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Faith and Philosophy Faith and Philosophy examines the intersection of Thomas Aquinas, Augustine of Hippo, Immanuel Kant, David Hume, and contemporaries in questions about belief, reason, meaning, and authority. It surveys arguments developed by figures such as Anselm of Canterbury, René Descartes, Søren Kierkegaard, Alvin Plantinga, and Richard Swinburne while engaging institutions like the Vatican, Oxford University, Harvard University, Cambridge University, and Princeton University.
Scholars draw on traditions from Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Baruch Spinoza, Blaise Pascal, William Paley, and John Locke to define faith variously as commitment (cf. Søren Kierkegaard), trust (cf. Nicholas Wolterstorff), or assent (cf. William Alston), and philosophy via methods associated with Aristotle-influenced medievalism (cf. Thomas Aquinas), Enlightenment criticism (Immanuel Kant, David Hume, René Descartes), and analytic inquiry (Bertrand Russell, W.V.O. Quine). The scope commonly includes metaphysics as in debates traced to Leibniz and Spinoza, epistemology as in work by Alvin Plantinga and William Alston, ethics as in Alasdair MacIntyre and John Rawls, and hermeneutics as in Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur.
The medieval synthesis of Thomas Aquinas and Anselm of Canterbury integrated Augustine of Hippo with scholasticism under institutions like the University of Paris and University of Oxford, while the Reformation era involving Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Philip Melanchthon reconfigured authority and scriptural interpretation. Enlightenment critiques by David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Baruch Spinoza challenged teleology and providence, prompting responses from William Paley and Joseph Butler. Nineteenth-century figures such as Friedrich Schleiermacher, Søren Kierkegaard, Karl Barth, and Friedrich Nietzsche reframed existential and theological concerns, whereas twentieth-century thinkers including Karl Rahner, Paul Tillich, Rudolf Bultmann, Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Emmanuel Levinas, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Alvin Plantinga advanced diverse analytic, continental, and theological strands.
Analytic philosophy of religion, represented by Alvin Plantinga, Richard Swinburne, William Alston, and J. L. Mackie, emphasizes propositional reasoning, modal logic, and evidential standards. Continental approaches, linked to Martin Heidegger, Paul Ricoeur, Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault, prioritize hermeneutics, phenomenology, and critique. Natural theology surfaces through Thomas Aquinas, William Paley, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and modern advocates like Richard Swinburne and John Polkinghorne; fideism finds allies in Søren Kierkegaard and critics like Immanuel Kant. Pragmatic and existential treatments appear in work by William James, Charles Taylor, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Stanley Hauerwas.
Classic proofs and objections involve the Cosmological, Teleological, and Ontological arguments as formulated by Thomas Aquinas, William Paley, Anselm of Canterbury, and refined by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and René Descartes; critiques arise from David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Bertrand Russell, and J. L. Mackie. Debates over evidentialism and Reformed epistemology pit Richard Swinburne and Alvin Plantinga against evidentialist critics like W. K. Clifford and Bertrand Russell, while existential critiques by Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche question rationalist pretensions. Institutional contexts include debates within Vatican II, the Anglican Communion, and academic departments at Princeton Theological Seminary and Harvard Divinity School.
Epistemic frameworks invoke foundationalism and coherentism traced through John Locke, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and analytic developments by W.V.O. Quine and G. E. Moore. Reformed epistemology, advanced by Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff, argues for properly basic beliefs; counterarguments by Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and E. J. Lowe emphasize naturalistic explanations influenced by Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud. Philosophers such as William Alston, Robert Audi, Adam Kotsko, and Elizabeth Anscombe examine testimony, experience, and religious skepticism in light of cognitive science research at institutions like Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The interplay of theological ethics and secular moral theory involves figures like Alasdair MacIntyre, Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe, John Rawls, Peter Singer, and Martha Nussbaum. Debates over divine command theory, virtue ethics, natural law, and casuistry reference Thomas Aquinas, Joseph Butler, Immanuel Kant, and Aristotle (via medieval commentators) and engage religious communities from the Eastern Orthodox Church to the Catholic Church and Protestantism. Applied issues—bioethics, social justice, and human rights—invoke interlocutors such as Paul Ricoeur, Cornel West, Stanley Hauerwas, Judith Butler, and institutions like World Council of Churches and United Nations forums.
Current work intersects with cognitive science of religion (research by Justin Barrett, Pascal Boyer, and Boyer-influenced studies), neuroscience (scholars at Harvard Medical School and University College London), and evolutionary theory as advanced by Charles Darwin, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Steven Pinker. Intersections with law and public policy refer to landmark cases in United States Supreme Court jurisprudence and debates within European Court of Human Rights; interfaith dialogue engages entities like the Vatican, World Council of Churches, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and academic centers at Yale University, University of Chicago, Princeton University, and Duke University. Emerging topics include religious pluralism (as discussed by John Hick), secularization theory (work by Max Weber and Émile Durkheim), gender and sexuality (studies by Judith Butler and Martha Nussbaum), and technology-driven questions raised by researchers at MIT Media Lab and Oxford University.