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(2014) Philosophy of religion, Dordrecht, Springer.
The philosophy of religion, simply defined, is the philosophical study of religious ideas. As it is widely practiced today, the field is broad and diverse and tackles such questions and issues as these: whether there exists a transcendent reality beyond the physical world and, if so, what that reality is like; whether there is a personal God and, if so, what experiencing God might entail; how a transcendent reality could influence the physical world, or whether such a question is even coherent; whether the existence of the vast amount of evil in the world is compatible with belief in an omnibenevolent and wise deity; whether religion is reasonable or rooted in fantasy and delusion; how the various religions of the world relate to one another, if at all; whether interreligious dialogue is truly possible and, if so, what dimensions of discourse this might take; what bearing the study of religion has on belief in an afterlife, and whether such belief is tenable. These are some of the primary sorts of issues that are addressed in the field of philosophy of religion, particularly as it is practiced in Anglo-American analytic philosophy (that is, academic philosophy as it has been practiced in various regions, primarily in Great Britain and the United States, over the last century or so; more will be said about this later in the book).
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Full citation:
Meister, C. (2014). Introduction, in Philosophy of religion, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 1-2.
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