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1Scruton, Roger. The Soul of the World (review)Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 27 (1-2): 212-214. 2015.
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Book Review: Where is the Love? (review)Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care 6 (2): 321-336. 2013.
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6Is God Invisible?: An Essay on Religion and AestheticsCambridge University Press. 2021.In this volume, Charles Taliaferro and Jil Evans promote aesthetic personalism by examining three domains of aesthetics - the philosophy of beauty, aesthetic experience, and philosophy of art - through the lens of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, theistic Hinduism, and the all-seeing Compassionate Buddha. These religious traditions assume an inclusive, overarching God's eye, or ideal point of view, that can create an emancipatory appreciation of beauty and goodness. This appreciation also recognize…Read more
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440Thought Experiments in Philosophy of ReligionOpen Theology 3 (1): 167-173. 2017.We present a criterion for the use of thought experiments as a guide to possibilia that bear on important arguments in philosophy of religion. We propose that the more successful thought experiments are closer to the world in terms of phenomenological realism and the values they are intended to track. This proposal is filled out by comparing thought experiments of life after death by Peter van Inwagen and Dean Zimmerman with an idealist thought experiment. In terms of realism and values we contr…Read more
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18The History of Evil in Antiquity: 2000 Bce to 450 CeRoutledge. 2016.This first volume of "The History of Evil" covers Graeco-Roman, Indian, Near Eastern and Eastern philosophy and religion from 2000 BCE to 450 CE. The volume charts the foundations of the history of evil among the major philosophical traditions and world religions, beginning with the oldest recorded traditions: the Vedas and Upanishads, Confucianism and Daoism, and Buddhism. This cutting-edge treatment of the history of evil at its crucial and determinative inception will appeal to those with par…Read more
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1Philosophy of Religion: A Guide and Anthology; Philosophy of ReligionPhilosophia Christi 3 (1): 279-283. 2001.
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4Is Strategic Thinking Desirable in Philosophical Reflection?Philosophia Christi 17 (1): 213-221. 2015.We argue that, ideally, philosophy—as the love of wisdom—should not be practiced strategically. Among genuine lovers of wisdom, there should be no need for strategic skills; by “strategic” we refer to those skill used in the military and, by extension, in business and sports that involves deception, misrepresentation, the use of surprise to disorient opponents, and so on. We give regrettable examples of non-Christian and Christian philosophers using strategic skills. This paper is dedicated to t…Read more
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24Black Lives, Sex, and Revealed Religion Matter!Philosophia Christi 19 (1): 103-119. 2017.Kant’s negative, distorted views on black Africans, human sexuality, and revealed religion led him to undervalue the case for racial equality, healthy sexual intimacy, and the virtues of Christianity as a revealed religion with its commending worship, prayer, and rites. Kantian anthropology and critique of revealed religion is contrasted with the more capacious approach of the Cambridge Platonists. Challenging Kant’s methodological bias is important in removing the obstacles facing a fair assess…Read more
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26The Significance of Being Ethical: An essay on the case for moral realism and theismScientia et Fides 4 (1): 27-38. 2016.William Irwin defends a form of moral anti-realism, according to which there are no objective moral facts. He contends that moral realism is objectionable because of its being more complex or not as simple as anti-realism; moral realism is in conflict with science; moral realism is also challenged by the fact that our moral judgements would differ if we were subject to a different biology or evolutionary past. Irwin also argues that insofar as moral realism is supportable evidentially by experie…Read more
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15The Ordinary is Extraodinary; The Wonder of the Mundane Physical WorldScientia et Fides 3 (2): 107-116. 2015.Philip Kitcher and other secular naturalists assert that we have a problem-free concept of the "mundane physical world" and use the idea of our familiar material world to critique those who recognize a transcendent reality as in theism. It is argued that the naturalist's concept of the world faces problems involving the primacy of the mental, normativity, sensations and consciousness, and contemporary science. A closing section suggests, contra secular naturalism, that our experience of the mund…Read more
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9The Philosophically Peculiar Members of a Distributist CultureQuaestiones Disputatae 8 (1): 57-69. 2017.
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88Testimony, Evidence, and Wisdom in Today’s Philosophy of ReligionTeaching Philosophy 34 (2): 105-118. 2011.In philosophy of religion, when, if ever, is it better to philosophically engage one another as advocates of competing religions (or secular naturalism) as opposed to conducting a more detached philosophical investigation of each other’s actual religious convictions? We offer a narrative overview of a philosophy of religion seminar we participated in, highlighting questions about the possibility of even understanding persons of different religions and considering when, if ever, one’s own religio…Read more
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19The Open Museum and its Enemies: An Essay in the Philosophy of MuseumsRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 79 35-53. 2016.Borrowing from the title and some of the content of Karl Popper's The Open Society and its Enemies, it is argued that museums have great value as sites for what may be called a philosophical culture. A philosophical culture is one in which members or citizens engage in fair-minded debate and shared reflection, presenting and evaluating reasons for different positions particularly as these have relevance for matters of governance. In a philosophical culture, persuasion is almost always a matter o…Read more
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10Feel the Love! Reflections on Alexander Pruss’ Essay in Christian Sexual EthicsRoczniki Filozoficzne 63 (3): 31-41. 2015.Throughout his excellent book One Body, Alex Pruss relies upon the view that there is a requirement of universal love: each and every one of us is required to love each and every one of us. Although he often appeals to revealed truth in making arguments for his various theses, he supports the requirement of universal love primarily through a philosophical argument, an argument that I call the “argument from responsiveness to value.” The idea is that all persons bear a sort of nonrelational value…Read more
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26Is Naturalism Too Big to Fail? An Audit of Strict and Broad NaturalismPhilosophy, Theology and the Sciences 1 (1): 87. 2014.
Northfield, Minnesota, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Mind |
Philosophy of Religion |