Jonathan Krause

Appreciating Albert Camus’s absurdist philosophy is vital for Christians because it mirrors many people’s minds today. This paper lets Camus speak for himself so those less familiar with his ideas may hear one of the quintessential voices of modern times. After a biographical sketch of Camus and a discussion of his absurdism, we examine Camus’s rebellion against the evils of World War II. His rebellion awakened Camus to the reality of human nature and its dignity. Camus invites Christians to join him in his revolt against injustice on the condition that they clearly condemn evil and speak the truth of their convictions. Camus, an unbeliever, is an unexpected messenger who is a stark reminder for today’s Church to resist the temptation to compromise the Gospel amid a hostile Western culture.

Although Hume depicts his Treatise of Human Nature as an anatomical work, in the final paragraph of the Treatise, he discusses the corresponding roles of the philosophical anatomist and painter within his philosophy. This article reclaims both aspects of Hume’s thought, which helps us delineate the relationship of the Treatise to his various works. First, we look in-depth at Hume’s discussion of the anatomist and painter in three texts: the Treatise of Human Nature, a letter by Hume to Frances Hutcheson, and An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Second, we focus on situating Hume’s historical interests, mainly The History of England, within his anatomical and artistic philosophical vision.

Understandably, given the interpretive challenges posed by the dialogue form, the focus of David Hume's interest in religion in the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion can be difficult to pinpoint.1 Much Hume scholarship on the Dialogues has traditionally suffered from two major shortcomings. First, its treatment of Hume's interest in religion is primarily theoretical or speculative, as though Hume were concerned above all to determine the nature of "true religion," say, or to dismiss religious belief altogether as simply irrational. Such scholarship regards the Dialogues as a vehicle for delivering a theoretical or epistemological treatment of questions concerning the nature and existence of God, and has little...