Theism and the Future of Philosophy of Religion: Three Questions

Abstract

Three interconnected issues are addressed: whether philosophy of religion needs to move away from theism; what could replace it; and how nontheistic conceptions of the divine should be incorporated in the field’s future discussions. Among the central points made are these: that attention to theism should diminish as a large number of nontheistic topics receive discussion in the philosophy of religion; that theism’s dominance in the structuring of our discussions should be replaced by a more deliberate focus on the aims of philosophy of religion, including in particular certain higher-level aims involving the resolution of problems in other areas of philosophy and the evaluation of religious practice; and that some of the most potentially fruitful ideas of the divine are not alternative conceptions of it per se, but rather are quite general ideas offering a framework for the discussion of alternative conceptions including theism.