Search Results for: R. Scott Smith

EPS Far West Regional 2014 Call for Papers

Posted on January 6, 2014 by - Uncategorized

Once again, we should have up to 6 EPS parallel sessions available to us at the
ETS Far West Regional Conference, to be held at Pasadena Christian College, in Pasadena,
CA, on Friday, April 11, 2014, from 1–8 pm.

I would like to encourage having a good range of faculty and student presentations.

  1. Paper proposals may be on any philosophical topic of interest to Christian
    philosophers, theologians, or biblical studies scholars. If you have a paper
    on a theme closely related to the ETS conference theme, that would be appreciated.
  2. Please submit a short abstract (no more than 200 words)
    of your paper to myself, scott.smith@biola.edu,
    BY JAN 31, 2014.
  3. Be sure your proposal is in a format compatible with Microsoft Word for
    Windows. Better still, just write it in the body of the e-mail.
  4. Sessions are limited to 40 minutes, so please plan on taking no longer than
    25-30 minutes to read your paper (i.e., about 12-15 pages, double-spaced). We
    want to have time for questions and answers.

I will contact you later with information about the papers that are accepted,
as well as schedule and registration info.

The ETS theme is: “The Trinity and the Bible: Evangelical Perspectives.” Dr Fred
Sanders of Biola University will be the ETS plenary speaker. There will be an optional
banquet after the parallel sessions are over.

Note: If your proposal is accepted, you still will need to register for the conference
through ETS. More info on that later.

Can We Know Anything if Naturalism is True?

Posted on December 14, 2012 by -

This brief essay considers the ontological implication of Scott Smith’s central thesis in Naturalism and our Knowledge of Reality, by focusing on one mental phenomenon, the phenomenon of intentionality, in order to see whether an argument to God from intentionality can be generated.

In his book, Smith offers a bold and sustained attack of naturalism and its ability to deliver us knowledge. His master argument is a kind of transcendental argument: If philosophical naturalism is true, then we do not have knowledge of reality. We do have knowledge of reality, therefore it is not the case that philosophical naturalism is true.

This essay concludes with a particular challenge: We need more work that advances the following kind of argument: if, as the theist claims, God exists and is the source of all reality distinct from Himself, then any existent phenomena that is not God, ought (in principle, at least) be able to figure into a premise of a philosophical argument with a theological conclusion.

To read the full-text of this article, please click here.

Call for Papers: 2013 Far West Region of the EPS

Posted on December 8, 2012 by - Uncategorized

We seek to fill six EPS parallel sessions available to us at the upcoming ETS Far West Regional meeting, to be held at Vanguard University, Friday, April 19, 2012, from 1:00 – 8:00 p.m.

We would like to encourage a good range of faculty and student presentations:

1. Paper proposals may be on any philosophical topic of interest to Christian philosophers, theologians, or biblical studies scholars.

2. Please submit a short abstract (no more than 200 words) to scott.smith@biola.edu, BY JAN 31, 2013. 

3. Be sure your proposal is in a format compatible with Microsoft Word for Windows.

4. Sessions are limited to 40 or 45 minutes, so please plan on taking no longer than 25-30 minutes to read your paper, so as to allow for time for questions and answers.

The ETS theme is: “”The Spirit and the People of God: Evangelical Perspectives.” Dr. Michael Horton will be the ETS plenary speaker. There will be an optional banquet after the parallel sessions are over.

Note: If your proposal is accepted, you still will need to register for the conference through ETS.

Summer 2012: EPS President’s Update

Posted on August 3, 2012 by -

Hello, fellow EPS members.

 

Last week I made my hotel reservations for our annual EPS meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Yes, I’m looking forward to being back at my old stomping grounds during my Ph.D. studies in philosophy—Marquette University. But much more than this, I am eager to gather with you all at what is the highlight of my academic year—the EPS annual meeting and EPS apologetics conference. Truly, we have much to look forward to!

 

EPS annual meeting (November 14-16—Wednesday through Friday): Hearty thanks to the philosophy department at Bethel College in Mishawaka, Indiana, for putting together a marvelous program this year. We’ll have familiar presenters—Bill Craig, J.P. Moreland, Gary Habermas, Angus Menuge, Greg Ganssle, Scott Smith—and newer ones like Jonathan Loose, Paul Gould, and Matt Flannagan. We’re pleased to have as our plenary speaker the noted philosopher of religion Charles Taliaferro, professor of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.  And please join us on Wednesday evening of our gathering for our EPS reception;  J.P. Moreland will offer a word of challenge and encouragement.

 

EPS apologetics conference (November 15-17—Thursday and Friday evenings and Saturday morning): This will take place at Spring Creek Church in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. In addition to our excellent seminar speakers, the plenary lineup is stellar indeed: Lee Strobel, Mark Mittelberg, William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, and Greg Koukl.

 

EPS session at AAR/SBL (November 18, Sunday—7:00 PM): This event will take place in Chicago at the Hilton Chicago (Continental Ballroom A). The panel will discuss the book, The Persistence of the Sacred in Modern Thought (University of Notre Dame Press, 2012). In this book, Chris L. Firestone, Nathan A. Jacobs, and thirteen other contributors examine the role of God in the thought of major European philosophers from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. This symposium addresses two questions that emerge out of this collection: What elements of the sacred persist in certain key figures of Modernity? And how might contemporary thinkers capitalize on these elements? The panelists include Chris L. Firestone (Trinity International University), Nathan Jacobs (John Brown University, Philip Clayton (Claremont School of Theology), and others. Stay tuned at the EPS website for a forthcoming author interview with Firestone and Jacobs.

 

Many other good things are happening within the EPS. This past week the EPS co-sponsored a conference in Pasadena, CA, entitled “Brave New World,” which deals with genetic engineering and human dignity. I was privileged to be the plenary speaker for our EPS Southeastern regional meeting this past spring—one of several regional EPS gatherings. Various EPS members continue to participate in apologetics conferences around the country, including a recent “On Guard” conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was attended by 1,000 people, including atheists and agnostics, two of whom made commitments to Christ. 

 

We rejoice that the EPS is not only a philosophical society, but a missional organization that seeks to equip the church and make an impact not only in North America, but across the globe. In addition to what we are presently doing, we hope to launch new initiatives in international outreach. So please consider supporting the work of the EPS through your financial gifts and your prayers.

 

One final note: this November will mark the end of my six-year term as EPS President. It has been a privilege to serve and work together with you as fellow philosophers and as laborers together in God’s kingdom.

 

God’s blessings to you all!

 
Paul Copan
EPS President

Join a New Philosophical Network in Europe

Posted on February 4, 2012 by - european leadership forum, networking

EPS friends, here’s a special note from EPS President Paul Copan: 

Dear fellow Christian philosophers and apologists, 
Do you know any European evangelical philosophers? We need your immediate help in connecting them to the Philosophers Network in Europe—and to submit papers (by 1 March 2012) or, at the very least, just to attend the conference near Budapest, Hungary (19-24 May 2012). A number of philosophers from the Evangelical Philosophical Society are lending support to this endeavor: William Craig, Scott Smith, Douglas Groothuis, and Bruce Little. (I myself am looking forward to speaking at this forum the following May). 
Keep in mind these important points:
  • This Network is European in its vision and content. It is being spearheaded by the European Leadership Forum, and it is not an American outpost.
  • This year–indeed, this month–is crucial for forming this continent-wide Network. If nothing materializes this year, then this effort will be not be revisited for a good while. So we need your prompt assistance in getting the word out to your European evangelical friends/contacts who have a philosophy degree (masters or doctorate).
  • In addition to the philosophy, this effort there will be an apologetics Network that is developed as well. What is crucial as that we have as many European evangelical philosophers and apologists as possible attending May 2012 meeting.
I’ve included the relevant information below, but this information is available as an attachment to pass on to your European philosopher and apologetics friends.  The other file gives specific information about the May conference in Eger, Hungary.  All paper submissions and any questions should be directed to Kevin Saylor at ksaylor@euroleadership.org>.

Thank you for your help in this important kingdom endeavor.

All best wishes,

Paul Copan
EPS President

New European Philosophical Network

Posted on February 3, 2012 by - Uncategorized

Dear fellow Christian philosophers and apologists, 
Do you know any European evangelical philosophers? We need your immediate help in connecting them to the Philosophers Network in Europe—and to submit papers (by 1 March 2012) or, at the very least, just to attend the conference near Budapest, Hungary (19-24 May 2012). A number of philosophers from the Evangelical Philosophical Society are lending support to this endeavor: William Craig, Scott Smith, Douglas Groothuis, and Bruce Little. (I myself am looking forward to speaking at this forum the following May). View the program here.
Keep in mind these important points:
  • This Network is European in its vision and content. It is being spearheaded by the European Leadership Forum, and it is not an American outpost.
  • This year–indeed, this month–is crucial for forming this continent-wide Network. If nothing materializes this year, then this effort will be not be revisited for a good while. So we need your prompt assistance in getting the word out to your European evangelical friends/contacts who have a philosophy degree (masters or doctorate).
  • In addition to the philosophy, this effort there will be an apologetics Network that is developed as well. What is crucial as that we have as many European evangelical philosophers and apologists as possible attending May 2012 meeting.
I’ve included the relevant information below, but this information is available as an attachment to pass on to your European philosopher and apologetics friends.  The other file gives specific information about the May conference in Eger, Hungary.  All paper submissions and any questions should be directed to Kevin Saylor at ksaylor@euroleadership.org>.

Thank you for your help in this important kingdom endeavor.

All best wishes,

Paul Copan
EPS President

The “Return to Religion” in Philosophy

Posted on August 4, 2010 by - analytic philosophy, analytic theology, analytic theology (book), continental philosophy, evangelicalism, introducing philosophy of religion (book), patheos

Scott McLemee, a columnist with Inside Higher Ed, recently interviewed editors Anthony Paul Smith and Daniel Whistler about their 2010 book, After the Postsecular and the Postmodern: New Essays in Continental Philosophy of Religion (Cambridge Scholars Publishing).

Let’s start with one word in your title — “postsecular.” What do you mean by this? People used to spend an awful lot of energy trying to determine just when modernity ended and postmodernity began. Does “postsecularity” imply any periodization?

Smith: In the book we talk about the postsecular event, an obvious nod to the philosophy of Alain Badiou. For a long time in Europe and through its colonial activities our frame of discourse, the way we understood the relationship of politics and religion, was determined by the notion that there is a split between public politics and private religion. This frame of reference broke down. We can locate that break, for the sake of simplicity, in the anti-colonial struggles of the latter half of the 20th century. The most famous example is, of course, the initial thrust of the Iranian Revolution.

It took some time before the implications of this were thought through, and it is difficult to pin down when “postsecularity” came to prominence in the academy, but in the 1990s a number of Christian theologians like John Milbank and Stanley Hauerwas, along with non-Christian thinkers like Talal Asad, began to question the typical assumption of philosophy of religion: that religious traditions and religious discourses need to be mediated through a neutral secular discourse in order to make sense. Their critique was simple: the secular is not neutral. Philosophy is intrinsically biased towards the secular. If you follow people like Asad and Tomoko Masuzawa, this means it is biased toward a Christian conception of the secular, and this hinders it from appreciating the thought structures at work in particular religions.

One of the reasons the title of the book reads, “after the postsecular” is that we felt philosophy of religion had yet to take the postsecular event seriously enough; it was ignoring the intellectual importance of this political event and still clinging to old paradigms for philosophizing about religion, when they had in fact been put into question by the above critique. So, the question is: What does philosophy of religion do now, after the postsecular critique?

Whistler: There are two other reasons we speak of this volume being situated after the postsecular. First, in our “Introduction” we distinguish between a genuine postsecular critique of the kind Anthony mentions and a problematic theological appropriation of this critique. The former results in a pluralization of discourses about religion, because the secular is no longer the overarching master-narrative, but one more particular tradition. The latter, however, has tried to replace the secular master-narrative with a Christian one, and so has perversely impeded this process of pluralization.

Yet it is precisely this theological move (exemplified by Radical Orthodoxy) which is more often than not associated with the postsecular. Thus, one of the aims of the volume is to move beyond (hence, “after”) this theological appropriation of the postsecular.

Second, we also conjecture in the Introduction that postsecularity has ended up throwing the baby out with the bathwater – that is, everything from the secular tradition, even what is still valuable. So, in Part One of the volume, especially, the contributors return to the modern, secular tradition to test what is of value in it and what can be reappropriated for contemporary philosophy of religion. In this sense, “after the postsecular” means a mediated return to the secular.

The full interview can be found here.

Meanwhile, while Whistler and Smith describe the “return to religion” in continental philosophy, William Lane Craig and Paul Copan write about the renaissance in philosophy of religion (focused on the development in analytic philosophy).

Patheos, which is quickly becoming the #1 clearinghouse for online religion content, is featuring a “Future of Evangelicalism” series at their Evangelical Portal. Copan and Craig, along with several other intellectual influencers, are contributing to the series.

In “Trajectories in Philosophy and Apologetics,” Copan and Craig describe a rather unique phenomena concerning the influential effect of Christian intellectual work:

The effects of this remarkable renaissance of Christian philosophy are now making themselves felt on the non-academic level, as popularizers and apologists distill the academic work of professional Christian philosophers and make it accessible to a laity hungering for answers to the tide of secularism they feel rising around them. Academic apologetics work has served as an important bridge between high-level philosophical discussions and the translational work of local apologetics organizations and training centers …

If this transfer of goods from the ivory tower to the pew continues (and it shows every sign of gathering momentum rather than abating), then the next major revival of evangelical Christianity, as strange as it may sound, may well come through the intellectual re-engagement of the church, as her people discover sound arguments for Christian faith and answers to the objections lodged against it — and so, strengthened by the conviction that Christianity is not just “true for them” but objectively true for all, become emboldened, winsome, and intelligent witnesses for Christ in a decaying culture.

The growth of analytic philosophy of religion has also helped produced the flourishing of analytic philosophical theology, which Rea and Crisp’s Analytic Theology, is one among many stellar examples in this area.

It would seem that viewing religion, and specifically one’s theology, as a source of knowledge about reality, is crucial and perhaps increasingly “permissible” for religious believers working in philosophy, whether on the analytic or continental side of things, regardless if we are talking “secular,” “postsecular,” or “after postsecular” environments. For if what we have is not knowledge of what is real, – indeed, if our beliefs are not rooted in knowledge – what future do we really have as people or as a movement?

President’s 2008 Year-end Recap

Posted on December 17, 2008 by - Uncategorized

Dear EPS friends,

It was a joy to see many of you at our
EPS annual meeting in
Providence last month.  Each year I eagerly anticipate making
that pre-Thanksgiving pilgrimage to EPS for the stimulating papers
and conversation, the Christian fellowship, and the opportunity to
serve together with many of you at our annual
apologetics
conference.

We have many reasons for rejoicing in what God is doing within
the EPS.  Let me mention a few of them.

  • At this time last year,
    Philosophia Christi     subscriptions
    were down considerably due to an outdated, inefficient website.
     As many of you know, back in 2005 I had begun discussions to
    spearhead a plan to completely upgrade our website. Chad
    Meister, Scott Smith, Joe Gorra, Craig Hazen, and others worked
    long and hard on this project alongside our new webmaster Lenny
    Esposito.  Finally, in October 2007, our sharp-looking,
    efficiently-working, cutting-edge website was launched.  In one
    year, we have received over 500 new subscriptions (now over
    1,570) – with fifty more were added at our recent apologetics
    conference.  What a marvelous difference this year has
    made!
  • Earnestly Contending, our sixth annual
    apologetics
    conference    , took place in Smithfield, RI in conjunction with the
    EPS’s annual meeting. This conference drew nearly 800
    attendees�an excellent showing for New England. During that
    weekend, forty pastors were expected to attend a luncheon to
    receive encouragement and practical training in promoting the
    role of apologetics in local churches.  Well, over 110 showed
    up! In fact, the pastors’ response was so positive that we’re
    planning on hosting these luncheons every year.  And how
    encouraging that over 100 attended the various youth sessions. 
    Bill Craig, who takes the lead in organizing the conference each
    year called Earnestly Contending "among the top three
    conferences we’ve held so far!"  The host church pastor,
    Rev. Steve Boyce, said that all the initial reports he’s
    received "have been just rave reviews!"  Thanks to Bill and to
    Pastor Steve and his volunteers at the Worship Center for
    helping to bring all of this together.
  • After the
    apologetics conference, Bill Craig, Gary Habermas,
    Jim Sinclair, and I were able to sit down for over two hours
    with a couple of atheists who had crashed the party.  It
    was an excellent time of discussion and building relationships
    with them. One of them wrote a note to me afterwards, mentioning
    that the conference was "excellent" and that, despite our
    philosophical differences, "there is just something irresistible
    and winsome about Christian friendship."
  • Chad Meister has helped coordinate another international outreach
    effort scheduled for next fall at Hokkaido University in Japan. 
    For health reasons, though, Chad is stepping down as EPS vice
    president and as international outreach coordinator, but I want to
    thank him heartily for his energy, resourcefulness, wisdom, and
    graciousness. Please pray for him as well as this upcoming venture.

While we’re on the topic, I’d like to say thanks to Stewart
Kelly, Bob Stewart, Rich Davis, and Bob Larmer for their service on
the EPS executive committee, and we welcome four new members to our
EC: Jeremy Evans, Craig Mitchell, Bill Dembski, and Bruce Little.

Again, as I recently wrote, I would ask you to support the EPS
with your prayers and financial gifts.  Indeed, God is at work
in and through the EPS!  May we remain faithful co-laborers
with him in a remarkable movement that he has wrought!
Advent blessings to you all!

Paul Copan,
EPS President

2008 EPS Papers (Wednesday)

Posted on November 20, 2008 by - 2008 EPS conference

Here is a summary outline of who presented on Wednesday morning and afternoon of the annual EPS conference. The links are to posts that feature abstracts about the papers. Please feel free to comment.

Adam Barkman (Yonsei University, South Korea)
C. S. Lewis’s Pseudo-Manichean Dualist Phase

C. Donald Smedley (Rivendell Institute)
Hare on Divine Command Theory and Natural Law

Mark Liederbach (Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary)
Natural Law, Common Ground, and the Problem of Postmodern Epistemology

Robert Larmer (University of New Brunswick)
C. S. Lewis’s Critique of Hume’s Of Miracles

Gregory Ganssle (Yale University)
God of the Gaps Arguments

Paul Copan (Palm Beach Atlantic University)
With Gentleness and Respect — and a Few Other Things: Suggestions and Strategies for
Christian Apologists

Steve Cowan (Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary)
The Metaphysics of Subordination: A Response to Rebecca Merrill Groothuis

Justin Barnard (Union University)
Compatibalism, Wantons, and the Natural Consequences Model of Hell

Walter Schultz (Northwestern College)
Dispositions, Capacities, and Powers: A New Analysis

Shawn Graves (Cedarville University)
Is Genuine Religious Inquiry Incompatible with Christian Commitment?

Michael S. Jones (Liberty University)
Is Cognitive Humility a Sound Foundation for Religious Tolerance?

Stephen G. Shaw (California State University, Long Beach)
Religion as Narrative, Faith as Recontextualization: Lyotard and Rorty Meet Kierkegaard

Garrett Pendergraft (University of California, Riverside)
Divine Deliberation (or Lack Thereof)

Jeremy Carey (University of California, Berkeley)
Agent Causation, Reasons, and Empirical Data

Mark Coppenger (The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)
The Aesthetic Argument and Darwinism

Michael W. Austin (Eastern Kentucky University)
The Nature and Practice of Compassion

J.B. Stump (Bethel College, Indiana)
Natural Theology Stripped of Modernism

EPS Reception with Scott Smith