Institutional dimensions of the future of philosophy of religion

Abstract

If there is going to be a future for the philosophy of religion, it is going to have to emerge out of and speak into a set of contested disciplinary, institutional, and ideological spaces as their boundaries are in the process of being renegotiated. In the first instance, philosophy of religion has traditionally been located somewhere among the disciplines of philosophy, theology, and religion, but each of these fields is undergoing transformation to which philosophy of religion must respond. At the same time, accreditation standards are requiring humanities disciplines to shift their pedagogical practices even as the commodification of higher education culturally and institutionally calls into question the value of humanistic formation. This paper outlines the points of tension that put pressure on philosophy of religion and suggests ways in which the subdiscipline might understand and locate itself at the heart of liberal and general education in the future.

The Myth of Secular Philosophy: Philosophy of Religion’s Origin and Fate

“…3 See Frodeman (2013), Frodeman and Briggle (2016), Loncar (2016), and, though not about institutions per se, highly relevant to the metaphilosophical issues at stake here: Hösle (1988). See the excellent article by Whitney (2018), which provides a lucid institutional overview of the field. Whitney highlights the challenge and potential of philosophy of religion in the context of the current university, including the commodification of higher education.…”

Animisms: Practical Indigenous Philosophies

“…First, in the guise of natural theology, which uses reason to evaluate religious claims, such as versions of the ontological, cosmological, or design arguments. Second, as a form of philosophical theology that uses philosophical methods to evaluate theological doctrines (Whitney 2018). For example, if the afterlife that Christians and Muslims conceive of is eternal, wouldn't it become unbearably boring?…”