. Gavin Flood focuses on some key issues in the philosophy of religion that have arisen in Asia, such as language and consciousness. Feminist philosophy of religion receives attention in chapter eighteen by Pamela Sue Anderson
All in all, Philosophy of Religion: Classic and Contemporary Issues offers a comprehensive and authoritative overview of the most important ideas and arguments in this resurgent field. Although the text claims to move beyond the borders of Western theism to more accurately reflect the nature of the twenty-first-century world, I find that it rarely goes beyond typical Western thought. However, it does include study questions and an annotated further reading lists to stimulate reflection and provide opportunities for deeper exploration of the fundamental questions of the nature of religion that exist outside the Christian West. In sum, the text provides a solid foundation on the history of religious philosophy, all the while broadening one’s understanding of religion’s significance in today’s world. As such, it is likely a text(book) that I will use in the future.
Bradford McCall, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA.