Recommend a survey text on the (History of the) Philosophy of Religion

July 21, 2016 11:21 PM

I'm looking for a basic survey or overview text on the History of the Philosophy of Religion. Not an exhaustive text but one that would provide explicitly a kind of syllabus for background on key works in this thread of philosophy.

I am thinking of something that would trace a theory of religion from say Plato's Timeaus(?), through to Hume's Dialogues on Natural Religion, Kant's Religion Within the Bounds of Reason, etc and beyond. Weber, Durkheim, James....

Something like a "Guide to the Original Sources" of Philosophy of Religion. Or actually a good Philosophy of Religion Anthology might work if it includes detailed commentary: notes, introductions and background.

posted by mary8nne to Religion & Philosophy (6 answers total)

The Oxford Very Short Introduction series is a great jumping-off point for research into a whole variety of topics. Whilst they don't have a VSI for "Philosophy of Religion" specifically, they do have VSIs for philosophy in general, schools of thought, and particular philosophers. Every VSI begins with an overview of the topic and then discusses aspects of the topic in more depth. The books are usually around 100 pages long, with "Recommended Reading" sections and extensive bibliographies at the back.

You can see what's available in their Philosophy section here.

My university had a lot of these so you may be able to get them via interlibrary loan.

Another great resource - but one that's significantly weightier - is Copleston's History of Philosophy, a multi-volume opus that covers the entirety of Western philosophy from Thales to the mid-20th century. That's a good one to dip into for information on specific philosophers and how their ideas grew from/led to others'.

Finally, you can't go wrong with the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, although you'll have to do a bit of "Choose your own adventure"-style skipping around to get the chronological overview you're looking for. Every entry cross-references other relevant entries to make that task a bit easier!
posted by jlpm1957 at 2:10 AM on July 22, 2016

Response by poster: Thanks for the attempt, I have occasionally been able to get academically minded answers on MF so thought I'd ask. I'm aware of the above, and I already have a background in Continental Philosophy so... thanks for trying.

Was perusing a Uni Library today and found a couple of interesting texts actually.

- Philosophy of Religion: Historic Approaches
MJ Charlesworth
Macmillan 1972
Looks pretty perfect - covers a lot from Plato, Hume etc - without too much detail. ~200 pages so probably a good shallowish starting point

- Eight Theories of Religion
Daniel L. Pals - Oxford
Looks interesting a more Sociological and psychological summary of Freud, Weber, Durkheim, Marx etc on Religion.

- Readings in the Philosophy of Religion
By Baruch A. Brody
Prentice-hall 1992
looks like a reasonable anthology that will be useful

also found this following suggestion online elsewhere:

The History of Western Philosophy of Religion, 5 volumes
- Graham & Nick Trakakis (eds.) Oppy
Oxford University Press 2009

which I will hopefully find at a local uni library.
posted by mary8nne at 12:56 PM on July 22, 2016

Best answer: Sorry, I wasn't able to respond earlier, and it looks as if you've perhaps already answered your own question. Here, anyway, are a few more suggestions that I hope are helpful.

An older anthology organised on historical lines is Ninian Smart, ed., Historical Selections in the Philosophy of Religion, The Library of Philosophy and Theology (London: SCM Press, 1962).

A Companion to Philosophy of Religion, ed. Philip L. Quinn and Charles Taliaferro, Blackwell Companions to Philosophy (Wiley-Blackwell, 1999) has a section on historical perspectives (table of contents accessible at http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0631213287.html).

More recently, there's Linda Zagzebski's The Philosophy of Religion: An Historical Introduction (Wiley, 2007), details at http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405118725.html
posted by davemack at 3:33 PM on July 22, 2016

John Hick might be a good place to start.
posted by 4ster at 4:20 PM on July 22, 2016

This is not exactly answering your question, but I could recommend taking a glance at A History of God by Karen Armstrong for an overview of how various Western Philosophers addressed theological issues in the Western world. This book would be well worth reading for undergrads, or anyone curious about this subject.
posted by ovvl at 5:19 PM on July 22, 2016

Response by poster: Thanks, I am literally interested in answering questions like How does Plato's conception of Religion or God or the Divine differ from St Augustine's? or How does the concept of religion for Kant respond to Hume's formulation? Rather than accounts of the general theological problems of Ontological Arguments, Theodicy etc. which I am broadly familiar with.

I want to just develop a deeper background knowledge of the entire field (historically) in order to know where I might want to focus more detailed research (or if I need to bother at all). - ie who is it worth looking at in detail for my particular interest. (Which happens to be more about the role of the Institution of the Church in Politics/Law.)
posted by mary8nne at 12:21 AM on July 23, 2016