Table Of Content.1
CLASSICAL
AND
CONTEMPORARY
««««« READINGS
««««««««««
THE
IN
PHILOSOPHY
OF RELIGION
«<«««««««
« John Jlkk
Digitized by the Internet Archive
2010
in
http://www.archive.org/details/classicalcontempOOhick
CLASSICAL AND
CONTEMPORARY READINGS
THE
IN
PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
CLASSICAL
AND
CONTEMPORARY
««««« READINGS
THE ««««««««<«:<
IN
PHILOSOPHY
OF RELIGION
«««««
edited hy John TTicfe
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
PRENTICE-HALL, INC En^kwood CUjfs, N.J.
PRENTICE-HALL INTERNATIONAL, INC. Londott
PRENTICE-HALL OF AUSTRALIA, PTY., LTD. Sydney
PRENTICE-HALL OF CANADA, LTD. TorOtltO
PRENTICE-HALL OF INDIA (PRIVATE) LTD. New Delhi
PRENTICE-HALL OF JAPAN, INC. TokyO
PRENTICE-HALL DE MEXICO, S.A. MexicO City
Third printing June, 1965
© 1964 by PRENTICE-HALL, INC.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be repro-
duced in any form, by mimeograph or any other means,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number:
64-16056
Printed in the United States of America
C-13S2S
PREFACE
This book is designed primarily for use in courses in the philosophy of
religion. Because such courses are sometimes arranged historically and some-
times in terms of topics or problems, the material is presented here in two
different tables of contents adapted to these two uses. The readings them-
selves are printed in chronological sequence, mainly in order that discussions
by the same writer of different but related topics may conveniently be studied
—
together for example, Kant's critique of the three traditional theistic proofs.
Material written in other languages appears here in the best available
—
English translation for example, the versions of Augustine recently made by
J. H. S. Burleigh and Albert Outler; a brilUant new translation of the Anselm
material by A. C. McGill; Anton Pegis' Aquinas; the Kemp Smith version of
Kant's first Critique and Lewis Beck's version of the second; and so on.
Preparing a volume of readings like this is an enjoyable if sometimes an
arduous task, involving much re-reading and new reading in a wide field. It
has also involved many difficult decisions. At first the space available, in this
case a quarter of a million words, seemed ample for everything that could be
desired in a book of this kind. But presently the list of apparently basic and
inevitable selections had grown to the point at which there was little room
left for maneuver, and one was weighing and re-weighing one piece against
another, and experimenting with alternative plans for trying to achieve the
desired result.
But what result is to be desired? Even this is something that must be
chosen from among several possibilities. I have striven to achieve a balance
between the two pedagogic interests indicated by the two tables of contents.
One made me wish to include selections worthily representative of all of the
succession of great thinkers whosework constitutes the long history of the dis-
cipline. The other made me desire to present as adequately as possible the
main points of view on each of the chief problems encompassed within the
subject, as well as important contemporary developments in the discussion of
some of them. This has led to the inclusion of a certain proportion of material
by living writers. A third concern was to use passages which will be reasona-
bly readily comprehensible to the student, or best fitted to introduce him to
vi Preface
the various facets of a new topic. This has led me to use, for instance, Wil-
liam James on mysticism even though James was not himself a mystic; for
he discusses with sensitive appreciation carefully chosen examples of mystical
writing and tries to make their significance clear to the science-orientated
twentieth-century reader. A further subsidiary concern has been to use some-
what lengthy selections rather than a scattering of "snippets." (On the other
hand an exception seemed called for in the case of the extraordinarily preg-
nant three final pages of Wittgenstein's Tractatus.) Sometimes one of these
criteria has been in conflict with one or more of the others. Amid these
divergent considerations I have always sought to bear the teaching situation
firmly in mind and to treat its needs as paramount.
Many legitimate questions might be raised about the selection of this or
that passage or about the omission of some other passage or author. There is
a reason for each choice, though whether the reasons are sufficient can only
be decided over a period of time by fellow teachers of the subject and their
classes.
Why, for example, this particular group of passages from St. Augustine?
Because together they present the main aspects of his thought on the problem
— —
of evil a problem which concerned him throughout his life and at the
same time introduce most of the themes which have occupied the attention of
subsequent writers on this central and baffling subject, whether in agreement
with or in reaction against the Augustinian and Catholic tradition. Two later
selections (23 and 24) contain a modern statement of the main alternative
to the Augustinian theodicy.
Or why, to take a smaller point, is Part III omitted from Hume's discus-
sion of the design argument in his Dialogues? Because it is in effect "pad-
ding," introduced in response to the dramatic needs of the dialogue rather
than advancing the philosophical investigation. Or again, why the relatively
little-known piece by John Oman (Selection 21)? Because it points better
than anythingelse I know to a constructive alternative to the rationalist equa-
tion of religious knowledge with philosophical provability.
However, the selections must stand on their own feet and must approve
themselves to the judgment and experience of those who may use the book.
A word should perhaps be said here about the scope and limitations of
the work. It covers most of the topics which are usually discussed in books
and courses under the heading of "philosophy of religion." Among the influ-
ential contemporary schools of thought which have their place in it are philo-
sophical analysis (Selections 32-35), existentialism (Selections 15, 26, and
31), and humanism (Selection 28), as well as traditional Thomism (Selec-
tions 4-6) modern Protestantism (Selections 25, 27, 30 and 31), atheism
(Selection 14), and many of the positions in between. The book does not
cover comparative religion or the history of religions; the material is con-
