DESCRIPTION: An examination of a cluster of related issues in philosophy of religion, including the rationality of Christian belief and the nature of theological method; the nature of the human person; and the relation between Christian theology and science. This course is intended to be an introduction to philosophy for those without extensive knowledge of the field.

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 philosophical problems facing Christian believers and to some of the strategies that have been used to address them. Skills: to improve students' 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: The class will meet twice weekly for two-hour sessions. Most of class time will be devoted to lectures and brief in-class discussion. There will also be three small-group discussion sessions.

REQUIRED READING: (total pages of reading: 1,053)

Giberson, Karl, and Francis Collins. The Language of Science and Faith. InterVarsity Press, 2011
(0830838295; 196 pgs; $22.99).

Green, Joel, ed. In Search of the Soul. 2nd ed. Wipf & Stock, 2010 (798-1-60899-473-1; 196 pgs; $23).

Jeeves, Malcolm, and Warren Brown. Neuroscience, Psychology, and Religion. Templeton Press, 2009 (978-1-59947-147-1; 168 pgs; $14.36).

Murphy, Nancey. Reasoning and Rhetoric in Religion. Wipf & Stock, 1994 (9781579107727; 271pgs; $29).

Peterson, Michael, et al, eds. Reason and Religious Belief. 4th ed. Oxford University Press, 2009
(0-19-533596-6; 368 pgs; $56.95). [Note: earlier editions are also acceptable, but the chapter numbering will be different.]

Course Reader:

Dunn, James D. G. The Theology of Paul the Apostle. Eerdmans, 1998. Pp. 51-78.

Green, Joel. Body, Soul, and Human Life. Baker, 2008. Chap. 1.

MacIntyre, Alasdair. "Visions." In New Essays In Philosophical Theology, ed. Antony Flew and A. MacIntyre. SCM Press, 1955. Pp. 254-60.

______. "Epistemological Crises, Dramatic Narrative and the Philosophy of Science." In Why Narrative? ed. Stanley Hauerwas and L. G. Jones. Eerdmans, 1989. Pp. 138-57.

Murphy, Nancey. Introduction to A Christian Philosophy of Religion for the Twenty-First Century. (Unpublished.)

______. "Naturalism and Theism as Competing Large-Scale Traditions." (Unpublished.)

______. "God's Action in the Natural World: Buridan's Ass and Schröedinger's Cat." In Chaos and Complexity: Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action, ed. R. J. Russell et al. Vatican Observatory, 1993. Pp. 325-57.

______. "Natural Evil, Fine Tuning, and Divine Action." (Unpublished.)

Pannenberg, Wolfhart. Anthropology in Theological Perspective. Westminster, 1985. Pp. 119-42.

Anderson, Pamela Sue. A Feminist Philosophy of Religion: The Rationality and Myths of Religious Belief. Blackwell, 1998 (0-6311-9383-9; 256 pgs; $46.43).

Cheatham, David, and Rolfe King, eds. Contemporary Practice and Method in the Philosophy of Religion. Continuum, 2008 (0-8264-9588-5; 203 pgs; $130).