Call for Papers by Joshua Farris
Reformed theology provides fertile soil for theological accounts of the final end of humanity. Th... more Reformed theology provides fertile soil for theological accounts of the final end of humanity. This special issue aims to better understand and appreciate the Reformed contribution and its helpfulness towards constructive accounts of the vision and theosis. We invite article submissions that provide constructive accounts of the beatific vision and theosis. The article submission should be 8,000 words and written in Sage Harvard Referencing System. For further questions, contact the editors, Drs. Joshua R. Farris ([email protected]) or Ryan A. Brandt ([email protected]).
The Riley Conference Center Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX March 31 – ... more The Riley Conference Center Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX March 31 – April 1 All full members and student members of EPS are invited to submit paper proposals on this year's theme. Quality papers on topics not directly related to the theme are also welcome. Full Members: Paper proposals should include a title and abstract (300 words), the presenter's name and institutional affiliation, and the presenter's membership status. An acceptable paper should be delivered in 25 minutes with 5-10 minutes for discussion. Student Members: In addition to the above requirements, student papers are to be sponsored by a full member of EPS. Proposals should include the student's degree program and email confirmation from the sponsor who has agreed to oversee the paper's preparation. All paper proposals should be submitted to [email protected] The submission deadline is February 13, 2017. Student Paper Competition: Student members whose papers are accepted for inclusion in the program will be eligible to enter a student paper competition. Students who wish to enter the competition must submit the following to Greg Trickett at [email protected] by March 3, 2017: 1. A titled, full version of the paper to be presented suitable for blind review. 2. A 200-300 word abstract with the paper title as it appears on the blind review submission, the student's name, pursued degree, and societal and institutional affiliations.
Analytic Perspectives on Method and Authority in Theology
Topic of special issue The present issue will contain topics on revelation, theological method, t... more Topic of special issue The present issue will contain topics on revelation, theological method, traditioned method, with the aim toward advancing philosophical and systematic theology for contemporary discussions from a diversity of ecumenical perspectives.
Recent analytic theology has often focused on topics traditionally under the purview of natural t... more Recent analytic theology has often focused on topics traditionally under the purview of natural theology. When analytic theologians have ventured into topics under the rubric of revealed or dogmatic theology, they tend to concentrate on a narrow selection of Christian doctrines (such as the Trinity, the Incarnation, or providence). This issue of TheoLogica seeks contributions pertaining to topics underexplored in analytic theology that are derived from revealed or traditional sources (e.g., creeds, conciliar/confessional statements, midrash, etc.). Contributions from a variety of religious traditions, working from their own revealed or traditional sources, are welcome.
Book Flyer by Joshua Farris
The Creation of Self, 2023
Situated in broader science-and-religion discussions, The Creation of Self is the first book-leng... more Situated in broader science-and-religion discussions, The Creation of Self is the first book-length defense of a creationist view of persons as souls. This book therefore serves as both a novel argument for God’s creation of selves and as a critique of contemporary materialist and emergent-self alternatives, critically examining naturalistic views that argue for a regular, law-like process behind the emergence of personhood. Author Joshua Farris argues on the assumption that persons are fundamentally unique individuals that look more like singularities of nature, rather than material products grounded in regularity or predictability from past events. By extending the basic intuition that we are unique and mysterious individuals, Farris develops a sophisticated analytic defense of the soul that requires a sufficient explanation not found in nature but made by a Creator who has intentions and the power to bring about novel entities in the world. The Creation of Self gives philosophers, theologians, and the lay intellectual grounding for thinking about persons as religious beings. It aims to help readers understand why recent scientifically motivated objections to the soul are unsuccessful, and why we must consider a religious conception of persons as souls as a common starting point.
John Hunt Publishers (Iff Books), 2023
Situated in broader science-and-religion discussions, The Creation of Self is the first book-leng... more Situated in broader science-and-religion discussions, The Creation of Self is the first book-length defense of a creationist view of persons as souls. This book therefore serves as both a novel argument for God's creation of selves and as a critique of contemporary materialist and emergent-self alternatives, critically examining naturalistic views that argue for a regular, law-like process behind the emergence of personhood. Author Joshua Farris argues on the assumption that persons are fundamentally unique individuals that look more like singularities of nature, rather than material products grounded in regularity or predictability from past events. By extending the basic intuition that we are unique and mysterious individuals, Farris develops a sophisticated analytic defense of the soul that requires a sufficient explanation not found in nature but made by a Creator who has intentions and the power to bring about novel entities in the world. The Creation of Self gives philosophers, theologians, and the lay intellectual grounding for thinking about persons as religious beings. It aims to help readers understand why recent scientifically motivated objections to the soul are unsuccessful, and why we must consider a religious conception of persons as souls as a common starting point.
Routledge Handbook of Idealism , 2021
The influence of materialist ontology largely dominates philosophical and scientific discussions.... more The influence of materialist ontology largely dominates philosophical and scientific discussions. However, there is a resurgent interest in alternative ontologies from panpsychism (the view that at the base of reality exists potential minds, minds, or mind-lets) to idealism and dualism (the view that all of reality is material and mental).
The Routledge Handbook of Idealism and Immaterialism is an outstanding reference source and the first major collection of its kind. Historically grounded and constructively motivated, it covers the key topics in philosophy, science, and theology, providing students and scholars with a comprehensive introduction to idealism and immaterialism. Also addressed are post-materialism developments, with explicit attention to variations of idealism and immaterialism (the view that reality depends on a mind or a set of minds).
Comprising 44 chapters written by an international and interdisciplinary team of contributors, the Handbook is organised into five clear parts:
Idealism and the history of philosophy
Important figures in idealism
Systematic assessment of idealism
Idealism and science
Idealism, physicalism, panpsychism, and substance dualism
Essential reading for students and researchers in metaphysics, philosophy of science, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of mind, The Routledge Handbook of Idealism and Immaterialism will also be of interest to those in related discplines where idealist and immaterialist ontology impinge on history, science, and theology.
Lexington, 2017
On the heels of the advance since the twentieth-century of wholly physicalist accounts of human p... more On the heels of the advance since the twentieth-century of wholly physicalist accounts of human persons, the influence of materialist ontology is increasingly evident in Christian theologizing. To date, the contemporary literature has tended to focus on anthropological issues (e.g., whether the traditional soul / body distinction is viable), with occasional articles treating physicalist accounts of such doctrines as the Incarnation and Resurrection of Jesus cropping up, as well. Interestingly, the literature to date, both for and against this influence, is dominated by philosophers. The present volume is a collection of philosophers and theologians who advance several novel criticisms of this growing trend toward physicalism in Christian theology. The present collection definitively shows that Christian physicalism has some significant philosophical and theological problems. No doubt all philosophical anthropologies have their challenges, but the present volume shows that Christian physicalism is most likely not an adequate accounting for essential theological topics within Christian theism. Christians, then, should consider alternative anthropologies.
Papers by Joshua Farris
The nature of personal identity is ultimately theological in nature. Through a survey of some of ... more The nature of personal identity is ultimately theological in nature. Through a survey of some of the recent philosophical evidence for the soul (in the analytic philosophical tradition), the following lays out reasons for why personal identity is accounted for by a soul because of the nature of phenomenal consciousness as essentially descriptive of persons. Yet, this conclusion is buttressed by theological reflection on personal origins and the end of life. Through a guided reflection on the origins of persons and the end of life (through the lens of dementia case studies), further suggested information about the person as a substance of consciousness reveals more than what is uncovered through philosophical or scientific analysis alone. In this way, and building on Priest's recents work, the following is a sketch of personal identity as ensouled identity that moves beyond what Priest calls the 'conditioned' mode to the 'unconditioned' mode of theology.
Theology Today, 2019
When we wait for a significant other, it is not as if we are waiting for someone who looks like h... more When we wait for a significant other, it is not as if we are waiting for someone who looks like her, talks like her, or even walks like her. Instead, what we want is her. And, the same goes for the afterlife: if there is an afterlife, we long to see our loved ones. Not those who look like our loved ones, who sound like them, or even smell like them, but we actually want them. In the study of human nature, this is, arguably, one of the modern insights on humanity. The question of the "particularity" of human beings matters. In technical philosophical studies, the question of "particularity" is a question of thisness (i.e., the fact that objects are countable as discrete in virtue of some property or feature that makes an object what it is). What makes one person this person rather than that person? By showing how the concept of thisness is important in modern and contemporary theology, I will argue for a specific view as that which accurately captures both the historical consensus and the modern emphasis of personhood.
DeGruyter, 2021
The recent atonement literature reveals a growing trend accepting the thesis that the Reformer's ... more The recent atonement literature reveals a growing trend accepting the thesis that the Reformer's doctrine just is the biblical doctrine of penal substitution. This is the claim of William Lane Craig in his recent works on the atonement. In the present article, we challenge these set of claims in Craig's recent works and advance an alternative theory of the atonement that has some significant footing in the Reformed theological tradition, most notably reflected in the theologian, William Ames. Finally, we lay out several reasons why Craig's doctrine of the atonement fails to capture the biblical data on the atonement and fails to avoid the legal fiction problem parasitic on most, if not all, accounts of penal substitution.
Analytic theology (AT) is a particular approach to theology and the study of religion that engage... more Analytic theology (AT) is a particular approach to theology and the study of religion that engages with the tools, categories, and methodological concerns of analytic philosophy. As such, it is neutral with respect to particular substantive, denominational, or religious claims. It is a relatively newly-named approach, yet it has specific antecedents in the last century and formal antecedents in much of the history of Christian theological reflection. It is a fast-growing and well-resourced initiative, and—likely in virtue of this—has proven somewhat controversial. This special issue of Open Theology engages AT with a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, essays in this collection bring the analytic slant to bear on perennial topics in theological prolegomena. Yet, on the other hand, some essays offer critical engagements with AT and ways of integrating AT with other well-attested theological methods. Essays of both kinds push AT further into realms of greater rigor and attractivene...
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF IDEALISM AND IMMATERIALISM, 2022
Walter Benjamin regarded the figure of the angel “Angelus Novus” in Paul Klee’s drawing as an all... more Walter Benjamin regarded the figure of the angel “Angelus Novus” in Paul Klee’s drawing as an allegorical Denkbild, a picture to provoke thought. He had begun to analyze the concept of progress, which he critized in his interpretation of Klee’s picture, in his essay on the collector and historian Eduard Fuchs, and continued to develop his criticism in File ‘N’ of The Arcades Project, titled ‘On the Theory of Knowledge, Theory of Progress,’ as well as in the theses belonging to On the Concept of History. In the latter writing, Benjamin sees the most radical option of resistance against the disastrous logic of progress and the fatal vision of the past as a completed history in an anamnetic procedure that has the potential for bringing together all times and leads to recognizing the force of the past in the present and the future. The ‘dialectics at a standstill’ carried out in arrested and at the same time extremely charged thought, which Benjamin proposes as a revolutionary practice to counteract the logic of progress and to prevent catastrophe, finds its fulfillment in Eingedenken.
Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie
SummaryOriginating from the Evangelical Philosophical Society’s Panel Discussion at the American ... more SummaryOriginating from the Evangelical Philosophical Society’s Panel Discussion at the American Academy of Religion 2017 on themes in Andrew Loke’s Christological work, Kryptic Christology, the present article isolates one important issue that began as discussion in Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie between James Arcadi and Andrew Loke on the nature of Christ’s human nature according to abstractism and concretism. Upon summarizing the debate, I make two claims. After I take a fresh look at the state of the analytic Christological literature, I, first, suggest that Loke is not consistent with the common descriptions of abstractism/concretism as stated in the analytic literature. And, second, I argue, based on Loke’s own words, that he confuses a metaphysical distinction with a semantic distinction.
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Call for Papers by Joshua Farris
Book Flyer by Joshua Farris
The Routledge Handbook of Idealism and Immaterialism is an outstanding reference source and the first major collection of its kind. Historically grounded and constructively motivated, it covers the key topics in philosophy, science, and theology, providing students and scholars with a comprehensive introduction to idealism and immaterialism. Also addressed are post-materialism developments, with explicit attention to variations of idealism and immaterialism (the view that reality depends on a mind or a set of minds).
Comprising 44 chapters written by an international and interdisciplinary team of contributors, the Handbook is organised into five clear parts:
Idealism and the history of philosophy
Important figures in idealism
Systematic assessment of idealism
Idealism and science
Idealism, physicalism, panpsychism, and substance dualism
Essential reading for students and researchers in metaphysics, philosophy of science, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of mind, The Routledge Handbook of Idealism and Immaterialism will also be of interest to those in related discplines where idealist and immaterialist ontology impinge on history, science, and theology.
Papers by Joshua Farris
The Routledge Handbook of Idealism and Immaterialism is an outstanding reference source and the first major collection of its kind. Historically grounded and constructively motivated, it covers the key topics in philosophy, science, and theology, providing students and scholars with a comprehensive introduction to idealism and immaterialism. Also addressed are post-materialism developments, with explicit attention to variations of idealism and immaterialism (the view that reality depends on a mind or a set of minds).
Comprising 44 chapters written by an international and interdisciplinary team of contributors, the Handbook is organised into five clear parts:
Idealism and the history of philosophy
Important figures in idealism
Systematic assessment of idealism
Idealism and science
Idealism, physicalism, panpsychism, and substance dualism
Essential reading for students and researchers in metaphysics, philosophy of science, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of mind, The Routledge Handbook of Idealism and Immaterialism will also be of interest to those in related discplines where idealist and immaterialist ontology impinge on history, science, and theology.
The Routledge Handbook of Idealism and Immaterialism is an outstanding reference source and the first major collection of its kind. Historically grounded and constructively motivated, it covers the key topics in philosophy, science, and theology, providing students and scholars with a comprehensive introduction to idealism and immaterialism. Also addressed are post-materialism developments, with explicit attention to variations of idealism and immaterialism (the view that reality depends on a mind or a set of minds).
Comprising 44 chapters written by an international and interdisciplinary team of contributors, the Handbook is organised into five clear parts:
Idealism and the history of philosophy
Important figures in idealism
Systematic assessment of idealism
Idealism and science
Idealism, physicalism, panpsychism, and substance dualism
Essential reading for students and researchers in metaphysics, philosophy of science, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of mind, The Routledge Handbook of Idealism and Immaterialism will also be of interest to those in related discplines where idealist and immaterialist ontology impinge on history, science, and theology.
Idealism and Christian Theology proposes to be such a work, retrieving ideas and arguments from its most significant modern exponents (especially George Berkeley and Jonathan Edwards) in order to assess its value for present and future theological construction. As a piece of constructive philosophical-theology itself, this volume considers the explanatory power an Idealist ontology has for contemporary Christian theology.
Foreword Oliver D. Crisp
Introduction: A Cartesian Exploration in Tradition
Part 1: Cartesian Souls and Theological Prolegomena
1. A Cartesian Exploration in Natural Theology and Prolegomena
2. A Cartesian Exploration in the Story of Scripture and Personal Ontology
Part 2: Creation and the Origin of Souls
3. A Cartesian Exploration of the Soul’s Origin, Part 1
4. A Cartesian Exploration of the Soul’s Origin, Part 2
5. A Cartesian Exploration of the Embodied Soul
Part 3: Hamartiology, Soteriology and Cartesian Souls
6. A Cartesian Exploration of the Soul’s Origin, Original Sin, and Christology
7. A Cartesian Exploration of the Interim State and the visio Dei
Part 4: Cartesian Souls and Personal Eschatology
8. Picturing the Interim State as a Cartesian
9. A Cartesian Exploration of Personal Eschatology
Conclusion.
Bibliography
Index
If you or someone you know is interested in being the "Book Review Editor of Philosophy of Religion and Apologetics" for the Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies, let me know. The spot is opening in August 2017. Contact me for further details.
The plenary address was funded by the New Generation of Research Exchange in collaboration with the Ian Ramsey Center and supported by the John Templeton Foundation.