Challenging the New Atheism: Pragmatic Confrontations in the Philosophy of Religion

✍ Scribed by Aaron Pratt Shepherd

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 225
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book presents a pragmatic response to arguments against religion made by the New Atheism movement. The author argues that analytic and empirical philosophies of religion―the mainstream approaches in contemporary philosophy of religion―are methodologically unequipped to address the “Threefold Challenge” made by popular New Atheist thinkers such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett.

The book has three primary motivations. First, it provides an interpretation of the New Atheist movement that treats their claims as philosophical arguments and not just rhetorical exercises or demagoguery. Second, it assesses and responds to these claims by elaborating four distinct contemporary philosophical perspectives― analytic philosophy, empirical philosophy, continental philosophy, and pragmatism―as well as contextualizing these perspectives in the history of the philosophy of religion. Finally, the book offers a metaphilosophical critique, returning again and again to the question of method. In the end, the author settles upon a modified version of pragmatism that he concludes is best suited for articulating the terms and stakes of the God Debate.

Challenging the New Atheism will be of interest to scholars and students of American philosophy and philosophy of religion.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Preface
1 The New Atheism: A Threefold Challenge
The Three Challenges of the New Atheism
What’s “New” about the New Atheism?
The Three Challenges: A Critical Exposition
The Three Challenges and the “God Debate”
Conclusion
2 Contemporary Philosophy of Religion vs. the Threefold Challenge
The Mythology behind the Consequences Challenge
The Truth Challenge and Analytic Philosophy of Religion
Ayer on Religion
Wittgensteinian Philosophy of Religion
Plantinga’s Realism and Reformed Epistemology
Conclusion on Analytic Philosophy of Religion
Empirical Philosophy of Religion
“Explaining” Religion—Naturally
On Empirical Philosophy of Religion and the Three Challenges
Gestures in the Right Direction for Addressing the Meaning Challenge
Conclusion
3 Modern Origins of the Threefold Challenge
Essentialism and Skepticism in Modern Philosophy of Religion
The Social Dimension in Modern Philosophy of Religion
Kant’s Philosophy of Religion
Post-Kantian Philosophy of Religion: Schleiermacher and Hegel
Conclusion
4 A Postmodern Approach to the Truth and Meaning Challenges
Postmodernism in Contemporary Continental Philosophy of Religion
Vattimo’s Nihilistic Secularization
The Truth and Meaning Challenges in Postmodernity
Marion: Theologizing an Impossible God
Caputo’s Radical Theology and Postmodern Philosophy of Religion
Conclusion
5 Challenging Meaning: Pragmatic Reflections on Metaphilosophical Issues
A Metaphilosophical Interlude
Advancing the Challenge: Pragmatist Philosophy of Religion
Pragmatist Philosophy of Religion and the Three Challenges
Pragmatist Philosophy of Religion: Toward “Integration”
6 Integration and “More than Pragmatist” Philosophy of Religion
The Meaning of “Integration”
Conceptual Elements of Religious Integration
“More-than-Pragmatist” Philosophy of Religion
Concluding Remarks
Bibliography
Index