Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
While from time to time in the Medieval era, some Jewish, Christian, and Islamic philosophers sought to demarcate philosophy from theology or religion, the evident role of philosophy of religion as a distinct field of philosophy does not seem apparent until the mid-twentieth century.
Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". [1] Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning philosophy.
philosophy of religion, discipline concerned with the philosophical appraisal of human religious attitudes and of the real or imaginary objects of those attitudes, God or the gods.
Philosophy of religion is the philosophical study of the meaning and nature of religion. It includes the analyses of religious concepts, beliefs, terms, arguments, and practices of religious adherents.
While this field is vital for philosophy, philosophy of religion may also make a pivotal contribution to religious studies and theology. Religious studies often involve important methodological assumptions about history and about the nature and limits of religious experience.
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Religion presents a substantive and in-depth treatment of the most central topics related to the philosophy of religion.
An introductory chapter traces the connection between philosophy and religion throughout Western history, and a final chapter addresses the place of non-Western and non-monotheistic religions within contemporary philosophy of religion.
There is some tension within the practice of the philosophy of religion between those who philosophize about religion in general or about abstract religious concepts and those who consider the concrete expressions of religion in one of the great faiths.
Philosophy of religion is concerned with philosophical questions prompted by religious faith and experience. Some of these questions concern religion generally; others concern particular families of religion; and some concern particular religious traditions.
The philosophy of religion as a distinct discipline is an innovation of the last 200 years, but its central topics—the existence and nature of the divine, humankind’s relation to it, the nature of religion, and the place of religion in human life—have been with us since the inception of philosophy.