•  107
    The lutheran influence on Kant’s depraved will
    International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 73 (2): 117-134. 2013.
    Contemporary Kant-scholarship has a tendency to allign Kant’s understanding of depravity closer to Erasmus than Luther in their famous debate on the freedom of the will (1520–1527). While, at face value, some paragraphs do warrant such a claim, I will argue that Kant’s understanding of the radical evil will draws closer to Luther than Erasmus in a number of elements. These elements are (1) the intervention of the Wille for progress towards the good, (2) a positive choice for evil, (3) the inscru…Read more
  •  96
    Atheism, Radical Evil, and Kant
    Philosophy and Theology 22 (1-2): 155-176. 2010.
    This paper investigates the link between (radical) evil and the existence of God. Arguing with contemporary atheist thinkers, such as Richard Dawkins and Victor Stenger, I hold that one can take the existence of evil as a sign of the existence of God rather than its opposite. The work of Immanuel Kant, especially his thought on evil, is a fertile source to enliven this intuition. Kant implicitly seems to argue that because man is unable to overcome evil by himself, there is a need for God to bri…Read more
  •  72
    Schopenhauer on religious pessimism
    International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 78 (1): 53-71. 2015.
    Schopenhauer’s bifurcation between optimistic and pessimistic religions is made, so I argue here, by means of five criteria: to perceive of existence as punishment, to believe that salvation is not attained through ‘works’, to preach compassion so as to lead towards ascetics, to manifest an aura of mystery around religious doctrines and to, at some deep level, admit to the allegorical nature of religious creeds. By clearly showing what makes up the ‘pessimism’ of a ‘pessimistic religion’, Schope…Read more
  •  58
    Schopenhauer and the Paradox of Genius
    Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy 20 (1): 149-168. 2015.
    Arthur Schopenhauer’s philosophy proved more palpable to artists of the nineteenth century than to philosophers as such. Ironically, Schopenhauer’s aesthetical theory is particularly paradoxical on a variety of fronts. One troubling paradox is how Schopenhauer subscribes both to the elitist nature of the genius artist and a naturalist metaphysics. How can a singular being have radically distinct abilities if s/he cannot principally differ from the rest of existence? I address this paradox in thi…Read more
  •  40
    The Later Schelling on Philosophical Religion and Christianity
    Idealistic Studies 48 (1): 69-92. 2018.
    Schelling’s later philosophy was historically received as a disappointment: the once brazen Romantic and pantheist becomes a pious Christian in his old age. Indeed, Schelling’s Berlin lectures on revelation and mythology culminate in a suspicious level of Christian orthodoxy. In the last few years, a number of scholars have offered a different reading of Schelling’s Spätphilosophie, particularly by pointing out his rethinking of nature, revelation, and Christianity. In this paper, I offer a syst…Read more
  •  37
    Erratum to: The lutheran influence on Kant’s depraved will (review)
    International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 73 (2): 135-135. 2013.
    Erratum to: The lutheran influence on Kant’s depraved will Content Type Journal Article Category Erratum Pages 1-1 DOI 10.1007/s11153-012-9344-7 Authors Dennis Vanden Auweele, Hoger Instituut voor Wijsbegeerte, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Lesagestraat 43, 1820 Steenokkerzeel, Belgium Journal International Journal for Philosophy of Religion Online ISSN 1572-8684 Print ISSN 0020-7047
  •  32
    Schopenhauer on Christ, Suffering and the Negation of the Will
    International Journal of Philosophical Studies 28 (2): 188-204. 2020.
    This paper seeks to illuminate Schopenhauer’s notion of the negation or denial of the will by investigating the figure of the saint within his philosophy. We argue that various discussions in Schop...
  •  30
    Review of James DiCenso: Kant's 'Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason' (review)
    Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 75 (2): 387-388. 2013.
  •  28
  •  28
    For the Love of God: Kant on Grace
    International Philosophical Quarterly 54 (2): 175-190. 2014.
    Most philosophers do not read Kant’s philosophy of religion as providing a foundation for Christianity, or even as in line with it. Recently, however, a number of so-called “affirmative Kantians” have argued that Kant’s philosophy of religion explicitly aims at recovering the spirit of Christianity. In this article I scrutinize this claim with regard to Kant’s conceptualization of “grace” as a supplement to his moral theory. Contrary to these “affirmative Kantians,” I argue that Kant’s account o…Read more
  •  25
    Noble lies and tragedy in Nietzsche's Zarathustra
    International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 74 (2): 127-143. 2013.
    To date authors are unsure about Nietzsche's self-critical attitude regarding his Thus Spoke Zarathustra. While few doubt that the narrative reaches a dramatic climax at the end of its third part, the largely satirical fourth part invites to take this climax cum grano salis. I provide an interpretation of the dramatic structure of Thus Spoke Zarathustra by focusing on the tragic nature of Nietzsche's ideal of the Übermensch and the comical relief provided by part four. Accordingly, the completio…Read more
  •  23
  •  23
    Review of Mark Walker: Kant, Schopenhauer and Morality (review)
    Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 74 (2): 359-361. 2012.
  •  22
    Review of Jonathan Kvanvig (Ed.): Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion (review)
    Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 73 (4): 821-822. 2011.
  •  19
    The Poverty of Philosophy
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 87 (3): 411-432. 2013.
    Recently, William Desmond’s metaxological philosophy has been gaining popularity since it proposes a powerful counterweight to the dominance of deconstruction in certain areas of contemporary philosophy of religion. This paper serves to introduce Desmond’s philosophy and confront it with one specific form of Postmodern theology, namely John Caputo’s “weak theology.” Since Desmond’s philosophy is—while thought-provoking and refreshing—not well known, a substantial part of this paper is devoted to…Read more
  •  17
    Liberal Democracy Needs Religion: Kant on the Ethical Community
    Kantian Review 27 (2): 299-314. 2022.
    Liberal democracy has been experiencing a crisis of representation over the last decade, as a disconnect has emerged from some of the foundational principles of liberalism such as personal freedom and equality. In this article, I argue that in the third part of Kant’s Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason we can find resources to better understand and counteract this crisis of liberal democracy. Kant gives a powerful argument to include an invisible ethical community under a political co…Read more
  •  17
    Chris Firestone, Nathan Jacobs, Jamer Joiner (Ed.): Kant and the Question of Theology
    Philosophischer Literaturanzeiger 71 (3): 317-322. 2018.
  •  16
    Arthur Schopenhauer: Cholerabuch. Philosophischen Notizen aus dem Nachlass
    Philosophischer Literaturanzeiger 71 (1): 5-7. 2018.
  •  15
    The God of the Gaps
    Journal of Dharma 36 (2): 199-212. 2011.
    status: published.
  •  15
    Christopher Ben Simpson: The William Desmond Reader
    Philosophischer Literaturanzeiger 66 (1): 038-040. 2013.
  •  15
    Erratum to: The lutheran influence on Kant’s depraved will
    International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 73 (2): 135-135. 2013.
    Contemporary Kant-scholarship has a tendency to allign Kant’s understanding of depravity closer to Erasmus than Luther in their famous debate on the freedom of the will. While, at face value, some paragraphs do warrant such a claim, I will argue that Kant’s understanding of the radical evil will draws closer to Luther than Erasmus in a number of elements. These elements are the intervention of the Wille for progress towards the good, a positive choice for evil, the inscrutability of moral progre…Read more
  •  15
    Review of Stephen Palmquist: Cultivating Personhood (review)
    Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 73 (3): 562-563. 2011.
  •  13
    Schopenhauer, Pessimism and Suicide
    Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 76 (2): 307-330. 2014.
    Schopenhauer’s argument against suicide is typically received negatively in the scholarly literature, insofar that it appears to be one of the numerous inconsistencies that haunt his philosophical system. Thus, after elaborating upon the unique characteristics of Schopenhauer’s argument against suicide, I will discuss the well-known objection to it. By offering a fresh outlook on Schopenhauer’s ethics, I will suggest a new way of appreciating Schopenhauer’s argument so as to rehabilitate his und…Read more