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This book offers a philosophical approach to religion that acknowledges both the diversity of religions and the many and varied dimensions of the religious life. Rather than restricting itself to Christian theism, it covers a wide range of religious traditions, examining their beliefs in the context of the actual practice of the religious life. After outlining the aims of religion, the book focuses on claims to knowledge. What kinds of knowledge do religions purport to offer? In what idiom is it couched? From what sources do devotees draw their claims to knowledge? Are these sources reliable? Rather than trying to settle age-old questions about religious belief, the book offers its readers a set of criteria with which they can make informed decisions in matters of faith. Gregory W. Dawes is Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He completed his first graduate degree at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome before returning to New Zealand to complete PhD degrees in both biblical studies and philosophy. His previous books include The Historical Jesus Question, Theism and Explanation, and Galileo and the Conflict between Religion and Science.

Placing Nature furthers the dialogue on religion, ethics, and the environment by exploring three interrelated concepts: to recreate, to replace and to restore. This book self-consciously reflects on the intersections of environmental philosophy, environmental theology, and religion and ecology, stressing the importance of how place interprets us and how we interpret place. This work is a unique volume in its serious engagement with theology and religious studies on the issues of ecological restoration and the meaning of place.

The natural world has been "humanized": even areas thought to be wilderness bear the marks of human impact. But this human impact is not simply physical. At the emergence of the environmental movement, the focus was on human effects on "nature." More recently, however, the complexity of the term "nature" has led to fruitful debates and the recognition of how human individuals and cultures interpret their environments. This book furthers the dialogue on religion, ethics, and the environment by exploring three interrelated concepts: to recreate, to replace, and to restore. Through interdisciplinary dialogue the authors illuminate certain unique dimensions at the crossroads between finding value, creating value, and reflecting on one's place in the world. Each of these terms has diverse religious, ethical, and scientific connotations. Each converges on the ways in which humans both think about and act upon their surroundings. And each radically questions the damaging conceptual divisions between nature and culture, human and environment, and scientific explanation and religious/ethical understanding. This book self-consciously reflects on the intersections of environmental philosophy, environmental theology, and religion and ecology, stressing the importance of how place interprets us and how we interpret place. In addition to its contribution to environmental philosophy, this work is a unique volume in its serious engagement with theology and religious studies on the issues of ecological restoration and the meaning of place

"Presents perspectives on human flourishing and the life worth living from eight different traditions, religious and secular"--

This original study, published initially in 1959, introduces students of philosophy and of theology to a treatment of religion based upon the methods of modern philosophy - particularly logical empiricism and existentialism.Above and beyond the importance of its point of view, this book is distinguished by its clarity and by its objective and understanding presentation of diverse points of view

"Hobbes's Philosophy of Religion presents a new scholarly interpretation of Hobbes's treatment of religious speech and practice. It argues that the key to Hobbes's treatment of religion is his theory of religious language. According to Hobbes, the proper function of religious language is not to describe, state facts, or affirm truths. Instead, such talk ought only to express attitudes of honour, reverence, and humility before the incomprehensible great cause of nature. His theory valorises the traditional discourses of theism, natural religion, and revealed religion, but only as an expression of reverence without descriptive import. Hobbes is sincerely pious, rejecting atheism and irreligion. But he also rejects literal-minded theism, and any realist conception of the divine attributes. The book provides a comprehensive study of Hobbes's highly original treatment of religion. It also offers an integrated account of Hobbes's philosophical thought around religious topics. The account brings out the connections between Hobbes's theoretical philosophy - including his philosophy of mind, language, and human nature - and his practical religious politics, including his views on religious toleration, ecclesiology, and the religious function of the civil state--

A classic in the area, originally published in 1901, this book is a survey of the past work in the field of philosophy of religion, a conspectus of literature and comparison of methods and theologies from the Reformation to the start of the twentieth century.The Introduction part of the volume offers a classification system to explain the order of the detailed section of the book. Lesser-known theologians are covered as well as great thinkers, a deliberate choice on the part of the author. Within each chapter, types of theism are then broken down into sections on individual thinkers