DESCRIPTION:

This is a doctoral seminar for PhD and ThM students, open to a limited number of advanced MA and MDiv students. While the United States is one of the most religious of Western countries, those with the highest levels of education are most likely to be atheists or agnostics. This seminar will investigate intellectual sources of atheism in the modern Western world, in science, philosophy, and theology.

This course should be useful for apologetic purposes, insofar as it acquaints students with the intellectual developments that have called religious belief into question.

The first session will be an introductory lecture. The remainder of the course will be devoted to discussion of assigned readings. The class will meet weekly for a three-hour session.

Funkenstein, Amos. Theology and the Scientific Imagination. Princeton, 1986

Gaskin, J. C. A. Varieties of Unbelief. Macmillan, 1989.

Hume, David. Writings on Religion. Open Court, 1992

Popkin, Richard. The History of Skepticism. Expanded and revised edition. Oxford, 2003

Schleiermacher, Friedrich. On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers. Trans. John Oman. Westminster/John Knox, 1994.

Turner, James. Without God, Without Creed. Johns Hopkins, 1985.

Westphal, Merold. Suspicion and Faith. Eerdmans, 1993.

Zeitlin, Irving. The Religious Experience. Prentice Hall, 2003

Careful reading of assignments, regular attendance, class participation. One 20-30 page paper as per CATS requirements (15-20 pp. for 500-level); topics to be chosen in consultation with the professor. In addition, students will be assigned to prepare and lead class discussions.

Permission of instructor required for master's students (3.5 GPA and previous course in philosophy).

Elective for master's students. (May fulfill MDiv core requirement in philosophy [PHIL] for students with undergraduate major in philosophy.)

None.