Journal for The Study of Religions and Ideologies, Feb 25, 2018
The question of the morality of abortion has long been the subject of intense, sometimes acrimoni... more The question of the morality of abortion has long been the subject of intense, sometimes acrimonious debate. Even people within the same religious or philosophical tradition often disagree on the issue. For example, there are Christians who are pro-choice and there are Christians who are pro-life. Both sides marshal biblical, theological, and philosophical arguments in support of their positions. The substance of the abortion debate seems to reduce to one tricky question: when does personhood begin? Christian experts in various fields, such as theology, biblical studies, ethics, and philosophy, have protracted disagreements over this question. In this article we will apply insights from the current literature on epistemic peer disagreement to the abortion issue. We will assume that there is only one correct answer to the abortion question. However, after making a crucial distinction between rationality as understood by internalists versus externalists, we will argue that there is more than one rational answer to the abortion question, since there is more than one rational way to weight evidence. We will conclude that, in a case of disagreement between two Christians who are epistemic peers with regards to the morality of abortion, both parties can be rational in adhering to their respective positions, but that this does not entail or even support ethical relativism.
Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Multidisciplinary Studies: Mathal, 2011
This is a book about how to remain standing when your feet are swept out from under you. It is ab... more This is a book about how to remain standing when your feet are swept out from under you. It is about the persistence of faith when the historical context is vastly altered, theological formulations become inadequate, expected results don't materialize, and the force of will is depleted. It is a book about a Romanian Jew whose faith was radically altered, but not destroyed, by the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel was born in 1928 in the town of Sighet in northwestern Romania. Sighet had a very large community of Hasidic Jews, and Wiesel's family was an active part of this community. He was raised to reverence and trust in God, and studied both classical and contemporary Jewish thought at the synagogue and Yeshiva. At the age of 15 he, along with the entire Jewish community, was deported to German concentration camps. Wiesel spent time in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, and although most of his family died, he and his two older sisters survived. But God and the Holocaust is not a biography. It is, rather, a philosophical exploration of Wiesel's experiences and the impact that they had on his faith, on his understanding of certain theological issues, and how these experiences led Wiesel to a particular philosophy of life oriented around an ethic of alterity. A famous scene from Wiesel's Night relates the type of experience that Wiesel and other inmates had in the Nazi death camps: The three victims mounted together onto the chairs. The three necks were placed at the same moment within the nooses. "Long live liberty!" cried the two adults. But the child was silent. "Where is God? Where is He?" someone behind me asked. At a sign from the head of the camp, the three chairs tipped over. Total silence throughout the camp. On the horizon, the sun was setting. "Bare your heads!" yelled the head of the camp. His voice was raucous. We were weeping. "Cover your heads!" Then the march past began. The two adults were no longer alive. Their tongues hung swollen, blue-tinged. But the third rope was still moving; being so light, the child was still alive.... For more than half an hour he stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed. Behind me, I heard the same man asking: "Where is God now?" and I heard a voice within me answer him: "Where is he? Here He is-He is hanging here on this gallows...." That night the soup tasted of corpses. (Night 70-71) Clearly such experiences will try the faith of even the most committed believer. They drive home the vexing questions of the problem of evil in a vivid and personal way. Sandu Frunza, author of the current volume, discusses three possible responses (three theodicies) analyzed by Michael Berenbaum as being rejected by Wiesel on the basis of their inadequacy to explain why God would allow such experiences in the life of one of his children. There is what could be called the "hamartiological" theodicy: the holocaust and its evils are a result of the sins of
III 15 difficull 10 define I mOYefDCtlI u bn:>ad and d.11Ite jI.l eYIJI.leUcal Chri5tianity. Glbr... more III 15 difficull 10 define I mOYefDCtlI u bn:>ad and d.11Ite jI.l eYIJI.leUcal Chri5tianity. Glbriel F.cUe hu Idcnlifled EVIflgdical& .. tboie Cbrl&liID5 who haW! ~eapouscd and CIperienced justifiClltion and ICripluF"ll IUthoril)' in In Inlemlfted way. penonal convcnioo and I riaorous IIJ()BI life, on the one bind, and concentrated Ittention on the Bible .. I guide 10 conviction and behavior on the other, with. f pcci.al zea1 tor the di"e!!'inliion of Chrillian raith to conecived (evanl!:clism)" (Olbriel Fackre, ~Evangdical, Evangellcalism." 'n Alan Rlc:ban.Uon and John Bowden, eca., A N~ DictitNllll)' ofClrristiSll Thtoiosy [London: SCM Prew, 1983), p. 191)' Altbougb penonIIl convcmon i$ undoubtedly the sine qua fI()fl or evangelicalism, OIheT imponant lrail&, luc:b .. I hi&h viewor Itle Bible and In emphasis on fulfilling the Cbrbtlan miulon (&I variously concdw:d), contribule 10 the ~ramily resemblance" that enables eYangcllCllUsm 10 be viewed cOIlectiYe1y U I EDOYemenl.
Journal For the Study of Religions and Ideologies, Oct 14, 2010
Mircea Eliade, the renowned scholar of Romanian origin, wrote that Lucian Blaga was the greatest ... more Mircea Eliade, the renowned scholar of Romanian origin, wrote that Lucian Blaga was the greatest Romanian philosopher of all time. Blaga was intensely interested in both culture and religion as areas of philosophical investigation. Blaga's philosophy proposes a metaphysics that explains the origin of culture and its unrivaled significance to humanity. His philosophy also endeavors to explicate the relationship between culture and religion. Blaga finds that religion is a cultural product, but does not view this as a detriment to religion. On the contrary, according to Blaga, it is the very fact that religion is an expression of cultural creativity that gives religion its beauty. This article will introduce Blaga's philosophy of culture and his philosophy of religion, explain the relationship between them, and show that Blaga accorded high honor to both.
International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 2014
We’ve all heard the familiar saying, “ignorance is bliss.” It may also be true that “ignorance is... more We’ve all heard the familiar saying, “ignorance is bliss.” It may also be true that “ignorance is intolerant.” But it seems to be at least sometimes true that intolerance is produced by something else: overconfidence in the truthfulness of one’s own opinions. Awareness of and avoidance of such overconfidence may be a path towards tolerating those with whom one disagrees. And this could be true in religion as well as in other areas of belief. In his 2005 article “On Religious Diversity and Tolerance,” Philip L. Quinn argues that awareness of religious diversity, coupled with various other considerations, leads to a degree of modesty about the truth claims of one’s religion, and that such modesty leads to tolerance of other religions. However, in his 2007 paper “Is Uncertainty a Sound Foundation for Religious Tolerance,” William Lane Craig takes issue with Quinn’s position, arguing that Quinn’s “radical skepticism” about religious beliefs is not warranted and that “doubt” is not a sound foundation for tolerance. In this paper I contend that cognitive humility is warranted, that it is not a form of skepticism, that it does not entail doubt, and that it may contribute significantly to religious tolerance. I defend Quinn’s thesis by offering a version that is based on certain epistemic considerations that help the reader to see Quinn’s argument in a new and strengthened light. I then argue that Quinn’s approach to tolerance has at least one significant advantage over the approach proposed by Craig: acceptability to all religious traditions.
McDermott, a professor of religion at Roanoke College in Virginia, published Can Evangelicals Lea... more McDermott, a professor of religion at Roanoke College in Virginia, published Can Evangelicals Learn from World Religions? in 2001, and God's Rivals is an admirable addition to his investigations into the theology of religions. McDermott's chapter titles include the following: "Th e scandal of particularity: why has the true God come to only some people at some times?," "Not even in Israel have I found such faith: surprising knowledge of God among Bible people outside Israel and the church," and "A divine gift to the Greeks: Clement of Alexandria and the Gentile covenants." Other chapters examine the approach to other gods in the Bible and in the writings of other early church writers. Th ese titles and themes, along with an appendix entitled "God and the masculine pronoun," show the scope of McDermott's eff orts to review the world religions in relation to God from biblical and early church sources. Chapters one and two explore whether adherents of religions other than Judaism and Christianity knew something about the Jewish-Christian God. In the third chapter, McDermott reveals four lenses on other religions found in the Old Testament: neighborly pluralism, competitive pluralism, missionary exclusivism, and cosmic warfare. Th e fourth chapter examines how God allows powers and principalities to participate in order to accomplish God's redemptive plans and ultimate purpose. Th e next four chapters display early Church Fathers' perspectives on the theology of religions. Justin Martyr argued that aspects of Greek philosophical religions were actually inspired by Christ, believing that whoever taught truth followed Christ as long as they practiced what they preached. Irenaeus, the father of salvation history, had the insight that God revealed Himself and His plan in developmental phases so as to prepare the world to receive the gospel in full. Clement of Alexandria concurred with Irenaeus that God was in total control of all history, maintaining that certain teachers of other religions were "prophets" approved by God. In the next chapter, Origen warned that exploration of religions was dangerous and destructive for young believers because of the malevolent spirits behind them, and should not be undertaken lightly. Th e question remains: how do we stand today on the particularity and truth of Jesus Christ in dialogue with religious others? McDermott suggests that how we view ourselves in relation to Jesus Christ informs our understanding of the truth claims presented by people of other faiths. In other words, our faith in Jesus Christ compels us to seek understanding of the world around us both immediate and afar. He concludes as follows: "In sum, they [the other religions] contain hints and shadows that participate in the Logos. But in the Christian revelation one can see and be joined to the Logos himself " (164). Th is book should be read by those interested in the encounter between Christianity and other faiths. It can be a handbook for missionaries, pastors, and seminarians in or about to
Journal for The Study of Religions and Ideologies, Feb 25, 2018
The question of the morality of abortion has long been the subject of intense, sometimes acrimoni... more The question of the morality of abortion has long been the subject of intense, sometimes acrimonious debate. Even people within the same religious or philosophical tradition often disagree on the issue. For example, there are Christians who are pro-choice and there are Christians who are pro-life. Both sides marshal biblical, theological, and philosophical arguments in support of their positions. The substance of the abortion debate seems to reduce to one tricky question: when does personhood begin? Christian experts in various fields, such as theology, biblical studies, ethics, and philosophy, have protracted disagreements over this question. In this article we will apply insights from the current literature on epistemic peer disagreement to the abortion issue. We will assume that there is only one correct answer to the abortion question. However, after making a crucial distinction between rationality as understood by internalists versus externalists, we will argue that there is more than one rational answer to the abortion question, since there is more than one rational way to weight evidence. We will conclude that, in a case of disagreement between two Christians who are epistemic peers with regards to the morality of abortion, both parties can be rational in adhering to their respective positions, but that this does not entail or even support ethical relativism.
Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Multidisciplinary Studies: Mathal, 2011
This is a book about how to remain standing when your feet are swept out from under you. It is ab... more This is a book about how to remain standing when your feet are swept out from under you. It is about the persistence of faith when the historical context is vastly altered, theological formulations become inadequate, expected results don't materialize, and the force of will is depleted. It is a book about a Romanian Jew whose faith was radically altered, but not destroyed, by the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel was born in 1928 in the town of Sighet in northwestern Romania. Sighet had a very large community of Hasidic Jews, and Wiesel's family was an active part of this community. He was raised to reverence and trust in God, and studied both classical and contemporary Jewish thought at the synagogue and Yeshiva. At the age of 15 he, along with the entire Jewish community, was deported to German concentration camps. Wiesel spent time in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, and although most of his family died, he and his two older sisters survived. But God and the Holocaust is not a biography. It is, rather, a philosophical exploration of Wiesel's experiences and the impact that they had on his faith, on his understanding of certain theological issues, and how these experiences led Wiesel to a particular philosophy of life oriented around an ethic of alterity. A famous scene from Wiesel's Night relates the type of experience that Wiesel and other inmates had in the Nazi death camps: The three victims mounted together onto the chairs. The three necks were placed at the same moment within the nooses. "Long live liberty!" cried the two adults. But the child was silent. "Where is God? Where is He?" someone behind me asked. At a sign from the head of the camp, the three chairs tipped over. Total silence throughout the camp. On the horizon, the sun was setting. "Bare your heads!" yelled the head of the camp. His voice was raucous. We were weeping. "Cover your heads!" Then the march past began. The two adults were no longer alive. Their tongues hung swollen, blue-tinged. But the third rope was still moving; being so light, the child was still alive.... For more than half an hour he stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed. Behind me, I heard the same man asking: "Where is God now?" and I heard a voice within me answer him: "Where is he? Here He is-He is hanging here on this gallows...." That night the soup tasted of corpses. (Night 70-71) Clearly such experiences will try the faith of even the most committed believer. They drive home the vexing questions of the problem of evil in a vivid and personal way. Sandu Frunza, author of the current volume, discusses three possible responses (three theodicies) analyzed by Michael Berenbaum as being rejected by Wiesel on the basis of their inadequacy to explain why God would allow such experiences in the life of one of his children. There is what could be called the "hamartiological" theodicy: the holocaust and its evils are a result of the sins of
III 15 difficull 10 define I mOYefDCtlI u bn:>ad and d.11Ite jI.l eYIJI.leUcal Chri5tianity. Glbr... more III 15 difficull 10 define I mOYefDCtlI u bn:>ad and d.11Ite jI.l eYIJI.leUcal Chri5tianity. Glbriel F.cUe hu Idcnlifled EVIflgdical& .. tboie Cbrl&liID5 who haW! ~eapouscd and CIperienced justifiClltion and ICripluF"ll IUthoril)' in In Inlemlfted way. penonal convcnioo and I riaorous IIJ()BI life, on the one bind, and concentrated Ittention on the Bible .. I guide 10 conviction and behavior on the other, with. f pcci.al zea1 tor the di"e!!'inliion of Chrillian raith to conecived (evanl!:clism)" (Olbriel Fackre, ~Evangdical, Evangellcalism." 'n Alan Rlc:ban.Uon and John Bowden, eca., A N~ DictitNllll)' ofClrristiSll Thtoiosy [London: SCM Prew, 1983), p. 191)' Altbougb penonIIl convcmon i$ undoubtedly the sine qua fI()fl or evangelicalism, OIheT imponant lrail&, luc:b .. I hi&h viewor Itle Bible and In emphasis on fulfilling the Cbrbtlan miulon (&I variously concdw:d), contribule 10 the ~ramily resemblance" that enables eYangcllCllUsm 10 be viewed cOIlectiYe1y U I EDOYemenl.
Journal For the Study of Religions and Ideologies, Oct 14, 2010
Mircea Eliade, the renowned scholar of Romanian origin, wrote that Lucian Blaga was the greatest ... more Mircea Eliade, the renowned scholar of Romanian origin, wrote that Lucian Blaga was the greatest Romanian philosopher of all time. Blaga was intensely interested in both culture and religion as areas of philosophical investigation. Blaga's philosophy proposes a metaphysics that explains the origin of culture and its unrivaled significance to humanity. His philosophy also endeavors to explicate the relationship between culture and religion. Blaga finds that religion is a cultural product, but does not view this as a detriment to religion. On the contrary, according to Blaga, it is the very fact that religion is an expression of cultural creativity that gives religion its beauty. This article will introduce Blaga's philosophy of culture and his philosophy of religion, explain the relationship between them, and show that Blaga accorded high honor to both.
International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 2014
We’ve all heard the familiar saying, “ignorance is bliss.” It may also be true that “ignorance is... more We’ve all heard the familiar saying, “ignorance is bliss.” It may also be true that “ignorance is intolerant.” But it seems to be at least sometimes true that intolerance is produced by something else: overconfidence in the truthfulness of one’s own opinions. Awareness of and avoidance of such overconfidence may be a path towards tolerating those with whom one disagrees. And this could be true in religion as well as in other areas of belief. In his 2005 article “On Religious Diversity and Tolerance,” Philip L. Quinn argues that awareness of religious diversity, coupled with various other considerations, leads to a degree of modesty about the truth claims of one’s religion, and that such modesty leads to tolerance of other religions. However, in his 2007 paper “Is Uncertainty a Sound Foundation for Religious Tolerance,” William Lane Craig takes issue with Quinn’s position, arguing that Quinn’s “radical skepticism” about religious beliefs is not warranted and that “doubt” is not a sound foundation for tolerance. In this paper I contend that cognitive humility is warranted, that it is not a form of skepticism, that it does not entail doubt, and that it may contribute significantly to religious tolerance. I defend Quinn’s thesis by offering a version that is based on certain epistemic considerations that help the reader to see Quinn’s argument in a new and strengthened light. I then argue that Quinn’s approach to tolerance has at least one significant advantage over the approach proposed by Craig: acceptability to all religious traditions.
McDermott, a professor of religion at Roanoke College in Virginia, published Can Evangelicals Lea... more McDermott, a professor of religion at Roanoke College in Virginia, published Can Evangelicals Learn from World Religions? in 2001, and God's Rivals is an admirable addition to his investigations into the theology of religions. McDermott's chapter titles include the following: "Th e scandal of particularity: why has the true God come to only some people at some times?," "Not even in Israel have I found such faith: surprising knowledge of God among Bible people outside Israel and the church," and "A divine gift to the Greeks: Clement of Alexandria and the Gentile covenants." Other chapters examine the approach to other gods in the Bible and in the writings of other early church writers. Th ese titles and themes, along with an appendix entitled "God and the masculine pronoun," show the scope of McDermott's eff orts to review the world religions in relation to God from biblical and early church sources. Chapters one and two explore whether adherents of religions other than Judaism and Christianity knew something about the Jewish-Christian God. In the third chapter, McDermott reveals four lenses on other religions found in the Old Testament: neighborly pluralism, competitive pluralism, missionary exclusivism, and cosmic warfare. Th e fourth chapter examines how God allows powers and principalities to participate in order to accomplish God's redemptive plans and ultimate purpose. Th e next four chapters display early Church Fathers' perspectives on the theology of religions. Justin Martyr argued that aspects of Greek philosophical religions were actually inspired by Christ, believing that whoever taught truth followed Christ as long as they practiced what they preached. Irenaeus, the father of salvation history, had the insight that God revealed Himself and His plan in developmental phases so as to prepare the world to receive the gospel in full. Clement of Alexandria concurred with Irenaeus that God was in total control of all history, maintaining that certain teachers of other religions were "prophets" approved by God. In the next chapter, Origen warned that exploration of religions was dangerous and destructive for young believers because of the malevolent spirits behind them, and should not be undertaken lightly. Th e question remains: how do we stand today on the particularity and truth of Jesus Christ in dialogue with religious others? McDermott suggests that how we view ourselves in relation to Jesus Christ informs our understanding of the truth claims presented by people of other faiths. In other words, our faith in Jesus Christ compels us to seek understanding of the world around us both immediate and afar. He concludes as follows: "In sum, they [the other religions] contain hints and shadows that participate in the Logos. But in the Christian revelation one can see and be joined to the Logos himself " (164). Th is book should be read by those interested in the encounter between Christianity and other faiths. It can be a handbook for missionaries, pastors, and seminarians in or about to
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