Readings in Philosophy of Religion: Ancient to Contemporary
edited by Linda Zagzebski and Timothy D. Miller
Table of Contents
I. Introduction to the Philosophical Treatment of Religion
1. Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, Book One.
II. Classical Arguments for Theism
A. Teleological Arguments
1. Cicero, “The Design Argument,” from The Nature of the Gods, Book Two.
2. Thomas Aquinas, “The Fifth Way,” from Summa Theologica.
3. William Paley, “The Watch and the Watchmaker,” from Natural Theology.
4. David Hume, “Critique of the Design Argument,” from Dialogues Concerning Natural
Religion.
5. Robin Collins, “The Teleological Argument,” in The Rationality of Theism, edited by
Paul Copan and Paul Moser.
6. J.J.C. Smart, “The Argument from the Appearance of Design,” from John Haldane and
J.J. C. Smart, Atheism and Theism.
B. Cosmological Arguments
1. Plato, “Plato’s Cosmological Argument,” from Laws X, Timaeus.
2. Aristotle, “The eternality of motion and the unmoved mover,” Physics VIII, ch.1, ch.6.
3. Al-Ghazāli, “The Kalām Cosmological Argument,” from “The Jerusalem Tract.”
4. Moses Maimonides, “The Existence and Oneness of God,” from Guide for the
Perplexed.
5. Thomas Aquinas, “Whether God exists?” from Summa Theologica.
6. Samuel Clarke, “The Argument from Dependent Beings,” from A Demonstration of
the Being and Attributes of God.
7. David Hume, “Critique of the Cosmological Argument,” from Dialogues Concerning
Natural Religion.
C. Ontological Arguments
1. Anselm, “Anselm’s Ontological Argument,” from Proslogium.
2. René Descartes, “Descartes’ Ontological Argument,” with Critique by Caterus and
Reply.
3. Immanuel Kant, “Kant’s Critique of the Three Traditional Proofs,” from Critique of
Pure Reason.
4. Alvin Plantinga, “The Ontological Argument,” from God, Freedom, and Evil.
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III. Other Approaches to Religious Belief
A. Experience and Revelation as Grounds for Religious Belief
1. Rudolf Otto, “The Numinous,” from The Idea of the Holy.
2. Teresa of Avila, “The Veridicality of Mystical Experience,” Interior Castle, Fifth
Mansions, Chap. 1.
3. William Alston vs. Evan Fales, “Does Religious Experience Justify Religious Belief?”
in Blackwell, Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion.
4. Sandra Menssen and Thomas D. Sullivan, “The Existence of God and the Existence of
Homer: Rethinking Theism and Revelatory Claims.”
B. Fideism
1. Soren Kierkegaard, “Truth is Subjectivity,” Concluding Unscientific Postscript.
2. Robert M. Adams, “Kierkegaard’s Arguments Against Objective Reasoning in
Religion.”
3. Ludwig Wittgenstein, “Lectures on Religious Belief.”
C. Naturalistic Re-interpretations of Religious Belief
1. David Hume, “Origin of Religion,” from A Natural History of Religion.
2. Ludwig Feuerbach, “The Essence of Religion in General,” from The Essence of
Christianity.
3. Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion.
IV. Who or What is God?
1. Melissus of Samos, “On Being.”
2. Aristotle, “The Final Cause,” from Metaphysics XII.
3. Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, “The Divine Darkness,” from The Divine Names
and the letters of Dionysius.
4. Anselm, “Perfect Being,” from Proslogium.
5. Richard of St. Victor, On the Trinity.
6. Peter Geach, “Omnipotence.”
7. Norman Kretzmann, “Omniscience and Immutability.”
8. William L. Craig, “Atemporal Personhood,” from Time and Eternity..
V. Fate, Freedom, and Foreknowledge
1. Aristotle, “The Sea Battle Argument,” De Interpretatione 9.
2. Cicero, “On Fate,” sec. IX; “On Divination,” Book II, Chap. VIII.
3. Boethius, “God’s Timeless Knowing,” from The Consolation of Philosophy.
4. Marilyn Adams, “Ockham on God’s Foreknowledge, and Future Contingents,”
introduction to Ockham, Predestination, God’s Foreknowledge, and Future Contingents.
5. George Mavrodes, “Is the Past Unpreventable?”
VI. Religion and Morality
A. Is Religion Needed for Morality?
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1. Plato, “God is the Measure of All Things,” from Laws IV.
2. Kant, “The Moral Argument for the Existence of God,” from Critique of Practical
Reason..
B. Divine Command Theory and Divine Motivation Theory
1. Plato, “The Euthyphro Dilemma,” from Euthyphro.
2. Peter D’Ailly, Questions on the Books of the Sentences.
3. Martin Luther, “Lectures on Romans.”
4. Robert M. Adams, “Divine Commands,” from Finite and Infinite Goods..
5. Linda Zagzebski, “The Virtues of God and the Foundations of Ethics.”
C. Natural Law
1. Thomas Aquinas, selections from Treatise on Law.
VII. The Problem of Evil
1. Plato, “God is Not the Author of Evil,” from Republic II.
2. Lactantius, On the Anger of God.
3. Augustine, “That which is, is good,” from Confessions. .
4. Augustine, “On the Free Choice of the Will.”
5. Gottfried Leibniz, “Myth of the Goddess Pallas” and ”Formal Summary of the
Theodicy,” from Theodicy.
6. J.L. Mackie, “Evil and Omnipotence.”
7. Alvin Plantinga, “The Free Will Defense,” from God, Freedom, and Evil
8. John Hick, “Soul-making Theodicy.”
9. William Rowe, “Friendly Atheism, Skeptical Theism, and the Problem of Evil.”
10. Marilyn Adams, ”Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God.”
VIII. Death and Immortality
A. Is Death Bad?
1. Epicurus, “Death is Nothing to Us,” from Letter to Menoeceus.
2. Thomas Nagel, “Death.”
B. Life After Death
1. Plato, “The Separation of the Soul from the Body,” from Phaedo.
2. Averroes (Ibn Rushd), “The Future Life.”
3. René Descartes, “The Possibility of Immortality,” from Meditation VI, with Objection
by Mersenne and Reply.
4. John Locke, “Personal Identity and Consciousness,” from An Essay Concerning
Human Understanding.
5. Bertrand Russell, “Do We Survive Death?” from Why I am Not a Christian.
6. Richard Swinburne, “Personal Identity: the Dualist Theory,” from Shoemaker and
Swinburne, Personal Identity.
7. Paul Badham, “Religious and Near-Death Experience in Relation to Belief in a Future
Life.”
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IX. The Diversity of Religions
1. Aquinas, “The Quality of those Souls Who Die With Original Sin Only,”from Summa
Theologica, Appendix.
2. John Hick, “Religious Pluralism and Salvation.”
3. The Dalai Lama, “The Bodhgaya Interview (1981).
4. Karl Rahner, “Christianity and the Non-Christian Religions.”
5. Peter Van Inwagen, “Non Est Hick,” from Senor, Rationality of Belief and the
Plurality of Faith.
6. Linda Zagzebski, “Self-trust and the Diversity of Religions.”
X. Faith, Reason, and the Ethics of Belief
A. Faith and Reason
1. Justin Martyr, “How Justin Found Philosophy,” from Dialogue with Trypho.
2. Tertullian, Prescriptions Against the Heretics.
3. Clement, “In What Respect Philosophy Contributes to the Comprehension of Divine
Truth,” from Miscellanies.
4. Averroes (Ibn Rushd), The Decisive Treatise Determining the Nature of the
Connection between Religion and Philosophy.
5. Thomas Aquinas, “Faith and Reason,” Summa Contra Gentiles I.
6. John Calvin, “Belief in God is Natural,” from Institutes I.
7. John Locke, “Faith, Reason, and Enthusiasm,” from An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding, Bk IV.
8. Kelly James Clark, “Return to Reason: the Irrationality of Evidentialism.”
9. Abraham Heschel, “Beyond Faith,” from Man is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion.
B. Miracles
1. Thomas Aquinas, “Miracles,” Summa Contra Gentiles III.
2. John Locke, “A Discourse of Miracles.”
3. David Hume, “Of Miracles.”
4. George Mavrodes, “David Hume and the Probabilility of Miracles.”
C. Pragmatism and the Ethics of Belief
1. Blaise Pascal, “The Wager,” from Pensées.
2. Thomas V. Morris, “Pascalian Wagering.”
3. W.K. Clifford, “The Ethics of Belief.”
4. William James, “The Will to Believe.”
5. Anthony Kenny, “Faith, Pride and Humility.”
XI. Science, Religion, and Naturalism
1. Galileo Galilei, “Letter to Castelli,” from Blackwell, Galileo, Bellarmine, and the
Bible.
2. Daniel Dennett, “Atheism and Evolution,” from Cambridge Companion to Atheism.
3. Peter Van Inwagen, “Can Science Disprove the Existence of God?”
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4. Alvin Plantinga, “How Naturalism Implies Skepticism,” from Analytic Philosophy
Without Naturalism, edited by Corridini, Galvan, and Lowe.
5. Timothy O’Connor, “A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand: Plantinga on the
Self-Defeat of Evolutionary Naturalism,” from Naturalism Defeated?, edited by James Beilby.
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