Any well known contemporary christian philosophers?
| Any well known contemporary christian philosophers? | |
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•oldandrew
PF Addict  Usergroup: Members Joined: Oct 19, 2008 Location: United Kingdom Total Topics: 11 Total Posts: 2480 Last Blog: Liz Truss’s Textbook Speech |
Posted Mar 25, 2011 - 11:01 PM:
I have to say that the only living "philosophers" named on this thread I've heard of are people who are famous for something other than philosophy. How about Alasdair MacIntyre? |
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•Philonus
Resident  Usergroup: Members Joined: May 27, 2007 Location: United States Total Topics: 65 Total Posts: 452 |
Posted Mar 26, 2011 - 4:40 AM:
Everyone, I appreciate your efforts but I would like to clarify that I have a distinction between philosophers and theologians. I honestly believe that theist philosophers and theologians can overlap in many occasions but I personally think that philosophers are primarily concerned with the arguments for the existence of God and speculating/disputing about the nature of the existence of God. Theologians on the other hand are more preoccupied with doctrines, prayer, worship, creeds, rituals, miracles, role/meaning of church, divine revelation, etc. I concede that this distinction may not be entirely accurate, so if you happen to find theologians who also made arguments for the existence of God and speculate/dispute about the nature of God then please by all means include them in your recommendation. |
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•Philonus
Resident Usergroup: Members Joined: May 27, 2007 Location: United States Total Topics: 65 Total Posts: 452 |
Posted Mar 26, 2011 - 4:44 AM:
oldandrew wrote: I have to say that the only living "philosophers" named on this thread I've heard of are people who are famous for something other than philosophy. How about Alasdair MacIntyre? I heard of him before, and I think I heard of him arguing for the Thomist account of the Natural Law except in a relativist stance. I guess if that's what he did then yeah I think I can consider him. |
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•pinkey
Newbie Usergroup: Members Joined: Dec 24, 2010 Total Topics: 1 Total Posts: 3 |
Posted Mar 26, 2011 - 5:40 AM:
If you are really interested in contemporary arguments for the existance of God, get your hands on The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology. http://www.amazon.com/Blackwell-Co...ral-Theology/dp/1405176571 I personally havn't read it, (because of the price tag) but have read other works by some of the same authors and have heard good things about it. Here's an interesting quote from one of the reviewers: "Even if Earth's universities are emptied of theists by the year 2400, we may look then look back and see 'The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology' as the high-point in the philosophical defense of theism" - Luke from CommonSenseAtheism.com You may want to find it in a library though, because it costs $163.55. If you're not interested in reading it, the list of contributers will give you a good idea of some of the main defenders of theistic arguments today. |
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•StreetlightX
Eppur si muove...  Usergroup: Moderators Joined: Jun 12, 2010 Location: In medias res Total Topics: 42 Total Posts: 2677 |
Posted Mar 26, 2011 - 6:13 AM:
John Millbank might fit your bill better than most, being the founder of the so called 'Radical Orthodoxy' school of Theology. Charles Taylor, too - probably one of the most sensitive and profound Christian philosophers out there. Karl Bath and Paul Tillich you should know as well, probably the two most important twentieth century Christian philosophers. Edited by StreetlightX on Mar 26, 2011 - 6:18 AM |
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•Arkady
Ghost in the machine  Usergroup: Members Joined: Jul 29, 2009 Total Topics: 35 Total Posts: 3962 |
Posted Mar 26, 2011 - 7:16 AM:
pinkey wrote: Victor Reppert, Mark D. Lindville, Robin Collins, Gregory E. Ganssle, Michael J. Murray, Paul Copan, Keith Ward, Paul K. Moser and Alexander R. Pruss to name a few. A couple of them might not be very "well known" though. Pruss maintains a blog which has some interesting stuff. http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/ |
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•jorndoe
Investigator  Usergroup: Sponsors Joined: Sep 06, 2008 Location: Canada, Denmark Total Topics: 61 Total Posts: 3242 |
Posted Mar 26, 2011 - 3:39 PM:
I suppose Paul Helm might pass for a philosopher. Primarily a theologian, though. |
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•Philonus
Resident Usergroup: Members Joined: May 27, 2007 Location: United States Total Topics: 65 Total Posts: 452 |
Posted Mar 27, 2011 - 8:47 PM:
StreetlightX wrote: John Millbank might fit your bill better than most, being the founder of the so called 'Radical Orthodoxy' school of Theology. Charles Taylor, too - probably one of the most sensitive and profound Christian philosophers out there. Karl Bath and Paul Tillich you should know as well, probably the two most important twentieth century Christian philosophers. I actually read Paul Tillich, and I appreciated his theology, but personally I don't really consider him to be a philosopher in the conventional sense. I think Paul Tillich uses many philosophical concepts from Schellling, Hegel, and Existentialism to construct his theology, and Tillich's theology is to primarily change the role of the church in order to relate more to the conditions of modernity in an existential way. However I do think that Tillich is the most philosophical theologian, if not really a philosopher like Plantinga, Hicks, WLC, Swineburne. Paul Tillich does not speculate on the nature of God and does not argues for the existence of God, both of which I personally think are critical ingredients to philosophical arguments concerning God. I read about Karl Barth and I don't consider him to be a philosopher at all because Karl Barth is a practical fideist who goes against having arguments for and against God since he opposes using reason. Karl Barth also opposed Natural Theology (which would include cosmological argument and argument from design) because he was afraid that it would somehow limit God. His reasons for opposing them is, in my opinion, obviously inadequate, and none of which are based on philosophical reasoning but more or less based on divine revelation and scriptural authority. This is something that Theologians (at least conservative ones) usually do, and I hardly think that it is something that a theist philosopher would appeal to so many times. Because of this I don't consider Karl Barth to be a philosopehr even though his theology did catch attention from philosophical communities to some extent. The distinction becomes more vague when we introduce Pascal and Kierkegaard (at least for me) because I'm not sure why they are considered philosophers to begin with. I guess I can count Kierkegaard since he is the father of Existentialism, but I never considered Pascal to be a philosopher (He is more of a mathematician than a philosopher) because his Wager was a disaster (in other words a very bad argument). Sure, theists use the argument all the time, but it's a false dichotomy and the pressumption of how God rewards and punishes. But anyhow, I'm glad you brought up those two theologians. |
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•Richard_Mcnair
Russophile  Usergroup: Sponsors Joined: Nov 12, 2010 Location: London Total Topics: 20 Total Posts: 502 |
Posted Mar 27, 2011 - 8:59 PM:
He's a christian philosopher, although not that well known, but if you want arguments from the other side read his book: Why there almost certainly is a god: doubting dawking by Keith Ward, which I agree with alot, and I think is one of the best on the market. Also there is 'There is a god' by the late anthony flew which I also like. However stay away from Alistair Mcgrath. |
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•Philo1965
PF Addict Usergroup: Members Joined: Oct 06, 2007 Total Topics: 6 Total Posts: 1019 |
Posted Mar 29, 2011 - 1:39 PM:
oldandrew wrote: I have to say that the only living "philosophers" named on this thread I've heard of are people who are famous for something other than philosophy. You've never heard of Peter van Inwagen? |
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