Religious Epistemology

An exploration of the philosophical and mystical potential of the art of Victor Ekpuk and the Nsibidi symbolism of the Ekpe esoteric order of South-South and South-East Nigeria and South-West Cameroon which inspires his work, in the
context of Africana and global esotericism.

هم¬اندیشی «معرفت¬شناسی دینی» با همکاری پژوهشگاه علوم انسانی و مطالعات فرهنگی و دانشگاه قم از تاریخ 31 فروردین ماه لغایت 2 اردیبهشت ماه 1389 به ترتیب در دانشگاه تهران، دانشگاه قم و دانشگاه اصفهان برگزار شد.
نکتۀ جالب توجه این همایش، حضور شش فیلسوف امریکایی در آن بود؛ انديشمنداني که به‌عنوان نمایندگان فیلسوفان مسیحی به ايران زمين آمده بودند تا از نزدیک با فیلسوفان اسلامی و سایر علاقه¬مندان بحث و تبادل¬نظر کنند. استادان بسیاری از دانشگاه¬های سراسر ایران نیز در این همایش حضور داشتند و برخی از آنها مقاله ارائه دادند.

This insightful text examines the impact of Islamic schooling on Muslim youth in French-speaking Canada to consider how these institutions influence the formation of students’ cultural, national, ethnic, and religious identities, and their sense of belonging to Quebec and Canada.

Through close qualitative analysis of interviews conducted with first- and second-generation students, as well as parents, teachers, and leaders involved in Islamic high schools, this text explores how far institutions succeed in preparing young Muslims to participate in the broader secular society in Quebec and in English-speaking Canada. As well as investigating the historical and contemporary development of Islamic schooling in Canada, and addressing public perceptions of this educational sector, the volume foregrounds the voices of those directly involved in these schools to illustrate first-hand experiences, and the motivations and objectives of those choosing to support or engage in these schools. Overarching themes include citizenship, integration, and the complex interplay of Muslim, Quebecois, and Canadian values.

This book will be of great interest to graduate and postgraduate students, researcher scholars and academics in the fields of religion, education, Islamic studies, multicultural education curriculum studies, and faith-based teacher education.

你可以在第135或326页快速获得这本书的摘要。如果你对进化心理学没有跟上速度,你应该先阅读标题中这个术语的最近许多文本之一。其中最好的是《进化心理学手册》第二部,由Buss出版。直到大约15年前,对行为的解释还不是对心理过程的真正解释,而是对人们做了什么和说什么的模糊和基本上无用的描述,而对原因却一无所知。我们可以说,人们聚集纪念一个事件,赞美上帝,接受他(或她或他们)的祝福,等等。,但这一切都没有描述相关的心理过程,因此,我们可以说,他们是解释的方式,它解释了为什么一个苹果下降到地面,如果我们说它,因为我们释放它,而且它很重,没有机制,也没有解释或预测能力。这本书继续阐明人类行为的遗传基础,学术界、宗教界、政界和公众几乎普遍忽视和否认(见平克的优秀书《空白斯莱特》)。他的陈述(p3)认为,问宗教是否遗传是没有意义的,因为任何行为因基因和环境而发生变异的百分比都可以被研究,就像所有其他行为一样(见Pinker)。标题应该是"初步尝试解释原始宗教的某些方面",因为他根本不对待更高的意识(例如,萨托里,启蒙等),这是迄今为止最有趣的现象,也是唯一的21世纪对聪明、受过教育的人个人感兴趣的宗教的一部分。读整本书,你永远不会猜到这样的事情存在。同样,对于毒品和宗教的巨大领域。它缺乏一个理性的框架,没有提及思想观的双重体系,这种观念现在如此富有成效。因为我建议我最近的一些论文。然而,这本书有很多的兴趣,尽管日期仍然值得一读。

那些希望从现代两个系统的观点来看为人类行为建立一个全面的最新框架的人,可以查阅我的书《路德维希的哲学、心理学、Mind 和语言的逻辑结构》维特根斯坦和约翰·西尔的《第二部》(2019年)。那些对我更多的作品感兴趣的人可能会看到《会说话的猴子——一个末日星球上的哲学、心理学、科学、宗教和政治——文章和评论2006-2019年第3次(2019年)和自杀乌托邦幻想21篇世纪4日(2019年)。

How do ‘new’ and ’old’ Islamic actors in contemporary Albania define religious legitimacy, the nation and religious otherness? This chapter uses Olivier Roy’s analytical distinction between accommodationism and neo-fundamentalism as a compass to navigate through Albania’s complex religious landscape by exploring different sets of beliefs promulgated by a selection of Islamic groups (2010).  These are the Muslim Community of Albania, which represents ‘official Islam’ , and ‘mainstream’ Sunni Muslims, who are typically accommodationist. I also analyse a Sufi subgroup thereof, which is equally accommodationist, but in a slightly different manner. As a neo-fundamentalist counterpoint, I explore the ideas of a competing organisation composed of Salafi imams.

Accommodationism means that the bond between religion and a specific territory and culture of origin is tight. In this context, ‘culture’ refers to Albanian historical tradition and the language-based, secular nation-building project engineered by modernising state elites since the early 20th century. Neo-fundamentalism, conversely, is a globalised form of religion that emphasises the gap between faith and culture. As such, it represents a reformatted, exportable form of religiosity, which stands in contrast to cultural ethno-national ways of being Muslim. Neo-fundamentalist religious identity is faith-based, and seeks to ground itself solely upon explicit religious norms, at least in principle. Accordingly, these believers make their religiosity visible through a global uniform of religious markers detached from the surrounding culture.

In the Albanian Islamic context, the theoretically informed labels, neo-fundamentalist and accommodationist, roughly correspond to the ‘Albanianist’ versus the ‘Salafi’ forms of Islam. To some extent, this resonates with mainstream distinctions adopted in Albania and in the Balkans. A popular Albanian term for Muslims associated with neo-fundamentalist forms of Islam is ‘fanatic’ (fanatik). Accommodationism is commonly related to ‘old’ forms of Islam, which many be deemed as local, rooted, and European as well as tolerant and moderate. Neo-fundamentalism, conversely, refers to certain ‘new’ forms of Islam, i.e. those perceived to be imported, transnational, alien, ‘fanatic’ and a threat to local religious customs. This cultural distinction between what are deemed acceptable and unacceptable forms of Islam is often politicised and securitised. As I will show, the association between neo-fundamentalism and violence is not necessarily correct, and the Salafi community under scrutiny here can be defined as pacifist and purist (Wiktorowicz 2006). These two formats, moreover, clash and merge together as different local actors seek to recast and legitimize their respective positions.

In this paper, I argue that through responding to Henry Purcell's choral anthem 'Hear My Prayer, O Lord' with a certain form of desire for God, one can come to knowledge about God in the capacity of providing satisfaction. Further, this knowledge is available even in the absence of satisfaction, and does not require belief in God's existence. It is thus possible for 'religiously minded' agnostics, and even atheists, to know about God in the way I describe.

The evil-god challenge is a challenge for theists to show that belief in God is more reasonable than belief in evil-god. In this article, I show that whether or not evil-god exists, belief in evil-god is unjustified. But this isn’t the case for belief in God: belief in God is probably justified if theism is true. And hence belief in God is (significantly) more reasonable than belief in evil-god, and the evil-god challenge has been answered.

چالش های معرفت شناسانه بسیاری حول توجیه باور به خداوند در سه قرن گذشته وجود داشته است بگونه ای که برخی همچون پلنتینجا صرف تضمین را بجای توجیهِ استدلالی در این زمینه مطرح کردند و باور به وجود خداوند را باوری پایه نشان دادند. اما میلیون ها انسان بدون توجه به این چالش ها، باور به وجود خداوند را بدون آن که ایمان گرا باشند برای خودشان موجه می دانند. این توجیه از کجا ناشی می شود؟ آیا توجیه آنها از لحاظ معرفت شناسی قابل تبیین است؟
در این مقاله در نظر است ضمن تبیین جریانهای جدید معرفت شناسی اجتماعی و «گواهی»، اهمیت معرفت شناسیِ مبتنی بر شنیده های اطمینان یافته نشان داده شود سپس استدلال گردد که شنیده های اطمینان یافتة ما درباره وجود خداوند و صفات او که به پیامبران منتهی می شود و آن نیز به اقرار خداوند و تبیین او از خودش مبتنی است می تواند بهترین توجیه برای باورهای ما باشد. و در نهایت به این سوال پاسخ داده شود که چگونه گواهی خداوند بر وجود و صفاتش که ازطریق پیامبران به ما رسیده است می تواند یکی از بهترین توجیه های معرفتی برای باور به وجود و صفات خداوند باشد؟ و این نوع معرفت شناسی دینی چه مزایایی نسبت به قرینه گرایی و یا صورتهای گوناگون برهان آوری بر وجود خداوند و صفات او می تواند داشته باشد؟

Many today are seeing the need and importance of teaching Christian apologetics in a variety of different settings. This is intended to help fulfill that need. Following Dr. Norman Geisler’s Twelve Points that Show Christianity is True, this Guide or curriculum is designed to help you prepare and teach Christian apologetics. This Guide contains what is required for instruction in a single resource to teach others successfully in apologetics. It is for the homeschool parent, Sunday school teacher, Christian school teacher, pastor, campus minister, leader in your church or anyone who wants to educate others in Christian apologetics. Dr. Norman Geisler developed the Twelve Points over many years of teaching and instruction at various levels and settings. They have proven to be an invaluable way to learn, communicate, teach and classify the steps of Christian apologetics in a systematic manner. The Twelve Points serve as domains of learning that are memorable, usable and practical. This Guide is intended to help any teacher educate students both young and old in Christian apologetics.

print edition
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ebook
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This ebook is also available on Amazon in Kindle format.
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The Kierkegaardian account of becoming a Christian has come to be perceived in radically egocentric terms. This study serves to challenge this perception by demonstrating that Kierkegaard was devoted to expounding Christian conversion as a transformative process of becoming that is grounded in an active relationship initiated through the agency of the eternal God who has established kinship with us in time.
At the same time, this study will also explore the way that Kierkegaard confronts some of the key errors that arise in overly systematic accounts of Christian conversion: (1) the inherent weakness of approaches that seek to dichotomise, and then quantify separately, the contributions of God’s grace and human freedom; (2) the inclination to objectify God and human beings in ways that neglect their existence as living agents; (3) the overemphasis on conversion as a monadic event of individual transformation rather than an event of reconciliation; (4) the tendency to prioritise epistemology over ontology in discussions of becoming a Christian; and (5) the propensity to lose sight of God’s all-embracing purpose of reconciling persons into their one true form of existence ‘before God’.
Finally, this study will also consider how Kierkegaard was able to negotiate his emphasis on the God-relationship with his emphasis on the importance of individual reflection, decision and action in the Christian life. It will conclude that, for Kierkegaard, the freedom to become a Christian is not the freedom to awaken ourselves into the Christian life but a decision to embrace the Christian life into which God awakens us.

Contents

Introduction
I. Listening to Kierkegaard Alongside his Pseudonyms
a. Kierkegaard and Climacus
b. Anti-Climacus and Kierkegaard

Chapter One: The Communication of the Christian Truth
I. Can the Truth Be Learned?
II. The Relationship or Non-Relationship between Subjectivity and Objectivity
III. The Revelation of Sin
a. Despair
b. The infinite qualitative difference and sin-consciousness
IV. Being in the Truth
V. Passion in Kierkegaard’s Thought
a. The Passion of Thought
b. Passionate Responsibility
c. The Passion of Faith
VI. Conclusion

Chapter Two: The Possibility of Reconciliation
I. The Tale of the King and the Maiden
II. Drawing Another to Oneself
III. The Possibility of Reciprocity
IV. The Possibility of Offense
V. Encountering God in Time
VI. Conclusion

Chapter Three: The Orientation of a Life Lived in Relationship with God
I. The Religious Category of Existence
II. Søren Kierkegaard’s Christian Realism
III. Immanent Religiousness and Christianity
IV. Sin-consciousness and Guilt-consciousness
V. Repentance
VI. Conclusion

Chapter Four: The Orientation of a Life Lived in Relationship with God
I. Following Scripture Faithfully
a. Reading a Letter from a Beloved
b. The Perspicuity of Scripture
c. The Uncertainty of Scripture
II. The Single Individual
III. Christ is the Way
a. Following Christ
b. Following Christ Voluntarily
c. Christ as Prototype and Redeemer
IV. Becoming a Christian in the World
V. Conclusion

Chapter Five: The Freedom to Become a Christian in Relationship with God
I. Approaching Christianity
II. The Passionate Transition
a. Venturing the Leap
b. Preparing to become a Christian?
c. Relationship with “the paradox”
III. Faith in the Presence of God
IV. The Choice to Become a Christian
a. The Freedom of the Individual to Relate to God
b. Willing Beliefs
c. Human Responsibility for Sin
d. Transforming the Will
V. The Freedom to Love
VI. Conclusion

Closing Reflection
I. Kierkegaard’s Low Pneumatology
II. Communion with the One Who Establishes Kinship with Us in Time
III. Conclusion

В  данной статье  дается анализ неклассического типа рациональности, характерного для  духовной мистической традиции.  Тип рациональности, к которому принадлежит и мистика, включает в себя
ценностно-рациональные установки, связанные с отношением адепта к системе религиозных авторитетов (канон священных текстов и др.) и с решением "практической" цели — достижения мистиком высшего блага.

The article presents the topic, almost unexplored in the field of gnosiology (the theory of knowledge) - the problem of philosophical rationalization of mystical interpretation, a verbal and non-verbal constituent of an interpretation procedure of translation of mystical images into a rational concept

Pointing to broad symmetries between the idea that God is omniscient, omnipotent and all-good, and the idea that God is omniscient, omnipotent but all-evil, the evil-God challenge raises the question of why theists should prefer one over the other. I respond to this challenge by drawing on a recent theory in epistemology, pragmatic encroachment, which asserts that practical considerations can alter the epistemic status of beliefs. I then explore some of the implications of my argument for how we do philosophy of religion, arguing that practical and contextual as well as alethic considerations are properly central to the discipline.

4 ‫یین‬ ‫ای‬ ‫ییاندن‬ ‫نش‬ . ‫در‬ ‫سیروش‬ ‫اصلی‬ ‫دغدغه‬ ‫بحقیقت‬ ‫دارد.‬ ‫مولف‬ ‫نزد‬ ‫آن‬ ‫اهمیت‬ ‫از‬ ‫نشان‬ ‫کتاب‬ ‫ابتدای‬ ‫در‬ ‫گفتار‬ ‫بسیط‬ ‫و‬ ‫قبیض‬ ‫از‬ ‫ییتی‬ ‫آش‬ ‫یین‬ ‫ای‬ ‫مکیانیزم‬ ‫سروش،‬ ‫ح‬ ‫ح‬ ‫تصری‬ ‫به‬ ‫است.‬ ‫تغییر"‬ ‫و‬ ‫"ابدیت‬ ‫دادن‬ ‫آشتی‬ ‫برای‬ ‫مکانیزمی‬ ‫دادن‬ ‫بدست‬ 1 ‫سروش،‬ ‫عبدالکریم‬ ‫شریعت‬ ‫تئوریک‬ ‫بسط‬ ‫و‬ ‫قبض‬ ‫چهارم،‬ ‫چاپ‬ ‫تهران،‬ ‫صراط،‬ ‫انتشارا ت‬ ، 1374 . 2 ‫نشد‬ ‫چاپ‬ ‫هم‬ ‫آن‬ ‫از‬ ‫بعد‬ ‫و‬ ‫نرسید‬ ‫چاپ‬ ‫به‬ ‫زمان‬ ‫آن‬ ‫در‬ ‫وی‬ ‫.نقد‬ 3 ‫نوشت:‬ ‫چنین‬ ‫هنری‬ ‫اخلق‬ ‫از‬ ‫دور‬ ‫به‬ ‫سوره‬ ‫مجله‬ ‫در‬ ‫که‬ ‫است‬ ‫شاعری‬ ‫منظور‬ ‫ر ک‬ ‫ر‬ ‫ممد‬ ‫م‬ ‫م‬ ‫ممه‬ ‫ک‬ ‫ممولی‬ ‫جه‬ ‫ممت‬ ‫اس‬ ‫جهالت‬ ‫درکش‬ ‫است‬ / ‫است‬ ‫مشر ک‬ ‫انبان‬ ‫نی‬ ‫نیست‬ ‫بسط‬ ‫و‬ ‫قبض‬ ‫این‬ 4 ‫بسط‬ ‫و‬ ‫قبض‬ ‫ص‬ ‫دیباچه،‬ ، 47 ‫لهوری،‬ ‫اقبال‬ ‫محمد‬ ‫از‬ ‫نقل‬ ‫به‬ . ‫اسلم‬ ‫در‬ ‫دینی‬ ‫فکر‬ ‫احیای‬ ‫ص‬ ‫آرام،‬ ‫احمد‬ ‫ترجمه‬ ، 169 .

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This essay argues for the rationality of truth claims arising from religious faith over against the contention that such claims are, at best, viewed as subjective "value" language or, at worst, strictly irrational. An argument will be offered for the epistemic warrant of faith-based claims, not for the objective veracity of the religious claims themselves.

What do rituals have to do with knowledge? Knowledge by Ritual examines the epistemological role of rites in Christian Scripture. By putting biblical rituals in conversation with philosophical and scientific views of knowledge, Johnson argues that knowing is a skilled adeptness in both the biblical literature and scientific enterprise. If rituals are a way of thinking in community akin to scientific communities, then the biblical emphasis on rites that lead to knowledge cannot be ignored. Practicing a rite to know occurs frequently in the Hebrew Bible. YHWH answers Abram’s skepticism—"How shall I know that I will possess the land?"—with a ritual intended to make him know (Gen 15:7–21). The recurring rites of Sabbath (Exod 31:13) and dwelling in a Sukkah (Lev 23:43) direct Israel toward discernment of an event's enduring significance. Likewise, building stone memorials aims at the knowledge of generations to come (Josh 4:6).

Though the New Testament appropriates the Torah rites through strategic re-employment, the primary questions of sacramental theology have often presumed that rites are symbolically encoded. Hence, understanding sacraments has sometimes been reduced to decoding the symbols of the rite. Knowledge by Ritual argues that the rites of Israel, as portrayed in the biblical texts, disposed Israelites to recognize something they could not have seen apart from their participation. By examining the epistemological function of rituals, Johnson's monograph gives readers a new set of questions to explore both the sacraments of Israel and contemporary sacramental theology.

In order to grasp the Scripture's diverse utilization of rituals, I engage and integrate several areas of scholarship. First, ritual theory provides yet-to-be explored avenues for examining the role of rites in forming persons. Second, KBR offers a diverse proposal for understanding ritual knowing, integrating the best philosophical theories of knowledge with literary analysis of the relevant biblical texts. I re-introduce the prescient work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Michael Polanyi, both of whom anticipate the findings of neuroscience regarding the body's role in knowing. Third, any treatment of ritual is remiss without serious discussion of the philosophy of the body. Specifically, the human ability to employ abstract concepts from our embodied experience—often called analogical reasoning—lends support to the centrality of ritual to knowledge. Finally, KBRoffers a uniquely Hebraic critique of sacramentalism, forcing new questions to the fore from both the Hebrew Bible and earliest Christian community in Jerusalem. In a time when liturgy and ritual are central to migrations out of Protestantism into Catholicism and Orthodoxy, this text acts as a prelude to new treatments of sacramental theology.

In dit artikel geef ik antwoord op drie vragen. Ten eerste, wat houdt Cliffords evidentialisme in en hoe kan op basis hiervan het bewijs-argument tegen het christelijk geloof geformuleerd worden? (Ik zal het christelijk geloof in het vervolg als voorbeeld van de omvangrijkere categorie van religieuze overtuigingen nemen.) Het zal duidelijk worden dat Cliffords evidentialisme gecompliceerder is dan de beroemde uitspraak van hem die vaak geciteerd wordt doet vermoeden: ‘it is wrong always, everywhere, and for any one, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.’ Ten tweede, welke kritiek uit James in zijn ‘The Will to Believe’ op Cliffords evidentialisme en hoe houdbaar is deze kritiek? Ten derde en ten slotte, op welke manier kan Cliffords bewijs-argument weerlegd worden?

This collection of essays and notes attempts to tread the invisible borders between mythos, the neoliberal-Christian-nationalist 'world view' and socio-political trends in the rise of Trump, the Red Hats and the Evangelicals to political dominance in the United States.

The chapter argues that the search for a single construal of the realism/anti-realism distinction is misguided. There are more or less apt versions of the distinction, each framed with a specific set of interests. The terms of art, ‘realist’ and ‘anti-realist’, are not helpfully construed as applying across whole domains (‘science’, ‘religion’, ‘ethics’), or thinkers, but at the level of particular statements. As such, the distinction has less in common with categorizations such as ‘theist/atheist’, or ‘empiricist/rationalist’, and more in common with (contestable, but still useful for many) terms of art such as ‘a priori/a posteriori’ and ‘analytic/synthetic’. The chapter explores four alternative construals of the distinction: cognitivist, ontological, epistemological, and semantic. When we get to the more subtle construals of semantic anti-realism/realism, it is unclear what precisely (if anything) is at stake in the debate.

This is an analysis of the argument and sources of Herman Bavinck's (1854-1921) discussion of the principia of science in his Reformed Dogmatics. Bavinck draws heavily on Aquinas's treatment of the powers of the soul as he argues for a realist via media in contrast to modern trends of rationalism and empiricism.

An important feature of spiritual formation involves finding reliable processes, people, practices, and materials that put one in the best position to cultivate the spiritual life and to achieve the specified goals (e.g. purity of heart, discernment, and the vision of God). Accordingly, this chapter draws attention to some works that connect philosophy (including some epistemological themes and issues) and spirituality (including the topic of spiritual formation). It also spells out some of the main features of John Cassian’s (ca. 360-435 CE) account of spiritual formation. In particular, it focuses on his understanding of the penultimate and ultimate goals of spiritual formation, of the importance of relying on others for making epistemic progress in the spiritual life, and of the three indicators that help determine whether a person is a reliable spiritual authority. The chapter concludes by identifying briefly three areas that deserve further epistemological attention.

Chapter Keywords: John Cassian, spiritual formation, indicators of spiritual authority, discernment, purity of heart, spiritual perception

Croire que Jésus est ressuscité n'est pas chose facile. Même dans le cas où cela a bel et bien eu lieu, il n'est pas facile pour tous d'y croire, d'y croire vraiment. Pourquoi ? C'est ce que ce texte se propose d'élucider. Pour ce faire, nous avons convoqué trois approches en philosophie de la connaissance : l'évidentialisme, le présuppositionalisme, et l'épistémologie des vertus de R. Pouivet.

Voici la version révisée d'avril 2019.

In this thesis I explore the pressing and perennial ontological question of the existence of God. In so doing, I set out to develop a (somewhat) novel deductively valid argument against the existence of God, more particularly, the type of God that is thought to constitute the common metaphysical and theological capital of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The argument, known as the Argument from Doxastic Discord, is an affirmative argument for Atheism and seeks to demonstrate that there is an explicit logical contradiction between (i) the observable empirical fact of doxastic heterogeneity amongst finite persons on the one hand, and (ii) the classic ‘great-making’ properties usually ascribed to God on the other.

It will be argued that the empirical existence of doxastic heterogeneity (of a particular kind) cannot be logically reconciled with a perfect supernatural being that is supposed to simultaneously co-instantiate the properties of omnipotence, omniscience and omni-benevolence and who desires to have a deep, long lasting and meaningful relationship with all human persons.

I intend to divide the discussion into three broad sections. In the first section, I articulate the general landscape in which this discussion is taking place by first clearly explicating the core concerns that lie behind, and motivate, the Argument from Doxastic Discord. In so doing, it will be necessary to disambiguate two concerns viz. the epistemic and metaphysical concerns. Of the two concerns, it will be the latter that will form the principal subject matter of this thesis.

It will also be necessary to explicate and distinguish the crucial concepts of ‘God’, ‘Theism’, ‘Atheism’, ‘Ultimism’ and ‘Belief’ as well as outline the inter-relationships between these concepts. Part of this exercise will involve distinguishing personal and impersonal conceptions of God as well as articulating what we really mean when we speak of the so called ‘great making’ properties of omnipotence, omniscience and omni-benevolence i.e. the properties of realist cataphatic ‘perfect being’ theology.

In the second section I set out the positive argument - the Argument from Doxastic Discord. The argument itself is divided into two parts. The first part of the argument contains just two premises - one theological and the other empirical – as well as the main conclusion. The second part of the argument is an extended sub-argument justifying the theological premise. In this section I, therefore, explain and unpack the content of both the theological premise and the empirical premise, as well as present the prima facie case for the crucial premises constituting the sub-argument.

Finally, in the third section I set out the principal objections that might be made by a theist to both the theological and empirical premises of the first part of the argument. In particular, the focus shall be on articulating the most promising theistic response to the crucial premises in the sub-argument and why, in the final analysis such responses are, to my mind, unpersuasive.

In conclusion, I hope to persuade the reflective reader that the Argument from Doxastic Discord is a worthwhile affirmative argument for Atheism that can, and should, take its place in the atheistic armamentarium, alongside other prominent cognate atheological arguments such as the Argument from Evil and the Argument from Divine Hiddenness.

Kant makes two points clear about his stance on divine revelation. First, one must never deny the possibility of divine revelation. Yet, Kant makes equally clear that were such revelation to occur, it could never be recognized as such. These two points reflect Kant’s dogmatic agnosticism: He is insistent that we never discount the possibility of divine revelation, but he is equally insistent that we can’t know whether such revelation has occurred. In this paper, I engage Kant’s assessment of divine revelation. My engagement consists of two parts. The first part simply examines the question Why? Why is Kant convinced that revelation cannot be rejected as impossible and yet cannot be recognized if it occurs? The second part of this paper looks at whether the view of revelation Kant critiques is true of every “revealed religion,” to use Kant’s term. Exploring every view of revelation in the history of religion is well beyond the confines of this paper. I will thus focus on divine revelation as understood in early Christianity by the Eastern Church fathers. From this investigation, I arrive at two conclusions. First, revelation as understood by Kant is so different from that of the-se early Christian writers that his arguments are irrelevant to their view. My second, far more provocative conclusion is this. Kant evidently wants to leave open the ontic window to the possibility of revelation, while shutting the epistemic window to its recognition. Yet, if revelation is what these Eastern Christians describe, then this cannot be done. By leaving open the ontic window, Kant must leave open the epistemic window as well.

NOTE: The attached PDF is of the author MS, not the book proofs. However, the author has formatted the MS to ensure that its pagination coincides with the supplied proofs of the published version. The published essay appears in Kant and the Question of Theology, eds. Chris L. Firestone, Nathan A. Jacobs, and James Joiner (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

I argue that psychology and epistemology should posit distinct cognitive attitudes of religious credence and factual belief, which have different etiologies and different cognitive and behavioral effects. I support this claim by presenting a range of empirical evidence that religious cognitive attitudes tend to lack properties characteristic of factual belief, just as attitudes like hypothesis, fictional imagining, and assumption for the sake of argument generally lack such properties. Furthermore, religious credences have distinctive properties of their own. To summarize: factual beliefs (i) are practical setting independent, (ii) cognitively govern other attitudes, and (iii) are evidentially vulnerable. By way of contrast, religious credences (a) have perceived normative orientation, (b) are susceptible to free elaboration, and (c) are vulnerable to special authority. This theory provides a framework for future research in the epistemology and psychology of religious credence.

The current landscape of virtue epistemology is ripe with possibilities for theological engagement and appropriation. Constructively speaking, Maximus the Confessor (580–662 ce) is a fitting example of this kind of intersection. In terms of mapping the cognitive economy of the spiritual life, he draws attention to virtuous and contemplative practices that enable the intellect to attain its proper end (divine likeness) and acquire the related epistemic goods. Accordingly, this chapter shows how the virtues, for Maximus, contribute to the formation of a deep and abiding desire for the relevant epistemic goods (e.g. contemplation of God in and through nature, illumination of divine truths, wisdom, and perceptual knowledge of God) as well as playing a supportive role in the pursuit of them. It also offers briefly some concluding reflections concerning Maximus’s pairing of virtue and knowledge, and identifies a few areas of enquiry that warrant further work and development.

Keywords: Maximus the Confessor, praktike, theoria, epistemic goods, virtue, love, positive epistemic orientation

In the area of philosophy of religion, the approaches concerning the relationship between faith and reason generally examined under three titles which are strong rationalism, critical rationalism and fideism. Strong rationalism is based on the idea that religious teachings do not contrast with reason and religious beliefs comply with the rational criteria. Subsequent to criticism against strong rationalism and weakening of it, critical rationalism was developed which refers to the reflection of criticism of science in contemporary religious epistemology by Karl Popper. According to the approach of critical rationalism, the area of subjective reality can be generated only after criticizing religious teachings and determining the most reasonable, consistent and explanatory teachings between them.
Fideism which is especially identified with Søren Kierkegaard and Blaise Pascal, reflected in the area of philosophy of religion as an attitude which completely excludes reason. But, in fact, it is an approach that has radical and moderate forms like rationalism. Radical fideism which is the dogmatic form of fideism is based on the idea that faith and reason are incompatible with each other. It refers to a kind of fanaticism about religious teachings. Moderate fideism argues that in the universe religious teaching cannot provide an objective reality. Thus, it is necessary to create an area of subjective reality by means of “leap of faith”.
The purpose of this thesis is to explain the epistemological backgrounds of these two forms of fideism in their general framework, to give information about their supporters, thereby, to contribute the place of moderate fideism as an alternative for the triple distinction in the philosophy of religion regarding the approaches concerning the relationship between faith and reason. Besides, another aim of this thesis is to argue the idea that Kierkegaard who is generally presented as a radical fideist in the sources of
philosophy of religion, in fact, can be seen as a moderate fideist.

RE: Facades, illusions & ideological concepts created & promoted by ancient royalty out of necessity; effective creation of an alternate version of reality. It is only by knowing this information that the true nature of ancient texts may be understood correctly. Not knowing, means making incorrect assumptions & conclusions. Important!

This dissertation presents an historical investigation of the reception of phenomenology in France from 1889-1939. It examines anticipations of phenomenology in French thought as well as early encounters of French academic philosophers and religious thinkers with the phenomenological philosophies of Edmund Husserl, Max Scheler and Martin Heidegger.

In 2014, an edited version will appear as volume 208 in the Phaenomenologica series under the title: "Phenomenology in French Philosophy: Early Encounters." Please refer to the link below for publication information.

Abdolkarim Soroush's theory of 'The Theoretical Contraction and Expansion of Religious Knowledge' is arguably one of the most controversial theories of religion in postrevolutionary Iran. Soroush's theory paves the way for recognising a pluralist interpretation of religion (Islam) by merging the epistemological and hermeneutical theory of religion. However, he later adds another approach to his reformist framework to explain the phenomenon of revelation. In this paper, after carefully laying out Soroush's contraction and expansion theory, I will discuss his three approaches, that is, epistemological, hermeneutical and phenomenological approaches to religion, through presenting Kantian and Quinian interpretations of contraction and expansion of religious knowledge, addressing the epistemology of contraction and expansion and the phenomenology of revelation, and pointing out some issues about error recognition within contraction and expansion of religious knowledge. I argue that the role of error recognition is crucial in understanding Soroush's reformist project since it links his epistemology and hermeneutics of religious knowledge to the way he theorises about revelation phenomenologically.

"The purpose of this article is to examine the extrabiblical evidence from the ancient church to answer which mode of baptism was most common and whether that mode was of any consequence to the early church....The initial section of this article will define four ecclesiological terms relating to baptism: partial immersion, affusion, aspersion, and submersion (total immersion). The second section will address the writings of the subapostolic era (AD 70-150), while the third segment will treat writings from the ante-Nicene period (AD 150-300). The final section will then present a practical application of the research for contemporary churches. In the end, the evidence demonstrates that the early church favored immersion practices prior to the fourth century. However, the investigation cannot definitively prove whether that mode of baptism was partial or total immersion. Ultimately, the early church considered the method of water baptism inconsequential and focused, instead, on the genuineness of the candidate’s faith in Christ" (from the introduction).

This study concentrates on the divine Name’s role as the conduit of the divine presence and knowledge. It demonstrates that in various Jewish traditions the divine Name acted as a cypher for the divine presence which is predestined to reveal the deity’s very essence to human beings. The study shows that in many early Jewish accounts, the Name was closely associated with the deity’s power and demiurgic activity. The divine Name thus fulfills the same function as the divine image. The study illustrates, that like the imago Dei, the divine Name eventually became hypostasized and represented by the same mediatorial figures who play prominent roles as personifications of the divine image, including Enoch, Jacob, and Moses. These mediators became the Name’s visible manifestations endowed with divine attributes and features, including attributes connected with divine knowledge.

The questions of whether God reveals himself; if so, how we can know a purported revelation is authentic; and how such revelations relate to the insights of reason are discussed by John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes, G. W. Leibniz, and Immanuel Kant, to name a few. Yet, what these philosophers say with such consistency about revelation stands in stark contrast with the claims of the Christian East, which are equally consistent from the second century through the fourteenth century. In this essay, I will compare the modern discussion of special revelation from Thomas Hobbes through Johann Fichte with the Eastern Christian discussion from Irenaeus through Gregory Palamas. As we will see, there are noteworthy differences between the two trajectories, differences I will suggest merit careful consideration from philosophers of religion.

Meta-Philosophy Research Centre

Names and links to other texts can be found in this research by myself - (apparently the first video link in that text no longer works) - https://www.academia.edu/30704161/NON-PHILOSOPHY_OF_THE_ONE_Turning_away_from_Philosophy_of_Being

This work consists of short summaries of the mystical ideas and visions of a number of well known mystics.

The theme of the work concerns the so-called ‘unity experience’ of these mystics. The unity or oneness or the realization of ‘being oned’ with, can be referred to the beatific vision. In the case of Christian mystics it is unity experience of The Gottheit (or Godhead) of Meister Eckhart, in Sufism it is being united with The Beloved, in Buddhism it could be said to realize The Buddha mind or Cosmic Buddha’s consciousness and in Vedanta, the realization of  The One Real Self, non-dualism, non-religious non-duality and to be  more and only in the ‘present now’ moment with a type of depth psychology and introspection and a kind of ‘the brain watching the brain’, physicalist, neuro-scientific approach.

What is absent from mystical studies and required is a multi-disciplinary neurosciences approach, as well as detailed, micro research by different disciplines.

This article inquires into the specific differences between Plotinus’ and Dionysius’ negative theologies and their contemporary philosophical significance. The comparative analysis looks beyond their general similarities to focus on their respective features. Its main thesis is that while Dionysius’ negative theology aims at attaining mystical knowledge of God, Plotinus’ version is intended to dispel the illusion that man can attain henosis. The contemporary interpretation puts Plotinus’ and Dionysius’ negative theologies in the context of analytic epistemology. It is suggested that while both can be understood as criticism of the epistemology of propositional religious belief, Dionysius’ analysis of mystical knowledge of God is closer to virtue epistemology and Plotinus’ approach to man’s ignorance of the One more similar to knowledge-first epistemology.

In this article I offer a venturesome introduction to the possibility of an analytic epistemology of Israelite religion. The aim is to propose some descriptive concerns for the biblical scholar interested in what the Hebrew Bible assumed about the justification of religious knowledge and belief in the world of the text. Topics touched on are evidentialism, divine testimony, the problem of allotheism, the concept of divine revelation and the logic of belief revision. A 1 Mary Healy & Robin Parry, eds., The Bible and Epistemology: Biblical Soundings on the Knowledge of God (Colorado Springs: Paternoster Press, 2007), ix. The contribution of Ryan O'Dowd is notable for an attempt to be concerned with the Hebrew Bible and epistemology.