DESCRIPTION:

An examination of three major areas in philosophy of religion: (1) faith and reason (including epistemology, the justification of religious belief, theological method); (2) the relationship between Christianity and science (including historical issues, evolution and creation, the apologetic value of science); and (3) the nature of the human person (dualist and physicalist accounts, religious experience, life after death).

Many of the issues considered in this course constitute challenges to the rationality of Christian belief. Some of the same challenges are raised by both church members and those outside of the church. Students should begin to resolve these issues for themselves and thus be in a position to offer guidance to others. A secondary benefit from the course should be better reasoning skills, applicable to a variety of ministerial tasks.

Mostly lecture; some small group discussion. The class will meet twice weekly for two-hour sessions.

Brown, W. S., et. al., eds. Whatever Happened to the Soul? Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998.

McGrath, Alister. Science and Religion: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.

Murphy, Nancey. Reasoning and Rhetoric in Religion. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2001.

Pojman, Louis. Philosophy of Religion. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 2001.

Seech, Zachary. Writing Philosophy Papers. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2000.

Ward, Keith. Religion and Human Nature. Oxford: Clarendon, 1998.

Additional photocopied materials.

One in-class essay exam covering readings and lectures; two eight-page papers.

None. This is a good course for beginning students.

Meets M. Div. core requirement in Philosophical Theology (PHIL).

None.