Analytical Philosophy of Religion

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Analytical philosophy of religion is an approach to philosophy of religion that examines the questions of religiosity and the rationality of religious perspectives with the help of the methods of analytical philosophy . The aim is to deal with theoretical questions about God and religion with the arguments in particular of philosophy. In contrast to the treatment of such questions in theological faculties, where often certain positions are given by the denomination of the faculty, all possible views are represented and defended, for example both theistic and atheistic .

As in other areas of analytical philosophy, language-analytical methods were initially in the foreground, for example following Wittgenstein and Gilbert Ryle , in some cases the interest was limited to explaining religious language as meaningless. For several decades, as in all areas of analytical debates, the field has expanded considerably. For example, ontological , epistemological and metaphilosophical aspects of relevant problems are discussed and almost every conceivable position is represented.

After the opinion had prevailed for some time that metaphysics was impossible or meaningless, the analytical philosophy of religion has experienced a renaissance in teaching and research over the past thirty years. Several well-known specialist journals and several philosophical societies are now dedicated to this subject.

The themes of the philosophy of religion have been increasingly taken up again in analytical philosophy since the 1980s, after a growing interest in religion, which was accompanied by far-reaching social changes, had developed, especially in the USA. The debates on the philosophy of religion take place in intensive confrontation with the natural sciences, with the analytical philosophy of religion on the one hand endeavoring to integrate religious content into the modern worldview and on the other to counteract naturalistic tendencies.

The current analytical philosophy of religion is shaped by the great variety of its topics. On the one hand, she is still working on those questions that are traditionally summarized under the name of natural theology. These include the question of whether the existence of God can be rationally justified, which essential attributes belong to the concept of God, and the hotly contested question of a theodicy . In addition, against the background of current debates in the philosophy of spirit and analytical ontology, the traditional notions of a resurrection of the dead , the christological doctrine of two natures and the theology of the Trinity are discussed anew.

Most of the representatives of the analytical philosophy of religion take their argumentative instruments from modern logic and philosophy of science . In contrast to the metaphysics- critical tradition of continental philosophy according to Kant, they tie in with the religious-philosophical discourses of the Anglo-Saxon world of the 18th century ( John Locke et al.), In which the current design arguments and the method of weighing probabilities have their roots.

history

William Hasker divides the history of the analytical philosophy of religion into three phases, each characterized by a different topic. In the first phase, which lasted until around 1965, the focus was almost exclusively on religious language, especially its cognitive sense. One of the sharpest attacks on religious thought occurred in this phase through the emergence of logical positivism , which fundamentally questioned the meaningfulness of religious assertions due to their non-verifiability. At the beginning of the 1950s, the debate shifted to the falsification of religious statements. Antony Flew criticized the fact that theological claims are typically “qualified” step by step in the face of objections and therefore cannot be falsified and should be regarded as meaningless.

In the late 1960s, interest in purely linguistic studies gradually waned, and much of the attention returned to classical theistic issues. Arguments for and against the existence of God were discussed, with the discussion about the problem of evil taking up most of the space. Further topics were the relationship between faith and reason and the central attributes of God for theism ( omnipotence and omniscience ).

Since the mid-1980s, the field of discussion of the analytical philosophy of religion has expanded considerably to include topics that were previously hardly examined. These include the philosophical exploration of certain religious doctrines (especially Christianity), theories about divine command theories , the relationship between religion and science, the philosophical analysis of non-Western religions, the problem of religious pluralism, religious Realism and Antirealism and the Importance of Religious Belief in Epistemology.

See also

literature

  • Oliver D. Crisp / Michael C. Rea (eds.): Analytic Theology . New Essays in the Philosophy of Theology, OUP, Oxford 2009. Darin et al. a .: M. Rea: Introduction (PDF; 150 kB).
  • Heimo Hofmeister : Truth and Faith. Interpretation and criticism of the language-analytical theory of religion . Oldenbourg 1978. (Tradition and task, Vol. 15) ISBN 3-486-44621-5
  • Bernd Irlenborn , Andreas Koritensky (ed.): Analytical philosophy of religion. New ways of research , WBG, Darmstadt 2013 ISBN 978-3-534-24912-1 .
  • Christoph Jäger (Ed.): Analytical Philosophy of Religion . Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 1998, ISBN 3-8252-2021-4 .
  • Franz von Kutschera : Reason and Belief , DeGruyter 1991, ISBN 3-11-012287-1 .
  • Martin Laube: Under the spell of language. The analytical philosophy of religion in the 20th century . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1999 (also Diss. Univ. Munich 1995). (Theological Library Töpelmann, Vol. 85) ISBN 3-11-015456-0 Google book preview
  • John Leslie Mackie : The miracle of theism , Reclam, Stuttgart 1985
  • Hermann Schrödter : Analytical Philosophy of Religion. Main points of view and basic problems . Alber, Freiburg / Munich 1979
  • Richard Swinburne : Is There A God? Oxford University Press, Oxford 1996.
  • Klaus Viertbauer, Georg Gasser (Hrsg.): Handbook Analytical Philosophy of Religion: Actors - Discourses - Perspectives , JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2019, ISBN 978-3-476-04734-2 .
  • Robert G. Wolf: Analytic Philosophy of Religion . A Bibliography, 1940–1996, Bowling Green, Philosophy Documentation Center, Ohio 1998.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Cf. A. Plantinga: Advice to Christian Philosophers , in: Faith and Philosophy 1 (1984) 253-271; Moreland, JP / Craig, WL (eds.): Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview , Downers Grove 2003, 1-7
  2. ↑ Cf. William Hasker: Analytical Philosophy of Religion. In: Bernd Irlenborn, Andreas Koritensky (Ed.): Analytical Philosophy of Religion. New ways of research , Darmstadt 2013, p. 35
  3. ↑ See Bernd Irlenborn, Andreas Koritensky: Introduction . In: Bernd Irlenborn, Andreas Koritensky (Ed.): Analytical Philosophy of Religion. New ways of research , Darmstadt 2013, pp. 9-14
  4. ↑ Richard Swinburne: The Value and Christian Roots of Analytical Philosophy of Religion. In: Bernd Irlenborn, Andreas Koritensky (Ed.): Analytical Philosophy of Religion. New ways of research , Darmstadt 2013, p. 54
  5. ↑ William Hasker: Analytical philosophy of religion. In: Bernd Irlenborn, Andreas Koritensky (Ed.): Analytical Philosophy of Religion. New ways of research , Darmstadt 2013, pp. 19–47
  6. ↑ Cf. William Hasker: Analytical Philosophy of Religion. In: Bernd Irlenborn, Andreas Koritensky (Ed.): Analytical Philosophy of Religion. New ways of research , Darmstadt 2013, p. 37