200+ Living Philosophers of Religion and Their Best Work
(last updated 01/22/2010; current count is 202 philosophers)
To give you a brief sketch of contemporary philosophy of religion, here’s a list of 200+ living philosophers of religion who publish in English, along with a few of their most significant books/papers in philosophy of religion. (I’ve listed a few people who aren’t philosophers of religion but who have published at least one influential work in the field – e.g. Jaakko Hintikka, John Earman, Robert Kane, etc.)
The list is not interested in philosophers of religion who only publish work on what earlier philosophers have said. Finally, I must note this is technically a list of philosophers of religion who were alive as of the date this post was first published: 04/25/2009. As philosophers who were living at that time die off, I’m not going to remove them from this list.
In compiling this list, I noticed that the philosophy of religion appears to be dominated by theists (in the English world, anyway). I guess that is not surprising. After all, if there was such a thing as the “philosophy of werewolves,” one would not expect many of us werewolf disbelievers to bother gaining expertise in disproving werewolves. We’ve got better things to do with our time. In contrast, hundreds of academic theists believe it is their God-given cosmic purpose to clarify and defend theism from the world of professional philosophy.
Also see Prosblogion’s Most Important Philosophy of Religion Articles (many of them are linked to the PDF, below).
I will keep this list updated, so please comment with corrections and suggestions. My labels of each philosopher’s personal beliefs are mostly guesses, so please correct me if I’m wrong!
- William J. Abraham (christian, Southern Methodist University). Works: Divine Revelation and the Limits of Historical Criticism (2000), Crossing the Threshold of Divine Revelation (2006)
- Marilyn Adams (christian, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill). Works: “Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God” (1989), “Is the Existence of God a ‘Hard’ Fact?” (1967), Christ and Horrors: The Coherence of Christology (2006)
- R.M. Adams (christian, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill). Works: “Must God Create the Best?” (1972), “A Modified Divine Command Theory of Ethical Wrongness” (1973), “Middle Knowledge and the Problem of Evil” (1977), “Moral Arguments for Theistic Belief” (1979)
- Imran Aijaz (muslim, University of Auckland). Works: “Some Critical Reflections on the Hiddenness Argument” (2007), “Belief, Providence & Eschatology: Some Philosophic Problems in Islamic Theism” (2008)
- Michael Almeida (christian, University of Texas at San Antonio). Works: The Metaphysics of Perfect Beings (2008), “A New Cosmological Argument Undone” (2002), “Sceptical Theism and Evidential Arguments from Evil” (2003), “The New Evidential Argument Defeated” (2005)
- William Alston (christian, died 09/19/09). Works: Perceiving God (1986), “The Ontological Argument Revisited” (1960), “Some Suggestions for Divine Command Theorists” (1990), “The Inductive Argument from Evil and the Human Cognitive Condition” (1996)
- Pamela Anderson (christian, Oxford University). Works: A Feminist Philosophy of Religion (1998), “Gender and The Infinite: On the Aspiration to Be All There Is” (2002), “An Epistemological-Ethical Approach to Philosophy of Religion” (2004)
- Robin Attfield (christian, Cardiff University). Works: “The God of Religion and the God of Philosophy” (1975), God and the Secular (1993)
- Robert Audi (christian, University of Notre Dame). Works: Religious Commitment and Secular Reason (2000), “The separation of church and state and the obligations of citizenship” (1989)
- Julian Baggini (atheist, independent). Works: Atheism: A Very Short Introduction (2003)
- Jason Beyer (atheist, Illinois Valley Community College). Works: Comparison of Judeo-Christian Theism and Philosophical Naturalism As Explanatory Worldviews (2007), “A Physicalist Rejoinder to a Problem with Omniscience” (2004)
- John Bishop (christian pantheist, University of Auckland). Works: Believing by Faith (2007), “Can there be alternative concepts of God?” (1998), “Faith as doxastic venture” (2002)
- Lynne Rudder Baker (christian, University of Massachusetts). Works: “Why Christians Should Not be Libertarians: An Augustinian Challenge” (2003), “Persons and the Metaphysics of Resurrection” (2007), “Need a Christian be a mind-body dualist?” (1995)
- David Basinger (christian, Robert Wesleyan College). Works: “The Openness of God” (1994), “Can a Christian Justifiably Deny God’s Exhaustive Knowledge of the Future?” (1995), “Miracle and Justified Theistic Belief” (1995), “The Problem with the Problem of Evil” (1994)
- Michael Beaty (christian, Baylor University). Works: “Protestant Free Church Christians and Gaudium et Spes: An Historical and Philosophical Perspective” (1997), “Revisiting Thomson on The Right and The Good” (2005)
- Michael Bergmann (christian, Purdue University). Works: “Divine Responsibility without Divine Freedom” (2009), “Molinist Frankfurt-Style Counterexamples and the Free Will Defense” (2002), “A Theistic Argument against Platonism (and in Support of Truthmakers and Divine Simplicity) “(2006)
- Gregory Boyd (christian, independent). Works: “Neo-Molinism and the Infinite Intelligence of God” (2003), “Open Theism, Omniscience, and the Nature of the Future” (2006), Trinity and Process: A Critical Evaluation and Reconstruction of Hartshorne’s Di-Polar Theism Towards a Trinitarian Metaphysics (2003)
- Raymond Bradley (atheist, Universeity of Auckland). Works: “A Moral Argument for Atheism” (1999), “The Free Will Defense Refuted and God’s Existence Disproved” (2007), “The Rivalry Between Religions” (2007)
- Jeff Brower (christian, Purdue University). Works: “Understanding the Trinity” (2004), “Making Sense of Divine Simplicity” (2009)
- Vincent Brümmer (christian, retired). Works: The model of love: A study in philosophical theology (1993), Speaking of God (1992)
- Andrei Buckareff (christian pantheist, Marist College). Works: “Escaping hell: Divine motivation and the problem of hell” (2005), “Metaepistemology and divine revelation” (2009), “Escapism, religious luck, and divine reasons for action” (2009)
- Elizabeth Burns (christian, University of London). Work: “Transforming Metaphysics? Revisioning Christianity in the Light of Analytical Philosophy” (2005), “Religion Without ‘Superstition’? A Realist View” (2005)
- Peter Byrne (christian, King’s College London). Works: The Philosophical and Theological Foundations of Ethics (1992), The Moral Interpretation of Religion (1998), God and Realism (2003)
- Stephen Cahn (unknown, CUNY). Works: Philosophical Explorations: Freedom, God, and Goodness (1989), “The irrelevance to religion of philosophical proofs for the existence of God” (1969)
- John Caputo (christian, Syracuse University). Works: “The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event” (2006), Philosophy and Theology (2006)
- Richard Carrier (atheist, independent). Works: “Defending Naturalism as a Worldview: A Rebuttal to Michael Rea’s World Without Design” (2003), “Critical Review of Victor Reppert’s Defense of the Argument from Reason” (2004), “Fatal Flaws in Michael Almeida’s Alleged ‘Defeat’ of Rowe’s New Evidential Argument from Evil” (2007)
- James Carse (atheist, retired). Works: The Silence of God (1985), The Religious Case Against Belief (2008)
- Andrew Chignell (christian, Cornell University). Works: “The problem of infant suffering” (1998), “The ethics of religious belief” (2005)
- Brian Clack (atheist, University of San Diego). Works: ”Wittgenstein and expressive theories of religion” (1996), “Wittgenstein and Magic” (2001)
- Stephen R.L. Clark (Christian, University of Liverpool). Works: God, Religion, and Reality (1998), Biology and Christian Ethics (2000)
- Steve Clarke (unknown, Oxford University). Works: “Naturalism, Science and the Supernatural” (2009), “The Supernatural and the Miraculous” (2007)
- Philip Clayton (Christian, Claremont Graduate University). Works: God and Contemporary Science (1998), Explanation from Physics to Theology (1989), “Neuroscience, the person, and god” (2000)
- Sarah Coakley (christian, University of Cambridge). Works: Powers and Submissions: Spirituality, Philosophy and Gender (2002)
- Robin Collins (christian, Messiah College). Works: “The Argument from Design and the Many-Worlds Hypothesis” (2002), “How to Rigorously Define Fine-tuning” (2009), “The Teleological Argument” (2009)
- Paul Copan (christian, Palm Beach Atlantic University). Works: “Morality and meaning without God: Another failed attempt” (2003), “Is Michael Martin a Moral Realist? Sic et non” (1999)
- Kevin Corcoran (christian, Calvin College). Works: “Rethinking Human Nature: A Christian Materialist Alternative to the Soul” (2006), “Material Persons, Immaterial Souls and an Ethic of Life” (2003), “Experiencing God” (1999)
- John Cottingham (christian, retired). Works: The Spiritual Dimension: Religion, Philosophy and Human Value (2005), “Religion, Virtue and Ethical Culture” (1994)
- Jan Cover (christian, Purdue University). Works: “Miracles and Christian Theism” (1999), “Materialism and Human Freedom” (1996)
- William Lane Craig (christian, Biola University). Works: The Kalam Cosmological Argument (1979), Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus (1989)
- Don Cupitt (atheist, Cambridge University). Works: Taking Leave of God (1980), Crisis of Moral Authority: The Dethronement of Christianity (1972)
- Brian Davies (christian, Fordham University). Works: The Reality of God and the Problem of Evil (2006), Thinking About God (1985), “God and Freedom: Reply to Jordan” (1992)
- Richard Davis (christian, Tyndale University College). Works: “God and Counterpossibles” (2006), “God and Modal Concretism” (2008), The Metaphysics of Theism and Modality (2001)
- Stephen Davis (christian, Claremont McKenna College). Works: “Theology, Verification, and Falsification” (1975), “Does the Ontological Argument Beg the Question?” (1976), “Is It Possible To Know That Jesus Was Raised From the Dead?” (1984), “Is God Timeless, Immutable, Simple and Impassable?” (2008)
- Gregory Dawes (atheist, University of Otago). Works: Theism and Explanation (2009), “What is Wrong with Intelligent Design?” (2007), “God Beyond Theism? Bishop Spong, Paul Tillich, and the Unicorn” (2002)
- John DePoe (christian, University of Iowa). Works: “The Significance of Religious Disagreement” (2009), “How to Confirm a Miracle: A Bayesian Approach” (2007), “Theism, Atheism, and the Metaphysics of Free Will” (2009)
- Keith DeRose (christian, Yale University). Works: “Plantinga, Presumption, Possibility, and the Problem of Evil” (1991), “Direct Warrant Realism” (2005)
- William Desmond (christian, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven). Works: “Consecrated thought: between the priest and the philosopher” (2005), Is There a Sabbath for Thought?: Between Religion and Philosophy (2005), “God, ethos, ways” (1991)
- Garrett DeWeese (christian, Biola University). Works: God and the Nature of Time (2004), “Hume and the Kalam Cosmological Argument” (2005), “Timeless God, Tenseless Time” (2000)
- Daniel Dombrowski (christian, Seattle University). Works: Analytic Theism, Hartshorne, and the Concept of God (1996), “Oppy, infinity, and the neoclassical concept of God” (2007), “Must a Perfect Being Be Immutable?” (1989)
- Clement Dore (christian, Vanderbilt University). Works: Theism (1984), God, Suffering, and Solipsism (1989), “Do Theists Need to Solve the Problem of Evil? “(2008)
- Theodore Drange (atheist, West Virginia University). Works: Nonbelief & Evil: Two Arguments for the Nonexistence of God (1998),” The Argument from Non-Belief” (1993), “The Argument from the Bible” (1996)
- Paul Draper (agnostic, Purdue University). Works: “Pain and Pleasure: An Evidential Problem for Theists” (1989), “Irreducible complexity and Darwinian gradualism: a reply to Michael J. Behe” (2002), “Probabilistic Arguments from Evil” (1992)
- Michael Dummett (christian, retired). Works: “Bringing About the Past” (1964), “Biblical Exegesis and the Resurrection” (2007), “The intelligibility of eucharistic doctrine” (1987)
- John Earman (atheist, University of Pittsburgh). Works: Hume’s Abject Failure: The Argument Against Miracles (2000)
- Christopher Eberle (christian, United States Naval Academy). Works: “The autonomy and explanation of mystical perception” (1998), “Why Restraint is Religiously Unacceptable” (1999), “God’s Nature and the Rationality of Religious Belief” (1997)
- Andrew Eschleman (atheist, University of Arkansas at Little Rock). Works: “Alternative Possibilities and the Free Will Defense” (1997), “Can an Atheist Believe in God?” (2005), “Religious Fictionalism Defended” (2009)
- C. Stephen Evans (christian, Baylor University). Works: “Subjectivity and Religious Belief: An Historical, Critical Study” (1978), “Critical Historical Judgment and Biblical Faith” (1994)
- Nicholas Everitt (atheist, University of East Anglia). Works: “The Non-Existence of God” (2003), “The Impossibility of Miracles” (1987), “Why only perfection is good enough” (2000), “Substance Dualism and Disembodied Existence” (2000), “The Argument from Imperfection: A New Proof of the Non-existence of God” (2006)
- Evan Fales (atheist, University of Iowa). Works: “Plantinga’s case against naturalistic epistemology” (1996), “Divine Freedom and the Choice of a World” (1994), “Mystical Experience as Evidence” (1996), “Divine Intervention” (1997)
- Edward Feser (christian, Pasadena City College). Works: “Has Trinitarianism Been Shown to Be Coherent?” (1997), “Swinburne’s Tritheism” (1997)
- Matthew Flannagan (christian, Laidlaw College). Works:” The Premature Dismissal of Voluntarism” (2009), “Peron on Religion and Public Life” (2008)
- Antony Flew (deist,1 retired). Works: “The Presumption of Atheism” (1976), God & Philosophy (1966), God, Freedom, and Immortality: A Critical Analysis (1984)
- Thomas Flint (christian, University of Notre Dame). Works: Divine Providence: The Molinist Account (1998), “The Multiple Muddles of Maverick Molinism” (2003), “Risky Business: Open Theism and the Incarnation” (2004)
- Robert Fogelin (atheist, Dartmouth College). Works: A Defense of Hume on Miracles (2005)
- Robert Forman (christian, C.U.N.Y.). Works: The problem of pure consciousness: Mysticism and philosophy (1997), The Innate Capacity: Mysticism, Philosophy and Psychology (1997).
- Peter Forrest (christian, University of New England). Works: God Without the Supernatural: A Defense of Scientific Theism (1996), “Towards an epistemology of religious traditions” (1999), Developmental Theism (2007)
- Alfred Freddoso (christian, University of Notre Dame). Works: “God’s General Concurrence with Secondary Causes: Why Conservation is Not Enough” (1991), “Accidental Necessity and Logical Determinism” (1983), “Maximal Power” (1983)
- Richard Gale (agnostic, University of Pittsburgh). Works: On the Nature and Existence of God (1991), “Freedom and the Free Will Defense” (1990), “The Failure of Traditional Theistic Arguments” (2006)
- Peter Geach (christian, retired). Works: “Omnipotence” (1973), “God and the Soul” (1969)
- Jerome Gellman (jew, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev). Works: “Experience of God and the Rationality of Theistic Belief” (1997), “Mystical Experience of God, a Philosophical Enquiry” (2001), “Experiencing God’s Infinity” (1994)
- René Girard (christian, retired). Works: Violence and the Sacred (1972), Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (1978)
- Nick Gier (unknown, University of Idaho). Works: God, Reason, and Evangelicals: The Case Against Evangelicalism (1987), “Three Types of Divine Power” (1991)
- Stewart Goetz (christian, Ursinus College). Works: “The Argument from Evil” (2009), “Belief in God Is Not Properly Basic” (1983), “Philosophy of Action and Philosophy of Religion” (2006)
- A.C. Grayling (atheist, University of London). Works: Against All Gods: Six Polemics on Religion and an Essay on Kindness (2007)
- Patrick Grim (atheist, Stony Brook University). Works: “The Being That Knew Too Much” (2003), “Truth, Omniscience, and Cantorian Arguments” (1993)
- Douglas Groothuis (christian, Denver Seminary). Works: “Are All Bets Off? A Defense of Pascal’s Wager” (2001), “Wagering Belief: Examining Two Objections to Pascal’s Wager” (1994), “Obstinacy in Religious Belief” (1993)
- Stephen Grover (unknown, CUNY). Works: “Why only the best is good enough” (1988), “The world, ‘Adams worlds’, and the best of all possible worlds” (2003)
- Adolf Grunbaum (atheist, retired). Works: “The Pseudo-Problem of Creation in Physical Cosmology” (1989), ““Narlikar’s “Creation” of the Big Bang Universe Was a Mere Origination” (1993), “The Poverty of Theistic Morality” (1995)
- Theodore Guleserian (christian, Arizona State University). Works: “God and Possible Worlds: The Modal Problem of Evil” (1983), “Can God Change His Mind?” (1996), “Divine Freedom and the Problem of Evil” (2000), “Can Moral Perfection be an Essential Attribute?” (1985)
- Arnold Guminski (atheist, retired). Works: “The Kalam Cosmological Argument” (2002), “The Kalam Cosmological Argument Yet Again” (2003), “The Kalam Cosmological Argument as Amended” (2004), “A Critical Examination of Mark R. Nowacki’s Version of the Kalam Cosmological Argument” (2008)
- Shandon Guthrie (christian, University of Nevada, Las Vegas). Works: “Theism and Contemporary Cosmology” (2002), “Evidence for the Existence of God” (1998)
- Gary Gutting (unknown, University of Notre Dame). Works: Religious Belief and Religious Skepticism (1982), “The Catholic and the Calvinist: A Dialogue On Faith and Reason” (1985)
- Gary Habermas (christian, Liberty University). Works: “Resurrection Claims in Non-Christian Religions” (1989), “Knowing That Jesus’ Resurrection Occurred: A Response to Stephen Davis” (1985)
- John Haldane (christian, University of St. Andrews). Works: “Atheism and Theism” (1996), “Faith and Religious Experience” (1982)
- John Hare (christian, Yale University). Works: The Moral Gap (1997), “Naturalism and Morality” (2000), “Kant’s Divine Command Theory and its Reception within Analytic Philosophy” (2000)
- Victoria Harrison (unknown, University of Glasgow). Works: Religion and Modern Thought (2007), “Internal Realism and the Problem of Religious Diversity” (2006), “Arguments from Design: A Self-Defeating Strategy” (2005)
- William Hasker (christian, Huntington University). Works: God, Time, and Knowledge (1986), “Providence, Evil and the Openness of God” (2005), “Must God Do His Best?” (1984)
- John Haught (christian, Georgetown University). Works: God After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution (2000) “Darwin’s Gift to Theology” (1998), “Purpose in Nature: On the Possibility of a Theology of Evolution” (2008)
- John Hawthorne (theist, University of Oxford). Works: “Vagueness and the Mind of God” (2005)
- Thomas Hibbs (christian, Baylor University). Works: “Aquinas, Virtue, and Recent Epistemology” (1999), “Kretzmann’s Theism vs. Aquinas’s Theism: Interpreting the Summa contra Gentiles” (1998)
- John Hick (christian, retired). Works: “Faith and Knowledge” (1957), The Metaphor of God Incarnate: Christology in a Pluralistic Age (2006), Evil and the God of Love (1966)
- Jaakko Hintikka (atheist, Boston University). Works: “On the Logic of the Ontological Argument” (1969)
- Joshua Hoffman (jewish, University of North Carolina at Greensboro). Works: “Can God Do Evil?” (1979), The Divine Attributes (2002), “What an Omnipotent Agent Can Do” (1980), “On Petitionary Prayer” (1985)
- Arthur Holmes (christian, retired). Works: All Truth is God’s Truth (1977), War and Christian ethics (1975)
- Daniel Howard-Snyder (christian, Western Washington University). Works: “God, Schmod, and Gratuitous Evil” (1993), “Theism, the Hypothesis of Indifference, and the Biological Role of Pain and Pleasure” (1994), “Transworld Sanctity and Plantinga’s Free Will Defense” (1998), “Grounds for Belief in God Aside, Does Evil Make Atheism More Reasonable Than Theism?” (2003)
- Hud Hudson (christian, Western Washington University). Works: “Hyperspace and Christianity” (2007), “Fission, Freedom, and the Fall” (2009)
- Janine Idziak (christian, Loras College). Works: “Divine Command Ethics” (1997)
- Peter van Inwagen (christian, University of Notre Dame). Works: “The Problem of Evil” (2003), “Ontological Arguments” (1977), “The Possibility of Resurrection” (1978), “The Problem of Evil, the Problem of Air, and the Problem of Silence” (1991)
- David Johnson (theist, Yeshiva University). Works: Hume, Holism, and Miracles (1999), “On the Metaphysics of Eternal Truth” (2004)
- Jeffrey Jordan (christian, University of Delaware). Works: Pascal’s Wager: Pragmatic Arguments and Belief in God (2006), “Theistic Belief and Religious Uncertainty” (2008), “The Sounds of Silence: Why the Divine Hiddenness Argument Fails” (2008)
- Neal Judisch (christian, University of Oklahoma). Works: “Theological Determinism and the Problem of Evil” (2008), “A New Cosmological Argument Undone” (2002)
- Robert Koons (christian, University of Texas at Austin). Works: “Faith, Probability, and Infinite Passion” (1993), “The Incompatibility of Naturalism and Scientific Realism” (2000), “Epistemological Foundations for the Cosmological Argument” (2006)
- Klaas J. Kraay (christian, Ryerson University). Works: “Theism, Possible Worlds, and the Multiverse” (2009), “Absence of Evidence and Evidence of Absence” (2007), “Theistic Replies to the A Priori Argument for Atheism” (2005)
- Robert Kane (theist, University of Texas at Austin). Works: “The Modal Ontological Argument” (1984)
- James Keller (christian, Wofford College). Works: “A Moral Argument Against Miracles” (1995), “Accepting the Authority of the Bible: Is it Rationally Justified?” (1989), “Method in Christian Philosophy: Further Reflections; Response to Plantinga” (1988)
- Anthony Kenny (agnostic, independent). Works: The God of the Philosophers (1979), The Unknown God (2005)
- Jonathan Kvanvig (christian, Baylor University). Works: The Possibility of an All-Knowing God (1986), “Divine Hiddenness: What is the Problem?” (2001), “Resurrection, Heaven, and Hell” (2009)
- Kai-Man Kwan (christian, Hong Kong Baptist University). Works: “The Argument from Religious Experience” (2009), “Is the Critical Trust Approach to Religious Experience Incompatible with Religious Particularism?” (2003), “Can Religious Experience Provide Justification for the Belief in God? The Debate in Contemporary Analytic Philosophy” (2006)
- Bruce Langtry (christian, retired). Works: God, the Best, and Evil (2008), “Mackie on Miracles” (1988)
- Brian Leftow (christian, University of Oxford). Works: “Time and Eternity” (1991), “Is God an Abstract Object?” (1990), “No best world: creaturely freedom” (2005)
- John Leslie (christian pantheist, Univeristy of Guelph). Works: Infinite Minds (2001), Value and Existence (1979), “A Neoplatonist’s Pantheism” (1979)
- Mark Linville (christian, Atlanta Christian College). Works:” “Is Everything Permitted? Moral Values in a World Without God” (2000), “The Moral Argument” (2009), “Divine Foreknowledge and the Libertarian Conception of Human Freedom” (1993)
- J.R. Lucas (christian, retired). Works: “The Future” (1989), “The Soul” (1957)
- Morgan Luck (christian, Charles Sturt University). Works: “Supernatural Miracles and Religious Inclusiveness” (2007), Aquinas’s Miracles and the Luciferous Defence, the problem of the evil-miracle ratio (2009), In defence of Mumford’s definition of a miracle (2003)
- Tim Mawson (christian, Oxford University). Works: “How a single personal revelation might not be a source of knowledge” (2003), “God’s Creation of Morality” (2002), “How can I know I’ve perceived God?” (2005)
- David McNaughton (christian, Florida State University). Works: “Is God (almost) a Consequentialist?” (2002); “Naturalism and Normativity” (2003);
- Peter Millican (atheist, Hertford College). Works: “The One Fatal Flaw in Anselm’s Argument” (2004), “The Devil’s Advocate” (1998)
- Stephen Maitzen (atheist, Acadia University). Works: “Divine Hiddenness and the Demographics of Theism” (2006), “Ordinary Morality Implies Atheism” (2009), “Sketpical Theism and Moral Obligation” (2009)
- William Mann (christian, University of Vermont). Works: “The Ontological Presuppositions of the Ontological argument” (1972), “Theism and the Foundations of Ethics” (2004), “Divine Simplicity” (2008)
- Neil Manson (christian, University of Mississippi). Works: God and Design (2003), “Anthropocentrism and the Design Argument” (2000), “Fine-tuning, Multiple Universes, and the ‘This Universe’ Objection” (2003)
- Jean-Luc Marion (christian, University of Chicago). Works: God Without Being (1991), The Idol and Distance (2001)
- Michael Martin (atheist, Boston University). Works: Atheism: A Philosophical Justification (1989), The Case Against Christianity (1991)
- George Mavrodes (christian, University of Michigan). Works:” Some Puzzles Concerning Omnipotence” (1963), “Religion and the Queerness of Morality” (1986), Belief in God: A Study in the Epistemology of Religion (1970)
- Robert Maydole (christian, Davidson College). Works: “The modal perfection argument for the existence of a Supreme Being” (2003), “A modal model for proving the existence of God” (1980), “The Ontological Argument” (2009)
- Matt McCormick (atheist, Sacramento State University). Works: “Why God Cannot Think: Kant, Omnipresence, and Consciousness” (2000), “The Paradox of Divine Agency” (2003), “Rethinking God: Comments on Ted Drange’s ‘Is ‘God exists’ Cognitive?” (2009)
- Lydia McGrew (christian, independent). Works: “The Argument from Miracles” (2009), “On the Historical Argument: A Rejoinder to Plantinga” (2006), “What Grandma Can’t Know” (2003), “Testability, Likelihoods, and Design” (2004)
- Timothy McGrew (christian, Western Michigan University). Works: “Toward a Rational Reconstruction of Design Inferences” (2005), “Has Plantinga Refuted the Historical Argument? “(2005), “Probabilities and the Fine-Tuning Argument: a Sceptical View” (2001)
- Ralph McInerny (christian, died 01/29/2010). Works: Ethica Thomistica (1997), Modernity and Religion (1994)
- Owen McLeod (atheist, Lafayette College). Works: “Science, Religion, and Hyper-Humeanism” (2001), “Is There a Moral Obligation to Obey God?” (2000)
- Andrew Melnyk (atheist, University of Missouri). Works: “Rea on Naturalism” (2004), “How to keep the ‘physical’ in physicalism” (1997)
- Trenton Merricks (christian, University of Virginia). Works: “How to Live Forever without Saving Your Soul: Physicalism and Immortality” (2001), “The Word Made Flesh: Dualism, Physicalism, and the Incarnation” (2007)
- John Milbank (christian, University of Nottingham). Works: Theology and Social Theory (1990), The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic? (2009), Radical Orthodoxy (1998)
- Basil Mitchell (christian, retired). Works: “Law, Morality and Religion in a Secular Society” (1966), “The Justification of Religious Belief” (1981), “How to Play Theological Ping-pong” (1993)
- Bradley Monton (atheist, University of Colorado Boulder). Works: “God, Fine-Tuning, and the Problem of Old Evidence” (2006), “Design Inferences in an Infinite Universe” (2008)
- J.P. Moreland (christian, Biola University). Works: Scaling the Secular City (1987), Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (2004), Consciousness and the Existence of God (2008)
- Thomas V. Morris (christian, retired). Works: “Duty and divine goodness” (1984), The Logic of God Incarnate (1986)
- Wes Morriston (theist, University of Colorado, Boulder). Works: “Is Plantinga’s God Omnipotent?” (1984), “Must the Beginning of the Universe Have a Personal Cause?” (2000), “Omnipotence and Necessary Moral Perfection: Are they Compatible?” (2001)
- Paul Moser (christian, Loyola University Chicago). Works: “Natural Evil and the Free Will Defense” (1984), The Elusive God: Reorienting Religious Epistemology (2009), “Jesus and Philosophy: On the Questions We Ask” (2005)
- James Muyskens (unknown, CUNY). Works: “Religious-Belief as Hope” (1974), “What is Virtuous about Faith” (1985)
- Richard Mouw (christian, Fuller Theological Seminary). Works: “The God Who Commands” (1990)
- Mark Murphy (christian, Georgetown). Works: An Essay on Divine Authority (2002), “A Trilemma for Divine Command Theory” (2002), “Divine Authority and Divine Perfection” (2001)
- Nancey Murphy (christian, Fuller Theological Seminary). Works: Theology in the Age of Scientific Reasoning (1993), Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies? (2006), On the Moral Nature of the Universe (1996)
- Michael J. Murray (christian, Franklin & Marshall College). Works: “Coercion and the Hiddenness of God” (1993), “Does Prayer Change Things” (2009), “Natural Providence or Design Trouble” (2009)
- Yujin Nagasawa (theist, University of Birmingham). Works: “Divine Omnsicence and Knowledge de se” (2003), “A New Defence of Anselmian Theism” (2008), “Grounds of Worship” (2003),
- Hossein Nasr (muslim, George Washington University). Works: Ideals and Realities of Islam (1966), Knowledge and the Sacred (1989)
- Jacob Needleman (christian, San Francisco State University). Works: Lost Christianity (1993), “Religion and the Recovery of Experience” (1969)
- Harold Netland (christian, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School). Works: Dissonant Voices and Encountering Religious Pluralism (2001), “Professor Hick on religious pluralism” (1986), Buddhism: A Christian Exploration and Appraisal (2009)
- Kai Nielsen (atheist, Concordia University). Works: “Wittgensteinian Fideism” (1967), Ethics Without God (1973), Naturalism and Religion (2001)
- Michael Novak (christian, independent). Works: The Catholic ethic and the spirit of capitalism (1993), Toward a Theology of the Corporation (1990), Belief and unbelief: a philosophy of self-knowledge (1994)
- Timothy O’Connor (christian, Indiana University). Works: Theism and Ultimate Explanation: The Necessary Shape of Contingency (2008), “Theism and the Scope of Contingency” (2008), “From First Efficient Cause to God: Scotus on the Identification Stage of the Cosmological Argument” (1995)
- David Oderberg (christian, University of Reading). Works: “The Cosmological Argument” (2007), “The Kalam Cosmological Argument Neither Bloodied nor Bowed: A Response to Graham Oppy” (2001), “Adolf Grunbaum and the Beginning of the Universe” (1996)
- Graham Oppy (atheist, Monash University). Works: Arguing About Gods (2006), Ontological Arguments and Belief in God (2007), Philosophical Perspectives on Infinity (2009), “Arguments from Moral Evil” (2004)
- Richard Otte (theist, University of California, Santa Cruz). Works: “Mackie’s Treatment of Miracles” (1996), “Rowe’s Probabilistic Argument from Evil” (2003), “Transworld Depravity and Unobtainable Worlds” (2009)
- Keith Parsons (atheist, University of Houston, Clear Lake). Works: God and the Burden of Proof (1989), “The Conception of the Miraculous and Christian Apologetics” (1982)
- Glenn Peoples (christian, independent). Works: “A New Euthyphro” (2009), “William Hasker at the Bridge of Death” (2008), “Faith in Public: A Reply to Greg Dawes” (2005)
- Robert Pennock (atheist, Michigan State University). Works: “God of the Gaps: The Argument from Ignorance and the Limits of Methodological Naturalism” (2007), “DNA by Design?: Stephen Meyer and the Return of the God Hypothesis” (2004), “Naturalism, Evidence and Creationism: The Case of Phillip Johnson” (1996)
- Derk Pereboom (atheist, Cornell University). Works: “Kant on God, Evil, and Teleology” (1996); “Free Will, Evil, and Divine Providence” (2005);
- Glen Pettigrove (christian, University of Auckland). Works: “Forgiveness and Interpretation” (2007), “The Dilemma of Divine Forgiveness” (2008), “Indoctrination, Autonomy, and Authenticity” (2009)
- Nelson Pike (christian, University of California at Irvine). Works: “Omnipotence and God’s Ability to Sin” (1969), “Divine Omniscience and Voluntary Action” (1963), “Divine Foreknowledge, Human Freedom and Possible Worlds” (1977), “Alston on Plantinga and Soft Theological Determinism” (1990)
- J. Brian Pitts (christian, University of Notre Dame). Works: ““Why the Big Bang Singularity Does Not Help the Kalam Cosmological Argument for Theism”” (2008)”, ““Does the Big Bang Demystify Creation in the Finite Past?” (2006)
- Alvin Plantinga (christian, University of Notre Dame). Works: God and Other Minds (1967), “The Free Will Defense” (1965), God, Freedom, and Evil (1974), “Naturalism Defeated” (1994), Warranted Christian Belief (2000)
- Robin le Poidevin (atheist, University of Leeds). Works: Arguing for Atheism (1996), “The Impossibility of God?” (2009), “Creation in a Closed Universe, or Have Physicists Disproved the Existence of God?” (1991)
- Alexander Pruss (christian, Baylor University). Works: “A New Cosmological Argument” (1999), “Leibnizian Cosmological Arguments” (2009), “A Godelian Ontological Argument Improved” (2007)
- Del Ratzsch (christian, Calvin College). Works: “Nomo(theo)logical Necessity” (1987), “Natural Theology, Methodological Naturalism, and ‘Turtles all the way down’” (2004)
- Michael Rea (christian, University of Notre Dame). Works: World Without Design: The Ontological Consequences of Naturalism (2004), “Theism and Epistemic Truth Equivalences” (2000), “Naturalism and Moral Realism” (2006)
- Bruce Reichenbach (christian, Augsburg College). Works: “Natural Evils and Natural Law: A Theodicy for Natural Evils” (1976), Evil and a Good God (1982), “Mavrodes on omnipotence” (1980)
- Victor Reppert (christian, independent). Works: C.S. Lewis’s Dangerous Idea: In Defense of the Argument from Reason (2003), “Miracles and the case for theism” (1989), “Physical causes and rational belief : a problem for materialism” (1989)
- Alan Rhoda (christian, University of Notre Dame). Works: “Open Theism, Omniscience, and the Nature of the Future” (2006), “The Philosophical Case for Open Theism” (2007), “Presentism, Truthmakers, and God” (2009)
- Jay Richards (christian, Biola University). Works: The Untamed God (2003)
- Robert Roberts (christian, Baylor University). Works: “Smiling With God: Reflections on Christianity and the Psychology of Humor” (1987), “Psychotherapeutic Virtues and the Grammar of Faith” (1987), “Emotions as Access to Religious Truths” (1992)
- Katherin Rogers, (christian, University of Delaware). Works: “Evidence for God from Certainty” (2008), God and Moral Realism (2005)
- William Rowe (atheist, Purdue University). Works: “The Ontological Argument and Question-Begging” (1976), The Cosmological Argument (1975), “The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism” (1979), Can God Be Free? (2004)
- Bede Rundle (atheist, Oxford University). Works: Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing (2006)
- John Schellenberg (atheist, Mount Saint Vincent University). Works: The Wisdom to Doubt (2007), “Divine Hiddenness And Human Reason” (1993), “The hiddenness argument revisited” (2005)
- Theodore Schick, Jr. (atheist, Muhlenberg College). Works: “The ‘Big Bang’ Argument for the Existence of God” (1998), “Methodological Naturalism vs. Methodological Realism” (2000)
- James Sennett (christian, Brenau University). Works: “Is There Freedom in Heaven?” (1999), “Is God Essentially God?” (1994), “The Inscrutable Evil Defense” (1991)
- David Silver (unknown, University of Delaware). Works: “Evolutionary Naturalism and the Reliability of our Cognitive Faculties” (2003), “Religious Experience and the Evidential Argument from Evil” (2002), “Religious Experience and the Facts of Religious Pluralism” (2001)
- James K.A. Smith (christian, Calvin College). Works: “The Art of Christian Atheism: Faith and Philosophy in Early Heidegger” (1997), The Fall of Interpretation: Philosophical Foundations for a Creational Hermeneutic (2000), Speech and Theology: Language and the Logic of Incarnation (2002)
- Quentin Smith (atheist,2 Western Michigan University). Works: Theism, Atheism and Big Bang Cosmology (1993), “A Naturalist Account of the Universe” (2008), “A Logical Argument Against a Divine Cause” (2008), “Kalam Arguments for Atheism” (2007)
- Jordan Howard Sobel (atheist, University of Toronto). Works: Logic and Theism (2004), “Lotteries and Miracles” (2009), “A ‘Russell’ of Spinoza’s Ontological Argument” (1999)
- Janet Soskice (christian, University of Cambridge). Works: Metaphor and Religious Language (1985), “Theological Realism” (1987)
- Victor Stenger (atheist, University of Hawaii). Works: “A Scenario for a Natural Origin of Our Universe Using a Mathematical Model Based on Established Physics and Cosmology” (2006), “Natural Explanations for the Anthropic Coincidences” (2000), “The Scientific Case Against a God Who Created the Universe” (2006)
- Eleonore Stump (christian, Saint Louis University). Works: “Eternity” (1981), “Eternity, Awareness, and Action” (1992), “An Objection to Swinburne’s Argument for Dualism” (1996)
- Michael Sudduth (christian, San Francisco State University). Works: “Can Religious Unbelief be Proper Function Rational?” (1999), “The Internalist Character and Evidential Implications of Plantingian Defeater” (1999), “Alstonian Foundationalism and Higher-Level Theistic Evidentialism” (1995)
- Richard Swinburne (christian, retired). Works: The Coherence of Theism (1977), The Existence of God (1979), Providence and the Problem of Evil (1998)
- Thomas Talbott (christian, retired). Works: “The Doctrine of Everlasting Punishment” (1990), “On Divine Foreknowledge and Bringing about the past” (1986), “Punishment, forgiveness, and divine justice” (1993) “Craig on the Possibility of Eternal Damnation” (1992)
- Charles Taliaferro (christian, St. Olaf College). Works: “Consciousness and the Mind of God” (1994), “Divine Cognitive Power” (1985), “Imaginary evil: A sceptic’s wager” (1992)
- Anthony Thiselton (christian, University of Nottingham). Works: The two horizons: New Testament hermeneutics and philosophical description (1980), “Speech-Act Theory and the Claim that God Speaks” (2009)
- Kevin Timpe (christian, University of San Diego). Works: “Prayers for the Past” (2005), “Grace and Controlling what We Do Not Cause” (2007), “Truthmaking and Divine Eternity” (2007)
- Nick Trakakis (christian, Monash University). Works: “The God Beyond Belief: In Defence of William Rowe’s Evidential Argument from Evil” (2006), “The End of Philosophy of Religion” (2008), “Does Hard Determinism Render the Problem of Evil even Harder?” (2006)
- Michael Tooley (atheist, University of Colorado). Works: Knowledge of God (2008), “Freedom and Foreknowledge” (2000), “Alvin Plantinga and the Argument from Evil” (1980)
- Dale Tuggy (christian, SUNY Fredonia). Works: “Three Roads to Open Theism” (2007), “Necessity, Control, and the Divine Command Theory” (2007), “The unfinished business of Trinitarian theorizing” (2003)
- Denys Turner (christian, Yale University). Works: “Faith, Reason, and the Existence of God” (2004), “The Darkness of God and the Light of Christ: Negative Theology and Eucharistic Presence” (1999)
- William Vallicella (theist, independent). Works: “From facts to God: An onto-cosmological argument” (2000), “Could a Classical Theist Be a Physicalist?” (1998), “Divine Simplicity: A New Defense” (1992)
- William Wainwright (christian, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee). Works: “Mysticism: a study of its nature, cognitive value, and moral implications” (1981), “Mysticism and Sense Perception” (1973), “Gale on Religious Experience” (2003)
- Keith Ward (christian, independent). Works: God, Chance & Necessity (1996), Concepts of God (1998)
- Andrea Weisberger (atheist, University of North Florida). Works: Suffering Belief: Evil and the Anglo-American Defense of Theism (1999), “The Pollution Solution: A Critique of Dore’s Response to the Argument from Evil” (1997), “Depravity, Divine Responsibility and Moral Evil: A Critique of a New Free Will Defence” (1995)
- Merold Westphal (christian, Fordham University). Works: “God, Guilt, and Death: An Existential Phenomenology of Religion” (1984), “Prolegomena to Any Future Philosophy of Religion Which Will Be Able to Come Forth as Prophecy” (1973)
- David Widerker (theist, Bar-Ilan University). Works: “A problem for the eternity solution” (1991), “Facts, Freedom and Foreknowledge” (1987), “Why God’s Beliefs are not Hard-Type Soft Facts” (2002)
- Phillip Wiebe (christian, retired). Works: God and other spirits (2004), Visions of Jesus (1997)
- Erik Wielenberg (atheist, DePauw University). Works: Value and Virtue in a Godless Universe (2005)
- Edward Wierenga (christian, University of Rochester). Works: “A defensible divine command theory” (1983), The Nature of God (1989), “Trinity and Polytheism” (2004), “Perfect Goodness and Divine Freedom” (2007)
- Nicholas Wolterstorff (christian, Yale University). Works: Reason Within the Bounds of Religion (1984), Faith & Rationality: Reason & Belief in God (1983), Divine Discourse: Philosophical Reflections on the Claim that God Speaks (1995)
- Keith Yandell (christian, University of Wisconsin-Madison). Works: The Epistemology of Religious Experience (1993), “Ethics, evils and theism” (1969), “Religious Experience and Rational Appraisal” (1974)
- Linda Zagzebski (christian, University of Oklahoma). Works: “Omniscience and the Arrow of Time” (2002), “Divine Motivation Theory” (2004), The Dilemma of Freedom and Foreknowledge (1991), “Religious Luck” (1994)
- Dean Zimmerman (christian, Rutgers University). Works: “Theology and Tense” (1997), “God Inside Time and Before Creation” (2002), “Richard Gale and the Free Will Defense” (2003)
Please remember to comment with additions and corrections. If you can send me a PDF of any articles not linked above, send it to:
“lukeprog [at] gmail [dot] com”
Updates since January 2010
- 01/22/2010 added Stephen R.L. Clark
- 01/31/2010 added Philip Clayton
- 01/31/2010 added Vincent Brümmer
- 01/31/2010 added Elizabeth Burns
- 01/31/2010 added Robert Fogelin
- 01/31/2010 added Phillip Wiebe
- 02/03/2010 added Katherin Rogers
- 02/05/2010 added Stephen Cahn
- 02/05/2010 added Stephen Grover
- 02/05/2010 added James Muyskens
- 02/05/2010 added Gary Gutting
- 02/08/2010 added David McNaughton
- 02/08/2010 added Derk Pereboom
Notes:
- Flew was an atheist for most of his academic career, but recently became a deist. [↩]
- Quentin described his views to me like this: “According to established meaning of ‘atheism’, I am an atheist. But I have also called myself a practitioner of ‘explanatory atheism’ (I try to explain why the universe exists using only atheistic principles). I am in search of an ‘ultimate reality’ that does not fit any conventional religious model or even the meaning of the word “religion” in our culture. I am in search of an atheistic ‘One’ or ‘Supreme Being’ that is a naturalistic replacement for religion and supernatural beings, but which is not itself a new type of religious reality.” [↩]
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Alvin Plantinga: Finding bold new ways to hide the question-begging.
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I notice that there are very few women amongst this list of philosophers of religion. My wife suggests that this is because men are mostly concerned with feathering their own nest, pontificating about their opinions, and generally furthering their own dominance of the academic world. Just as I treat adverts on the TV (i.e. I do not buy anything I see advertised) I would only listen to a female philosopher of religion!
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Interesting, since women are, on average, more religious than men.
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WoW what a list. Off the top of my head I would add
1.Comparison of Judeo-Christian Theism and Philosophical Naturalism As Explanatory Worldviews (Dec 30, 2007) by Jason A. Beyer and Paul K. Moser
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Added, thanks.
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To be fair to philosophy of religion, there are relatively few women in philosophy generally. Here’s some commentary (a pdf) by Sally Haslanger on the unwelcoming and unfair conditions faced by women in philosophy.
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A few names that occur to me:
Stephen Maitzen, Michael J. Murray, Yujin Nagasawa, Philip L. Quinn, Edward Wierenga
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Maitzen is on there. Dunno how I missed Wierenga and Murray. Quinn died in 2004. I’d never heard of Nagasawa.
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Also: John Hare, Klaas J. Kraay
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Oh, and is Wainwright now an atheist, or is that a typo?
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Wainwright fixed, others added, along with a few more I found. Thanks again for the additions.
I love the young guys; they put all their articles online!
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Looking through my copies of Philo, I find quite a few more philosophers on religion: Paul Kurtz, Charles Echelbarger, Theodore Schick, Glenn Branch, Arnold T. Guminski, Aaron Holland, Matt McCormick (he even has a blog!), Owen McLeod, Stephen T. Davis, Mark Vuletic, Peter Byrne, Jeffrey Lowder, Timothy Madigan, etc. I’m sure there are more philosophers who’ve published in that journal.
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Danny,
Thanks for the list. Obviously, there are hundreds of philosophers of religion I haven’t listed yet.
I couldn’t find a list of peer-reviewed work by Kurtz, do you know if there is a list online?
I don’t see many publications on religion by Echelbarger or Vuletic. Byrne is already on the list. For some of these (Branch, Holland…), I can only find a single article on philosophy of religion in a peer-reviewed journal.
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Well, they have published works in Philo, the journal of the Society of Humanist Philosophers. As for Kurtz, he has published books and articles advancing humanist philosophy, which may or may not be peer reviewed.
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Adolf Grünbaum (atheist, retired)
I second the suggestion to add Paul Kurtz to the list.
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Wow! No Robert Price? Maybe I don’t know what religious philosophy is.
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Pablo Stafforini,
I’ve added Grunbaum now, thanks. To add Kurtz, I would need some suggestions as to the significant academic papers he has written about atheism. I can’t find a bibliography for him.
Pablo, I see you organized a study group on Parfit. I haven’t gotten to Parfit yet, but he’s definitely on my reading list. It sounds like he’s offered several criticisms of desire-based theories of morality that would be relevant to my “defense” of desire utilitarianism. Do you have any thoughts on that?
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exrelayman,
No, I don’t think you do know what philosophy of religion is. But fear not! For I have written an introduction to philosophy of religion.
Robert Price works and publishes in the field of Biblical criticism, not philosophy of religion.
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This post has been linked for the HOT5 Daily 4/27/2009, at <a href=”http://unreligiousright.blogspot.com/”>The Unreligious Right</a>
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Searching for one or two more women, I suggest Karen Armstrong and Mary Midgley? This is a very interesting and useful list, thank you!
Also, how about John Polkinghorne?
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Wow! Most of these theist philosophers of religion are Christians! I think you should include the names of such savants as Ismail Raji Al Faruqi and Mohammad Iqbal as well.
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Stanley,
Karen Armstrong is a historian of comparative religion, not a philosopher of religion. Midgley is a moral philosopher; I’ll have to look and see if she’s written much about philosophy of religion. Polkinghorne is a borderline philosopher of religion; I’ll consider adding him.
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Ibn Abu Talib,
Thanks. I’ll look into those two and consider adding them.
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Ibn Abu Talib,
Both of those Muslim philosophers are dead. This is a list of LIVING philosophers of religion.
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Three theist philosophers of religion in the contential vein: Jean-Luc Marion (U Chicago), James K. A. Smith (Calvin), William Desmond (KU Leuven). Two atheists: Jean-Luc Nancy (Strasbourg, I think), Giorgio Agamben (Turin; he does a lot of work at the intersection of political philosophy and religion/theology).
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Thanks, Matt. Unfortunately for the two atheists, it does not appear they publish much of anything in English, though some of their work has been translated.
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John Haldane (University of St Andrews) definitely belongs on this list. Stephen Law (Heythrop College) would be a nice addition to the atheists, too.
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Oh, and Ralph McInerny and Ed Feser.
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Unless something has changed very recently, Brian Pitts (whom you list as James Pitts) is a theist, not an atheist.
For Neil Manson, you should probably list God and Design: The Teleological Argument and Modern Science.
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Nathaniel and Eric, thanks again for your corrections and contributions.
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Nancey Murphy
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John Bishop from Auckland should be added. He’s a theist. But he’s a non-classical theist and a reconciliatory naturalist (there are a few of us theists who actually reject supernaturalism–but we are a minority among analytic philosophers of religion). Also, for a living Islamic philosopher of religion (who also rejects classical theism), you should list Imran Aijaz (also at Auckland).
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I think Nick Trakakis is a theist.
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Just curious, what’s your source for calling Yujin Nagasawa a theist? I’m not saying he’s not, I’ve just been trying to find out information about his religious background.
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Thanks, Andrei! Two very interesting additions.
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smrdina,
Oops! Fixed.
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I don’t know. A look at his CV doesn’t give me any clues. Anybody know?
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Chad Meister and Jay Wesley Richards coud be added. Doug Groothuis might qualify as well?
Not sure if Stenger and Carrier should be listed. I know that Carrier likes to call himself a philosopher, but I don’t think that he has a degree in philosophy. Stenger seems to have held (perhaps still does) the title “adjunct professor of philosophy”, but I’m not aware of him having a philosophy degree either. Perhaps I’m mistaken on this?
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Also, Thomas V. Morris should be on the list.
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Hilarious internet nickname, Haecceitas.
Thanks for your recommendations.
A philosophy degree is not required to make the list. Stenger and Carrier have published several articles that are taken seriously by the philosophical community, and have published in peer-reviewed philosophy of religion journals like Philo.
I don’t really see any top-level academic publications by Meister. I see an intro text, some edited (but not written) books, and a book review.
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Sorry about dropping the names in separate posts, but a few others came to mind.
Austin Dacey
Bede Rundle
Anthony Kenny
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Btw, the list seems to be polarized between theist and atheist philosophers. There might be some pantheists that are being left out. Wouldn’t John Leslie be one of them?
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Yeah, I’ve been meaning to make the “belief labels” more specific. Dacey doesn’t seem to have published much academic work in philosophy of religion yet.
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John Leslie, while a pantheist, is a Christian. There are some philosophers of religion who describe themselves as Christian but are pantheists or panentheists. Leslie is one. John Bishop is another. There are more. But who is counting heads? I count myself among such heretics.
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What about John Joseph Haldane, University of St Andrews? Michael Novak and Michael Dummett would also be fine additions. Perhaps Peter Kreeft, too?
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I can’t find any work in philosophy of religion by Michael Dummett. I’m also having a hard time tracking down the academic work of Peter Kreeft; it is overwhelmed by his popular work. I’ll add the others.
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I would definitely put David Lewis (atheist) on the list. Admittedly, his main area is not philosophy of religion, but
(a) he’s one of the greatest philosophers ever, and
(b) his essay “evil for freedom’s sake?” is a true classic, and “divine evile” is pretty interesting as well.
(Oh yeah, he’s no longer alive… Maybe that explains the omission.)
Another thing (slightly off topic): I’m anxious to read your review of the Craig-Kagan debate. The first debate I have seen that (in my opinion) Craig clearly lost… Kagan is *killing* him in the Q&A part
Besides, I really enjoy your blog. Keep up the good work!
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Where are Gary Habermas and Anthony Flew?
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I think William J. Abraham (Southern Methodist University) deserves a mention.
Crossing the Threshold of Divine Revelation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), Canon and Criterion in Christian Theology (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998); The Logic of Evangelism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), The Rationality of Religious Belief, edited with Steven W. Holtzer (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987); Divine Revelation and the Limits of Historical Criticism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000); An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1985)
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J.R. Lucas should probably be on the list. He’s published a number of articles and a book on omniscience and foreknowledge (’The Future’, published by Basil Blackwell in 1989), a book of essays on philosophical theology (’Freedom and Grace’, Basil Blackwell, 1971), and has defended a particular version of the ontological argument in a variety of different places. Here is his website, where most of his articles are available for download and there is a comprehensive bibliography: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~jrlucas/
And yes, he is still alive.
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I forgot to mention: Lucas is currently retired, but taught at Merton College, Oxford.
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Habermas is not a philosopher. Flew is on there.
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BCAB,
Added, thanks!
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No worries.
And one more thing: you have Anthony Kenny labeled as an ‘atheist’, though Kenny quite explicitly does not identify as an atheist, and has given arguments for why. He describes himself as an ‘agnostic’.
A useful reference list for authors to read, though. Thanks, Luke.
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Gary Habermas is a research professor of philosophy at Liberty U and has published many articles in Philosophia Christi and his research on the Historical Jesus has been highly influential in natural theology. If Victor Stenger and Richard Carrier are on there I’m sure habermas should be.
http://www.garyhabermas.com/habermas_resume.htm
http://www.garyhabermas.com/publications.htm
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Michael Dummett has dealt with prayer (I think) in his ‘Bringing about the past’. He also has a paper called ‘Biblical Exegesis and the Resurrection’. There are lots of women philosophers of religion missed out:
Pamela Sue Anderson (Christian), Oxford.
Janet Martin Soskice (Christian), Cambridge.
Janine Marie Idziak (sp?).
Sarah Coakley.
Harriet A Harris.
John Cottingham (Christian), retired.
David Oderberg (Christian), Reading.
Bruce Langtry.
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Oh and can I suggest you add Shandon L. Guthrie to the list.
http://sguthrie.net/author.php
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Facilis, I’ll add Habermas. I wasn’t aware of some of his more philosophical publications. But I can’t find any by Guthrie.
blah, thanks for naming the Dummett papers. I’ve added him. Could you name some papers for Harris and Idziak?
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Brian Davies, Fordham. He’s written mostly about Aquinas, but he’s also written a fair amount of non-historical stuff. Most importantly, The Reality of God and the Problem of Evil is the best recent book in the philosophy of religion, and anybody who thinks guys like Swinburne and Plantinga make sense needs to read it. It’s inspired by Aquinas, but it isn’t a book on Aquinas.
And for the love of God, add Anthony Kenny.
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Whoops, I missed Kenny the first time around. I’m not sure if Bob Kane is a Christian, though.
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I think that Bede Rundle is wrongly listed as a Christian. His book is a criticism of theism.
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Sure:
http://philpapers.org/autosense.pl?searchStr=Janine%20Marie%20Idziak
Harris has edited ‘Faith and Philosophical Analysis’ with Chris Insole.
You may wish to add John Foster (The Divine Lawmaker) and Bas Van Fraasen (The Empirical Stance).
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Theodore Gulesarian is at Arizona State University
You should probably add: Robert Roberts (Baylor University)
Thomas Hibbs (Baylor University)
Michael Foley (Baylor University)
Doug Henry (Baylor University)
Michael Beaty (Baylor University)
Trent Dougherty (Baylor University)
Robert Koons (University of Texas at Austin)
Trenton Merricks (University of Virginia, I think)
Theodore Sider (NYU)
Kevin Corcoran (Calvin College)
Alfred Freddoso (Univerity of Notre Dame)
I apologize if some of the above names are already on your list
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David,
Thanks. Could you list some significant papers/books in philosophy of religion from each of these philosophers?
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Good interesting list. James Keller is not an independent, however. He’s at Wofford College, where he was my advisor for my first year and a half as a philosophy student.
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Is Richard Gale really an atheist? I am pretty sure he is a theist. Also, I wonder about Robert Fogelin.
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I really do think Basil Mitchell (retired) should surely be included.
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Robert Kane is Catholic. He’s on board with the Nicene Creed, though not with the stuff about contraception or abortion.
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Are you sure Peter Byrne is a Christian? What’s your reason for thinking so?
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Gale considers himself neither a theist, nor an atheist, nor an agnostic. When asked how he identifies himself, his answer is that he doesn’t care.
The Adamses are, as of July 2009, at UNC, Chapel Hill.
J. Brian Pitts is a Christian theist.
Ted Sider’s only paper on philosophy of religion, as far as I know, is “Hell and Vagueness”, but it’s very well-regarded and has generated a lot of response.
Eleonore Stump should be in bold-face, as she’s inarguably one of the most important philosophers of religion alive.
Descriptions of Corcoran’s contributrions to philosophy of religion can be found on his website. He also has a blog.
Links to many of Robert Koons’s papers on philosophy of religion can be found on his website.
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Great list. I’m surprised you don’t consider John Hick an uber-philosopher, given his influence on the rationality of theism debates in analytic philosophy back in the ’60s, particularly with his first work, Faith and Knowledge. Also, his later works in theodicy and pluralism have changed the nature of those discussions dramatically.
One of Hick’s former doctoral students might also be worthy of mention, Harold Netland (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School). He has two important works on pluralism, Dissonant Voices and Encountering Religious Pluralism, as well as a recent book on Buddhism co-authored with Keith Yandell (http://www.amazon.com/Buddhism-Christian-Exploration-Keith-Yandell/dp/0830838554/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246382506&sr=8-3). Also, has articles in Faith and Philosophy and elsewhere.
Finally, while I agree that Chad Meister may not merit inclusion on this list quite yet, I believe that he is someone to keep an eye on over the next couple years. He is working on a number of original works at the moment with publications in philosophy of religion forthcoming. See http://chadmeister.com/about/#publications.
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Surprised not to find John Milbank and Anthony Thiselton here
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Rob Koons is Catholic.
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Regarding footnote 1, there’s this citation-based ranking at Prosblogion that I generated a couple years ago:
http://prosblogion.ektopos.com/archives/2007/12/top-philosopher.html
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John Schellenberg is agnostic. He doesn’t think there is enough evedince to determine one way or the other.
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Peter,
No, I’m not sure at all. Most of these labels are quick guesses based on a glance at their CV. Please correct if you know better.
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Thanks, Robert Gressis.
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D C Cramer and adhunt:
Added, thanks.
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jon kvanvig,
Thanks!
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lukeprog,
You’re welcome! Also, Wes Morriston is a Christian theist, at least according to William Lane Craig in a podcast he put up this year.
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Robert,
Wes himself denies this, though.
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Oh, I had no idea Wes denied this. Did he do so on Prosblogion? Thanks for letting me know!
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Robert,
I remember reading some comments from Wes stressing that he is a ‘non-traditional theist’, however I’ve also noticed that he serves as an officer for the Society of Christian Philosophers, so… I’m not sure!
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Hick might be more accurately called a “pluralist” than a “christian,” though he has identified critically with the Christian tradition throughout his career. At the present, he is neither a thiest in the traditional sense nor an atheist, but something more like an Ultimate Reality-ist.
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To Peter Forrest’s entry you should add his recent book “Developmental Theism” (OUP, 2007 or so).
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Here are some more who work in pol philos and phil religion:
Chris Eberle (Navy)
Mark Murphy (Gtown)
Terence Cuneo (Vermont)
Paul Weithman (ND)
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Matt and nico2,
Thanks.
But I can’t find many papers on (non-historical) philosophy of religion by Cuneo or Weithman.
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I read William Vallicella’s blog, and I was under the impression he only classfied himself as a traditional theist, but _not_ specifically as a Christian. In a discussion with Alexander Pruss a bit ago, he said he was *sympathetic to* Christianity, but such a case hardly justifies labeling the sympathizer a Christian, and seems to imply a ready distinction between the speaker and being a Christian.
Does he elsewhere say he is a Christian?
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You might add Brian Leftow (University of Oxford). He is an Episcopelian. Time and eternity is his first published book. He has 2 books on Aquinas listed as forthcoming, as well as a couple of dozen articles in various peer-reviewed journals.
Articles on philosophy of religion by Michael Dummett are in New Blackfriars. I’ve listed several of them in my 1997 bibliography on analytic philosophy of religion.
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Thanks, Robert.
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How about posting who is who in the topmost photo?
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Let’s see, from left to right, row by row, looks like we’ve got:
Quentin Smith, Peter van Inwagen, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Mike Almeida, Alvin Plantinga
William Hasker, William Alston, Wes Morriston, Victor Reppert, William Lane Craig
(forgot), R.M. Adams, Richard Swinburne, (forgot), Daniel Howard-Snyder
(forgot), Julian Baggini, J.P. Moreland, Graham Oppy, Evan Fales
Who can fill in the gaps?
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The two women who bracket Daniel Howard-Snyder are Marilyn McCord Adams and Lynne Rudder Baker.
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Great job compiling the list however you left off New Zealand’s most prominent Philosophers of Religion, Dr Matthew Flannagan and Dr Glenn Peoples.
Flannagan’s work is in Plantingan epistemology, religion and morality and applied ethics. He has been published in the likes of The Journal of Medicine and Ethics, Think, Colloquium, The Journal of Libertarian Studies. He teaches History of Philosophy and Philosophical issues in Education for the Philosophy of Religion departments of two theological institutions. His blog, mandm.org.nz, is one of the most widely read blogs in New Zealand and attempts to take philosophy to the layman. While its main thrust is at non-philosophers, it appears to be an effort to making philosophy more accessible, Flannagan does put his more considered academic works on it too. He also runs the Auckland branch of Thinking Matters, an organisation aimed at equipping the lay person with rudimentary philosophy of religion skills.
Dr Peoples has done most of his work on religion in the public square holding Rawls in his sights. He has been published in the Journal of Religion and Society, Faith and Philosophy, Think to name a few. He runs a very popular blog and podcast, again aimed at bringing philosophy to more people.
The type of philosophy of religion that is growing in the US was not present in New Zealand until these two philosophers brought it here. New Zealand has a long way to go until it enjoys the philosophy of religion revival you are all familiar with but it is on its way now thanks in major part to the work of these two living philosophers of religion.
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Thanks, Scylla.
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“John Bishop (christian pantheist, University of Aukland)”
Should be Auckland.
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Heffner,
I’ve read ‘Breaking the Spell,’ but I’m not sure I’d call any of his published work ‘important’ in the philosophy of religion. He is primarily concerned with the philosophy of mind and philosophy of action and philosophy of biology.
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Trevor,
Thanks, fixed.
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i’m just curious, is it the case that philosophy of religion is exclusively “western” (i.e. judeo-christian tradition)? Or, none of those people working in non-judeo-christian tradition is worth mentioning?
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ph,
I’m primarily concerned with analytic philosophy of religion, but feel free to suggest some eastern philosophers of religion for the list.
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Footnote (1) is badly misleading, as I pointed out in the comment at Prosblogion. It makes some look like much better philosophers of religion than they are. It puts Bill Rowe at 25, and Bob Audi at 5, for instance. It puts Rowe far behind Kvanvig, Gutting and DeRose. That’s ridiculous, frankly, and it should have been noted explicitly in the post. What is being measured there is citations generally,not citations for philosophy of religion. It’s troubling that this was not expressly stated.
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A few suggestions:
Hendrik Hart
Mark C. Taylor
Gianni Vattimo
Rene Girard
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Thanks, Brad, I’ll look into them.
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Luke,
I see you’ve updated the list with Girard, but none of the others. That’s no skin off my back, but I’m just curious how you decide which people to put on the list. Taylor, for sure, seems like he should be on any list of this sort (especially considering you have people like Caputo on the list).
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Brad,
I didn’t have time to look at Taylor’s work yet. I was already familiar with Girard.
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Hi Luke,
There’s a guy called Tim Mawson at Oxford:
http://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/members/tim_mawson
He’s published a lot in the Philosophy of Religion.
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Thanks, Roman!
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I’m under the impression that Bob Pennock is a Quaker, not an atheist.
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Alex,
Same thing.
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Hey another person you might want to be on the lookout for is R. Zachary Manis. A book by him and C. Stephen Evans on philosophy of religion just came out. I watched him in a panel debate againts Carrier and Stenger. The debate became a back and forth intellectual war between him and Carrier. Very even I would give him the nod though.
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Marcus,
I wish that debate had been recorded!
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“Alvin Plantinga: Finding bold new ways to hide the question-begging.”
Methodological Naturalism: Finding bold new ways to hide the question-begging.
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Luke,
Do you know Stephen R. L. Clark? I’ve only read some of his articles on animal ethics, but it seems like he’s a philosopher of religion as well.
http://pcwww.liv.ac.uk/~srlclark/srlc.htm
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Thanks, Bebok.
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Luke,
One more suggestion would be Paul Helm:
http://www.theopedia.com/Paul_Helm
http://philpapers.org/autosense.pl?searchStr=Paul%20Helm
Also, Brian Clack’s text is called “Religion and Wittgenstein’s Legacy” and it’s actually only a review of the book of that title.
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And Michael Dummett needs one more ‘t’.
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I’d also add his paper called “The Intelligibility of Eucharistic Doctrine” (1987), it’s his most popular work in the field, I guess.
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Thanks, Bebok!
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