DESCRIPTION: An examination of a cluster of related issues in philosophy of religion, including the rationality of Christian belief, the nature of the human person, and the relation of Christian ethics to both neurobiology and philosophical ethics.

SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: The issues that we deal with in class will also be issues of concern for many church members; this will be an opportunity for students to begin to prepare to address them.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Knowledge: to introduce students to some of the major intellectual problems facing Christian believers and to some of the strategies that have been used to address them. Skills: to improve student's skills in reasoning about their faith and in academic writing. Attitudes: to promote confidence in the student's own abilities to address intellectual problems as well as sympathetic appreciation for scholars who have struggled with difficult issues and have arrived at conclusions different from those of the student.

COURSE FORMAT: Mostly lecture; some small group discussion. The class will meet twice weekly for two-hour sessions.

REQUIRED READING:

Green, Joel, and S. Palmer, eds. In Search of the Soul. InterVarsity Press, 2005.

Murphy, Nancey. Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies? Cambridge University, 2006.

_________. Reasoning and Rhetoric in Religion. Wipf and Stock, 1994.

Peterson, Michael, et al., eds. Reason and Religious Belief. Oxford University Press, 2003.

Course reader.