Prolegomena to a Philosophy of Religion Book

Preface ix

1 On Religion 1

1 Why Discuss This Issue? 1

2 Religion and the Religions 3

3 The Family Resemblance Approach 7

4 A Definition of "Religion"? 12

5 Defining "Religion" for Philosophy 23

6 From Theism to Ultimism 37

2 On Belief 39

1 Propositional Belief as a Form of Thought 40

2 A Contrary View: Belief as Confidence 50

3 Thought-Plus? 59

4 The Involuntariness of Propositional Belief 65

5 A Distinct Impression: Affective Belief 67

3 On Religious Belief and Religious Disbelief 75

1 Propositional Religious Belief 75

2 Affective Religious Belief 85

3 Propositionals Religious Disbelief 88

4 Affective Religious Disbelief 91

4 On Religious Skepticism 95

1 Doubts and Doubting 95

2 Four Types of Religious Skepticism 97

3 Passive and Active Skepticism 101

5 On Religious Faith (I) 106

1 Finding "Faith" 107

2 Faith and Action: The Nature of Trust 109

3 Is Trust Present in All Forms of Religion? 120

4 Trust and the Nature of Faith 123

5 Faith: Propositional and Operational 125

6 On Religious Faith (II) 127

1 Propositional Faith as a Nonbelieving State 129

2 Some Operational Corollaries 139

3 Related Views 141

4 Religious Language and the Voluntariness of Faith 147

5 Replies to Religious Objections 160

7 On the Aims of Philosophy of Religion 167

1 The Received View: Meaning and Justification 168

2 The Nature of Justification 173

3 Building on the Received View: Theory and Practices 184

4 The Aims of Philosophy of Religion-A Proposal 191

8 On Principles of Evaluation in Philosophy of Religion 195

1 Some Principles of Response Justification 197

2 Truth or Consequences? 206

3 Evaluation Responses to Ultimism: Priority and Strategy 220

Index 223