Philosophy of Religion sample syllabus
Required Texts:
Philosophy of Religion: an Historical Introduction, Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski (PRHI)
Philosophy of Religion: The Big Questions, ed. Eleonore Stump, Michael Murray (TBQ)
Course Reader – (CR)
Grading Breakdown:
There will be three papers for this course. The first will be 4-6 pages, the second 6-8, and
the third 10-12. On all three papers you will be required to write a rough draft and
exchange a copy of your paper with someone else in the class for comments. You will be
graded primarily on your own work, but the comments will be included in the overall
grade for the course.
Paper 1: 15%
Paper 2: 25%
Paper 3: 40%
Comments on peers’ papers: 10%
Attendance and Participation: 10%
Topics:
Week One:
Zagzebski, The Philosophical Approach to Religion (PRHI 1-24)
Zagzebski, Theistic Arguments (PRHI 25-30)
Week Two:
Zagzebski, Teleological Argument (PRHI 30-37)
David Hume, excerpt from Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (TBQ 94-99)
Richard Swinburne, “The Argument from Design” (TBQ 100-109)
Zagzebski, Cosmological Argument (PRHI 37-48)
William Rowe, “The Cosmological Argument” (TBQ 84-93)
Week Three:
St. Anselm of Canterbury, excerpt from Proslogion (TBQ 65-66)
Gaunilon, excerpt from Reply to Anselm (TBQ 66-69)
Zagzebski, Ontological Argument (PRHI 48-55)
Zagzebski, Pragmatism and Fideism (PRHI 56-76)
Week Four:
Blaise Pascal, excerpt from Pensées (TBQ 298-301)
Stephen Stich, “The Recombinant DNA Debate: a Difficulty for Pascalian-Style
Wagering” (TBQ 300-301)
George Schlesinger, “A Central Theistic Argument” (TBQ 302-312)
Zagzebski, Philosophical Theology (PRHI 77-99)
St. Thomas Aquinas, “How the Omnipotent God is Said to be Incapable of Certain
Things (TBQ 7-9)
Week Five:
William Rowe, “God’s Perfection and Freedom” (TBQ 28-35)
Daniel and Frances Howard-Snyder, “How an Unsurpassable Being Can Create a
Surpassable World” (TBQ 35-41)
William Hasker, excerpt from God, Time, and Knowledge (TBQ 53-57)
Zagzebski, Fate, Freedom, and Foreknowledge (PRHI 100-121)
Week Six:
Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann, “Eternity” (TBQ 42-53)
Eleonore Stump, “Petitionary Prayer” (TBQ 353-356)
Zagzebski, Religion and Morality (PRHI 122-142)
Week Seven:
Robert Adams, “Divine Command Metaethics Modified Again” (TBQ 412-416)
Norman Kretzmann, “Abraham, Isaac, and Euthyphro: God and the Basis of Morality”
(TBQ 417-427)
Zagzebski, Problem of Evil (PRHI 143-167)
Week Eight:
Al-Ghazali, excerpt from Theodicy in Islamic Thought (TBQ 190-191)
Saadya Gaon, excerpt from Book of Doctrines and Beliefs (TBQ 192-195)
Peter van Inwagen, “The Magnitude, Duration, and Distribution of Evil: A Theodicy”
(TBQ 195-210)
Richard Swinburne, “Natural Evil and the Possibility of Knowledge” (TBQ 210-222)
John Hick, “An Irenaean Theodicy” (TBQ 222-227)
Week Nine:
William Rowe, “The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism” (TBQ 157-164)
Eleonore Stump, “The Problem of Evil” (TBQ 227-240)
Michael Murray, “Coercion and the Hiddenness of God” (TBQ 241-250)
Marilyn McCord Adams, “Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God” (TBQ 250-257)
Week Ten:
Zagzebski, Death and the Afterlife (PRHI 168-189)
Richard Swinburne, “The Future of the Soul” (TBQ 367-375)
Patricia Churchland, excerpt from Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the
Mind-Brain (TBQ 375-379)
Dean Zimmerman, “Materialism and Survival” (TBQ 379-386)
Week Eleven:
Zagzebski, Religious Diversity (PRHI 190-211)
Jerome Gellman, “Religious Diversity and the Epistemic Justification of Religious
Belief” (TBQ 441-454)
Week Twelve:
Zagzebski, Faith, Reason, and the Ethics of Belief (PRHI 212-234)
David Hume, “Of Miracles” (TBQ 320-330)
Thomas More, excerpt from A Dialogue Concerning Heresies (TBQ 330-334)
Week Thirteen:
J.A. Cover, “Miracles and (Christian) Theism” (TBQ 334-352)
William Clifford, “The Ethics of Belief” (TBQ 265-268)
Peter van Inwagen, “It Is Wrong Everywhere, Always, and for Anyone, to Believe
Anything upon Insufficient Evidence” (TBQ 273-284)
Week Fourteen:
St. Teresa of Avila, excerpt from The Autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila (TBQ 139142)
William Alston, “Warranted Belief in God” (TBQ 285-297)
Nicholas Wolterstorff, “Are We Entitled?” (TBQ 387-398)