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84A New Logical Problem of Evil RevisitedFaith and Philosophy 35 (4): 464-472. 2018.In this article I state concisely the central features of a new logical problem of evil developed elsewhere and take account of a response to this problem recently published in this journal by Jerome Gellman. I also reflect briefly on how theology can play a role in such philosophical discussions.
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21Religion After Science: The Cultural Consequences of Religious ImmaturityCambridge University Press. 2019.In this provocative work, J. L. Schellenberg addresses those who, influenced by science, take a negative view of religion, thinking of it as outmoded if not decadent. He promotes the view that transcendently oriented religion is developmentally immature, showing the consilience of scientific thinking about deep time with his view. From this unique perspective, he responds to a number of influential cultural factors commonly thought to spell ill for religion, showing the changes – changes favorab…Read more
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964The Epistemology of Modest AtheismEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Religion 7 (1): 51--69. 2015.Distinguishing between the old atheism, the new atheism, and modest atheism, and also between belief and acceptance, and belief and acceptance tokens and types, I defend the disjunctive view that either modest atheistic belief or modest atheistic acceptance, construed as type, is today epistemically justified in the context of philosophical inquiry. Central to my defence is a deductive version of the hiddenness argument and an emphasis on the early stage of philosophical inquiry that we presentl…Read more
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9A modest solution to the problem of religious disagreementInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 82 (3): 273-288. 2017.In this paper I develop a new recipe for solving the problem of religious disagreement suggested by the injunction to cultivate intellectual humility conjoined with awareness of human immaturity in deep time. The ingredients brought to the table include such things as noticing the full breadth and texture of the religious propositional field, observing the previously hidden areas of agreement this exposes, making a differential judgment of importance in relation to religious propositions, applyi…Read more
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Reply to Moser.”In Michael L. Peterson & Raymond J. VanArragon (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion, Blackwell. pp. 54--56. 2004.
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38Prolegomena to a philosophy of religionCornell University Press. 2005.Providing an original and systematic treatment of foundational issues in philosophy of religion, J. L. Schellenberg's new book addresses the structure of..
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21The wisdom to doubt: a justification of religious skepticismCornell University Press. 2007.The Wisdom to Doubt is a major contribution to the contemporary literature on the epistemology of religious belief.
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21ContentsIn The will to imagine: a justification of skeptical religion, Cornell University Press. 2009.
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44The atheist’s free will offenceInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 56 (1): 1-15. 2004.This paper criticizes the assumption, omnipresent in contemporary philosophy of religion, that a perfectly good and loving God would wish to confer on finite persons free will. An alternative mode of Divine-human relationship is introduced and shown to be as conducive to the realization of value as one involving free will. Certain implications of this result are then revealed, to wit, that the theist's free will defence against the problem of evil is unsuccessful, and what is more, that free wil…Read more
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1Review of Michael Martin (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Atheism (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2007 (6). 2007.
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131Divine HiddennessIn Paul Draper, Charles Talliaferro & Phillip L. Quinn (eds.), A Companion to Philosophy of Religion, 2nd ed., Wiley-blackwell. 2010.
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7Part. I. Purifying Faith Why the Best Religion Is the Most SkepticalIn The will to imagine: a justification of skeptical religion, Cornell University Press. pp. 11-66. 2009.
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IntroductionIn The will to imagine: a justification of skeptical religion, Cornell University Press. pp. 1-10. 2009.
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20Challenges to Moral and Religious Belief: Disagreement and Evolution (review)International Journal for the Study of Skepticism 7 (1). 2017.
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3Divine Hiddenness and Human ReasonInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 40 (2): 121-124. 1996.
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19The Hiddenness Argument: Philosophy's New Challenge to Belief in GodOxford University Press UK. 2015.In many places and times, and for many people, God's existence has been rather less than a clear fact. According to the hiddenness argument, this is actually a reason to suppose that it is not a fact at all. The hiddenness argument is a new argument for atheism that has come to prominence in philosophy over the past two decades. J. L. Schellenberg first developed the argument in 1993, and this book offers a short and vigorous statement of its central claims and ideas. Logically sharp but so clea…Read more
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15A Reply to WykstraPhilo 14 (1): 101-107. 2011.Wykstra’s paper defends two objections to my reasoning in The Wisdom to Doubt. One says that we in fact do take evidence to be representative of all the relevant evidence that exists when forming the judgment that it makes some proposition probable, the other that our judgments as to the representativeness of evidence are often justified, and can be justified even in matters of religion. Both objections are instructive but ultimately unsuccessful, as I show here.
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12Stalemate and Strategy: Rethinking the Evidential Argument from EvilAmerican Philosophical Quarterly 37 (4). 2000.
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173Religious Diversity and Religious SkepticismIn Kevin Schilbrack (ed.), The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religious Diversity, Wiley-blackwell. 2015.In this paper I argue that given the present state of relevant inquiry, the facts of religious diversity justify religious skepticism. Because of the diversity of religious claims, the denial of any detailed religious proposition is equivalent to a large disjunction of alternative claims. The same is true of the denial of metaphysical naturalism. And having typically acquired no detailed understanding of the whole panoply of religious views, religious believers and metaphysical naturalists are r…Read more
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11Part V. Keeping Faith Skeptical Religion as Reason’s DemandIn The will to imagine: a justification of skeptical religion, Cornell University Press. pp. 235-250. 2009.
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20On reasonable nonbelief and perfect love: Replies to Henry and LeheFaith and Philosophy 22 (3): 330-342. 2005.Some Christian philosophers wonder whether a God really would oppose reasonable nonbelief. Others think the answer to the problem of reasonable nonbelief is that there isn’t any. Between them, Douglas V. Henry and Robert T. Lehe cover all of this ground in their recent responses to my work on Divine hiddenness. Here I give my answers to their arguments
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2God, the Best, and Evil, by Bruce LangtryMind 118 (472): 1155-1160. 2009.(No abstract is available for this citation)
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15The will to imagine: a justification of skeptical religionCornell University Press. 2009.Ultimism and the aims of human immaturity -- Faith without details, or how to practice skeptical religion -- Simple faith and the complexities of tradition -- The structure of faith justification -- How skeptical faith is true to reason -- Anselm's idea -- Leibniz's ambition -- Paley's wonder -- Pascal's wager -- Kant's postulate -- James's will -- Faith is positively justified : the many modes of religious vision.
Areas of Specialization
Epistemology |
Metaphilosophy |
Philosophy of Religion |
Areas of Interest
Aesthetics |
Normative Ethics |
General Philosophy of Science |