Classical and Contemporary Readings in the Philosophy of Religion PDF
Preview Classical and Contemporary Readings in the Philosophy of Religion
.1 CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY ««««« READINGS «««««««««« THE IN PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION «<««««««« « John Jlkk Digitized by the Internet Archive 2010 in http://www.archive.org/details/classicalcontempOOhick CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY READINGS THE IN PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY ««««« READINGS THE ««««««««<«:< IN PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION ««««« edited hy John TTicfe UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE PRENTICE-HALL, INC En^kwood CUjfs, N.J. PRENTICE-HALL INTERNATIONAL, INC. Londott PRENTICE-HALL OF AUSTRALIA, PTY., LTD. Sydney PRENTICE-HALL OF CANADA, LTD. TorOtltO PRENTICE-HALL OF INDIA (PRIVATE) LTD. New Delhi PRENTICE-HALL OF JAPAN, INC. TokyO PRENTICE-HALL DE MEXICO, S.A. MexicO City Third printing June, 1965 © 1964 by PRENTICE-HALL, INC. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be repro- duced in any form, by mimeograph or any other means, without permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-16056 Printed in the United States of America C-13S2S PREFACE This book is designed primarily for use in courses in the philosophy of religion. Because such courses are sometimes arranged historically and some- times in terms of topics or problems, the material is presented here in two different tables of contents adapted to these two uses. The readings them- selves are printed in chronological sequence, mainly in order that discussions by the same writer of different but related topics may conveniently be studied — together for example, Kant's critique of the three traditional theistic proofs. Material written in other languages appears here in the best available — English translation for example, the versions of Augustine recently made by J. H. S. Burleigh and Albert Outler; a brilUant new translation of the Anselm material by A. C. McGill; Anton Pegis' Aquinas; the Kemp Smith version of Kant's first Critique and Lewis Beck's version of the second; and so on. Preparing a volume of readings like this is an enjoyable if sometimes an arduous task, involving much re-reading and new reading in a wide field. It has also involved many difficult decisions. At first the space available, in this case a quarter of a million words, seemed ample for everything that could be desired in a book of this kind. But presently the list of apparently basic and inevitable selections had grown to the point at which there was little room left for maneuver, and one was weighing and re-weighing one piece against another, and experimenting with alternative plans for trying to achieve the desired result. But what result is to be desired? Even this is something that must be chosen from among several possibilities. I have striven to achieve a balance between the two pedagogic interests indicated by the two tables of contents. One made me wish to include selections worthily representative of all of the succession of great thinkers whosework constitutes the long history of the dis- cipline. The other made me desire to present as adequately as possible the main points of view on each of the chief problems encompassed within the subject, as well as important contemporary developments in the discussion of some of them. This has led to the inclusion of a certain proportion of material by living writers. A third concern was to use passages which will be reasona- bly readily comprehensible to the student, or best fitted to introduce him to vi Preface the various facets of a new topic. This has led me to use, for instance, Wil- liam James on mysticism even though James was not himself a mystic; for he discusses with sensitive appreciation carefully chosen examples of mystical writing and tries to make their significance clear to the science-orientated twentieth-century reader. A further subsidiary concern has been to use some- what lengthy selections rather than a scattering of "snippets." (On the other hand an exception seemed called for in the case of the extraordinarily preg- nant three final pages of Wittgenstein's Tractatus.) Sometimes one of these criteria has been in conflict with one or more of the others. Amid these divergent considerations I have always sought to bear the teaching situation firmly in mind and to treat its needs as paramount. Many legitimate questions might be raised about the selection of this or that passage or about the omission of some other passage or author. There is a reason for each choice, though whether the reasons are sufficient can only be decided over a period of time by fellow teachers of the subject and their classes. Why, for example, this particular group of passages from St. Augustine? Because together they present the main aspects of his thought on the problem — — of evil a problem which concerned him throughout his life and at the same time introduce most of the themes which have occupied the attention of subsequent writers on this central and baffling subject, whether in agreement with or in reaction against the Augustinian and Catholic tradition. Two later selections (23 and 24) contain a modern statement of the main alternative to the Augustinian theodicy. Or why, to take a smaller point, is Part III omitted from Hume's discus- sion of the design argument in his Dialogues? Because it is in effect "pad- ding," introduced in response to the dramatic needs of the dialogue rather than advancing the philosophical investigation. Or again, why the relatively little-known piece by John Oman (Selection 21)? Because it points better than anythingelse I know to a constructive alternative to the rationalist equa- tion of religious knowledge with philosophical provability. However, the selections must stand on their own feet and must approve themselves to the judgment and experience of those who may use the book. A word should perhaps be said here about the scope and limitations of the work. It covers most of the topics which are usually discussed in books and courses under the heading of "philosophy of religion." Among the influ- ential contemporary schools of thought which have their place in it are philo- sophical analysis (Selections 32-35), existentialism (Selections 15, 26, and 31), and humanism (Selection 28), as well as traditional Thomism (Selec- tions 4-6) modern Protestantism (Selections 25, 27, 30 and 31), atheism (Selection 14), and many of the positions in between. The book does not cover comparative religion or the history of religions; the material is con-
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