What’s the use of philosophy of religion?

Harrison, V.S. (2011) What’s the use of philosophy of religion? In: Harris, H.A. (ed.) God, Goodness and Philosophy. Series: British Society for the Philosophy of Religion series. Ashgate: Farnham, UK, pp. 29-43. ISBN 9781409428527

Abstract

Many believe that philosophy of religion is in a state of crisis. Not only is there widespread disagreement about its aims, scope and method, there are also many who argue that the discipline has become irrelevant to the non-academic community. This last concern has taken on particular importance given the research impact agenda under discussion in many parts of the globe. This paper addresses the challenges currently faced by the discipline, and argues that it does have an important contribution to make to our response to problems that currently impact the public intellectual environment. After explaining some recent criticisms of philosophy of religion, the paper provides a different account of what has gone wrong with the discipline. It then proposes that the solution involves both recontextualizing philosophy of religion within the wider discipline of philosophy and reconfiguring the discipline to be explicitly responsive to problems concerning religion that are generated outside the academy. I argue that what is required to implement this solution is a dramatic expansion of the traditional scope of philosophy of religion to include a wider range of religio-philosophical traditions than was the case in the past.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Harrison, Dr Victoria
• Authors: Harrison, V.S.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Philosophy
• Publisher: Ashgate
• ISBN: 9781409428527

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