Posted on November 30, 2012 by Administrator -
Stewart Kelly’s latest book, Truth Considered and Applied: Examining Postmodernism, History and Christian Faith, is a timely and discerning account of what Christians can come to understand about the opportunities and weaknesses of modernism and postmodernism.
With a careful, analytic philosophy eye and an appreciation for the historical context of ideas, Kelly’s treatment will be fruitful for professors and students alike. This interview discusses some of the salient features of his book’s contribution, including how it reflects his way of instructing in the classroom.
Stewart E. Kelly is professor of Philosophy at Minot State University in Minot, North Dakota. He holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Vanderbilt University, and University of Notre Dame (Ph.D.), and a former member of the executive committee of the Evangelical Philosophical Society, and author of Thinking Well: An Introduction to Critical Thinking (McGraw-Hill).
To read the full-text of the interview, please click here.
Posted on November 30, 2012 by Administrator -
Paul Moser’s “Christ-Shaped Philosophy” is a game changer for the Christian philosophical community. It penetrates to the heart of what Christian philosophy really is; it charts a way forward.
After endorsing the broad outline of Prof. Moser’s project, this paper explores the idea that “Gethsemane union with Christ” requires being “knit together” with other members of Christ’s body—of which he is Head. If so, I argue, Christian philosophy isn’t reducible to the propositional content of its teachings. It is also an activity engaged in for the sake of other members of the body. It is not about reputation, peer recognition, or self.
The FREE full-text of this paper is available to download by clicking here.
Posted on November 26, 2012 by Administrator -
From the 2012 EPS annual meeting, in a panel discussion devoted to R. Scott Smith’s book, Naturalism and our Knowledge of Reality, Angus Menuge argues that naturalism presents itself as a world view founded on scientific knowledge, which seeks to reduce or eliminate various recalcitrant phenomena such as consciousness and moral values.
Most critiques of naturalism focus on its inability to do justice to these phenomena. By contrast, in Naturalism and Our Knowledge of Reality (Ashgate, 2012), R. Scott Smith argues that naturalism fails to account for our ability to know reality, thereby undercutting its alleged scientific foundation.
Michael Rea and Robert Koons have argued that, on naturalism, there are no well-defined objects of knowledge. Smith complements this critique by showing that, even if such objects exist, subjects will be unable to know them as they are.
Smith’s threefold argument can be understood as the intellectual revenge of Berkeley, Kant and Husserl on naturalism. At the end of the paper, Menuge suggests a couple of ways proponents of naturalized epistemology would likely respond.
To read the full-text of this article, please click here (updated with correction on 12/7).
In 2012, Routledge published Cyborg Selves: A Theological Anthropology of the Posthuman in the Routledge Science and Religion Series by Jeanine Thweatt-Bates. Thweatt-Bates holds a Ph.D. in Theology and Science from Princeton Theological Seminary, and is currently Assistant Professor of Theology at New Brunswick Theological Seminary and an instructor with the Science for Ministry Institute at Princeton Theological Seminary.
From the publisher’s description of Cyborg Selves:
What is the ‘posthuman’? Is becoming posthuman inevitable-something which will happen to us, or something we will do to ourselves? Why do some long for it, while others fearfully reject it? These questions underscore the fact that the posthuman is a name for the unknown future, and therefore, not a single idea but a jumble of competing visions – some of which may be exciting, some of which may be frightening, and which is which depends on who you are, and what you desire to be. This book aims to clarify current theological and philosophical dialogue on the posthuman by arguing that theologians must pay attention to which form of the posthuman they are engaging, and to demonstrate that a ‘posthuman theology’ is not only possible, but desirable, when the vision of the posthuman is one which coincides with a theological vision of the human.
The 2012 theme of the Evangelical Philosophical and Theological Society meetings is focused on”Care for Creation.”
Come gather for the EPS plenary address on Wednesday, the 14th @ 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM (Frontier Airlines Center, Ballrooms ABC).
Noted philosopher Charles Taliaferro’s (St. Olaf) will discuss the following topic: “Christian Agrarianism Today; Some lessons from early land stewardship and community-based agriculture in New England”:
In recent decades, there has been a revival of Christian agrarianism with such important spokespersons as Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson. Christian philosophers have much to learn from Berry and others as well as from the agrarian movement in the southern United States. And yet some of the southern agrarians were weak on sustainability, excessive in their opposition to corporations, and less vital than their New England counter-parts in their Christian understanding of virtue and neighborliness. In this address, I propose that there is a neglected, but rich vision of Christian agrarianism in early, colonial New England that can provide us with important resources for thinking about agriculture today. My hope is there might be a movement today of “new theism” (as a counter-part to “new atheism”) which combines an analytic, philosophically rigorous articulation of theism in concert with a heightened sense of our shared, God-given responsibility for land and neighbors.
Posted on November 8, 2012 by Administrator -
This paper responds to William Hasker’s objection to my paper, “Christ-Shaped Philosophy,” that “paradoxically, its view of philosophy is at the same time too high and too low….” It contends that the objection is misplaced, partly because the profession of philosophy does not determine what genuine philosophy is
The full-text of this contribution is available for FREE by clicking here.
Posted on November 8, 2012 by Administrator -
This paper offers two main reflections.
First, I intend to highlight that (and why) the philosopher, when focuses on reality, may treat his object from a merely intellectual point of view, hoping to find pro et contra reasons; but when he focuses on God as well as on every other thing in relation to God, he needs to develop his arguments within a loving relationship with the Lord.
Secondly, it is my intention to treat one more question raised by Graham Oppy’s objections to Moser: the idea that philosophy must start only from what everybody knows. I intend to show that, in the light of such an idea, Christian philosophy seems to be paradoxically less inconsistent than philosophy alone.
The full-text of this contribution is available for FREE by clicking here.
Posted on November 8, 2012 by Administrator -
In this paper, William Hasker argues that while Moser does well in preaching the Gospel through his article, much of what he says about Christ-centered philosophy should be resisted.
On the one hand, he seems to give philosophy too high a place, by implying that Jesus and Paul would be demeaned if they were not recognized as being philosophers. On the other hand, he has a distressingly low opinion of the sorts of things philosophers actually do.
Furthermore, his own practice as a philosopher does not correspond well with what is called for by his account of Christ-shaped philosophy.
The full-text of this contribution is available for FREE by clicking here.
Posted on November 6, 2012 by Administrator - Uncategorized
Call for Papers
2013 Northeast EPS Regional Annual Meeting
(in conjunction with the Evangelical Theological Society)
Date: April 6, 2013
Topic: The Historicity of Adam
Deadline: Thursday, January 31, 2013.
The Northeast region of the Evangelical Philosophical Society (EPS) will hold its annual meeting at Alliance Theological Seminary, Nyack, NY on Saturday, April 6, 2013. The keynote speakers this year will be Dr. C. John Collins of Covenant Theological Seminary and Dr. Peter Enns of Eastern University.
We are requesting that paper proposals and abstracts on Science and Religion, Genesis, Adam, or other topics of philosophical interest be sent as an e-mail attachment to the co-chairs of the northeast region of the EPS, Patrick T. Smith at ptsmith@gcts.edu and Greg Ganssle at gregory.ganssle@yale.edu. Please specify in the e-mail header that it is an EPS paper proposal so it is opened. Each presentation should be thirty minutes with an additional ten minutes for questions and discussion. Send any inquiries about the meeting in general to the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) Steering Committee at ets.northeast@yahoo.com.
Instructors and graduate students: Perhaps there is a topic that you would like to research and turn into a research paper. The regional EPS meeting is a great place to read a paper and get feedback. We look forward to receiving your paper proposals.
Co-chairs: Patrick T. Smith, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA; Greg Ganssle, Yale University Rivendell Institute, New Haven, CT.
