Studies in religious philosophy

The organization of this source book in the philosophy of religion
suggests three vantage points from which to focus on God. Part I offers
a survey of major figures in the history of religious thought to the pres-
ent, with special emphasis on establishing both a philosophical as well
as a historical perspective with which to view various religious positions.
Whenever possible, the philosophical basis has been drawn directly from
the writings concerned. All the positions treated in the first part deal
in one way or another with the existence of God or the proofs of God.
Part 11 uses as a point of departure what seems to me to be a major
change in attitude in much modern religious thought. This part is de-
voted to the ways in which contemporary religious thought speaks of God.
Different ways in which such discourse is to be conducted are expressed
by representative thinkers. Within the overall framework of how talk
about God is possible appear problems of current and widespread in-
terest, such as the interrelation of faith and knowledge, the meaningful-
ness and truth of religious propositions, God's relation to history, the
relevance of metaphysics to religious thought, and ways of religious dis-
course which break with traditional discourse about God. Since it is
impossible to cover all the many topics or even all the significant contem-
porary philosophers of religion, I have tried to find those who defined a
significant point of view with regard to religious language or who were
instrumental in developing a view. The organizing principle of the sec-
ond part has been the dynamic interaction of these points of view. Within
each of the primary divisions of Part 11, selections are arranged to show
a development of the underlying view of religious language. The thinkers
chosen are those whose positions have developed from or in opposition
to each other. I have tried to show both a pattern of evolution in ideas
and to give some sense of the exciting creative surge to be found in the
philosophy of religion today.
Part III provides still another vantage point from which to focus on
God, complementing the historical and linguistic approaches of the pre-
ceding parts. The views on religion of three noted psychologists offer a
new dimension to the philosophy of religion