PHGA 6805  Topics in Philosophy of Religion
Professor Brian Davies
Wednesdays, 7:00 – 9:00 pm
 
This course is devoted to some of the key questions concerning philosophy of religion as discussed by a selection of philosophers from Plato to the present.  I take these to include: What is the relationship between philosophy and religious belief?  Does God exist?  Can we make sense of "God Talk"?  What is God?  Does evil show that there is no God?  What is the relationship between ethics and religious belief?  Is there life after death?  While turning to religious issues, philosophers have considered many other questions.  But time is limited in one semester and these ones should keep us sufficiently busy.
 
The text for this course is: Brian Davies, 'Philosophy of Religion: A Guide and Anthology' (Oxford University Press, 2000).  For classes, I shall lecture for some of the time.  But students will also be required to read and deliver critical introductions to texts in the book just mentioned  — so as to help us when it comes to discussing the topics to which we shall be turning.
 
Grades for the course shall be determined by an end of term paper (of not more than 6,000 words) on one of a set of titles to be announced some time after mid-term.