Philosophy of Religion in the 21st Century Edited by D. Z. Phillips and Timothy Tessin Philosophy of Religion in the 21st Century Claremont Studies in the Philosophy of Religion General Editors: D. Z. Phillips, Rush Rhees Research Professor, University of Wales, Swansea and Danforth Professor of the Philosophy of Religion, the Claremont Graduate School, California; Timothy Tessin At a time when discussions of religion are becoming increasingly specialized and determined by religious affiliations, it is important to maintain a forum for philosophical discussion which transcends the allegiances of belief and unbelief. This series affords an opportunity for philosophers of widely differing persuasions to explore central issues in the philosophy of religion. Titles include: Stephen T. Davis (editor) PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGICAL DISCOURSE D. Z. Phillips (editor) CAN RELIGION BE EXPLAINED AWAY? D. Z. Phillips and Timothy Tessin (editors) KANT AND KIERKEGAARD ON RELIGION PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION IN THE 21ST CENTURY RELIGION WITHOUT TRANSCENDENCE? RELIGION AND HUME’S LEGACY Timothy Tessin and Mario von der Ruhr (editors) PHILOSOPHY AND THE GRAMMAR OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF Claremont Studies in the Philosophy of Religion Series Standing Order ISBN 0–333–71465–2 (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England Philosophy of Religion in the 21st Century Edited by D.Z. Phillips Danforth Professor of Philosophy of Religion, Claremont Graduate University and Rush Rhees Research Professor, University of Wales, Swansea and Timothy Tessin © The Claremont Graduate School 2001 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2001 by PALGRAVE Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of St. Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 0–333–80175–X hardback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Philosophy of religion in the 21st century / edited by D. Z. Phillips and Timothy Tessin. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–333–80175–X (cloth) 1. Religion—Philosophy. I. Phillips, D. Z. (Dewi Zephaniah) II. Tessin, Timothy. III. Series. BL51.P534 2001 210—dc21 2001034500 10987654321 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire Contents Acknowledgements vii Notes on the Contributors viii Introduction xi Part I Philosophical Theism 1 1 Philosophical Theism 3 Richard Swinburne 2 Philosophical Theology at the End of the Century 21 William J. Wainwright 3 Voices in Discussion 31 D.Z. Phillips Part II Reformed Epistemology 37 4 Reformed Epistemology 39 Nicholas Wolterstorff 5 On Behalf of the Evidentialist – a Response to Wolterstorff 64 Stephen J. Wykstra 6 Voices in Discussion 85 D.Z. Phillips Part III Wittgenstein and Wittgensteinianism 93 7 Wittgenstein and the Philosophy of Religion 95 Stephen Mulhall 8 Wittgenstein and the Philosophy of Religion: a Reply to Stephen Mulhall 119 Walford Gealy 9 Voices in Discussion 144 D.Z. Phillips v vi Contents Part IV Postmodernism 151 10 Messianic Postmodernism 153 John D. Caputo 11 The Other without History and Society – a Dialogue with Derrida 167 Anselm Kyongsuk Min 12 Voices in Discussion 186 D.Z. Phillips Part V Critical Theory 191 13 Critical Theory and Religion 193 Matthias Lutz-Bachmann 14 Critical Theory and Religion 211 Maeve Cooke 15 Voices in Discussion 244 D.Z. Phillips Part VI Process Thought 249 16 Process Thought 251 John B. Cobb, Jr 17 Process Thought – a Response to John B. Cobb, Jr 266 Schubert M. Ogden 18 Voices in Discussion 281 D.Z. Phillips 19 Voices in Discussion 288 D.Z. Phillips Index 291 Acknowledgements I am happy to acknowledge the financial support given to the Conference by Claremont Graduate University, Pomona College and Claremont McKenna College. I am grateful to the participants who contributed to the funding of future conferences by waiving their claim to royalties. Administratively, I am indebted to Helen Baldwin and Jackie Huntzinger, secretaries to the Department of Philosophy at the University of Wales, Swansea and to the Department of Religion at Claremont Graduate University, respectively. Graduate students helped during the conference in transporting the participants to various venues. They were organized by my able research assistant Richard Amesbury, who was also responsible for typing my introduction and the various ‘voices in discussion’. I am extremely grateful to him for his help in this and other contexts. Finally, I thank my co-editor Timothy Tessin for proof-reading the collection and for seeing it through its various stages of publication. D.Z.P. vii Notes on the Contributors John B. Cobb, Jr is Professor Emeritus of Theology at the Claremont School of Theology and of Religion at Claremont Graduate University. He continues as co-director of the Centre for Process Studies. Among his books are A Christian Natural Theology Based on the Thought of Alfred North Whitehead, Christ in a Pluralistic Age, The Structure of Christian Existence, Process Theology: an Introductory Exposition (with David Griffin), The Liberation of Life (with Charles Birch). Maeve Cooke is Senior Lecturer in the Department of German at University College, Dublin. She is the author of Language and Reason: a Study of Habermas’s Pragmatics and editor of a collection of Habermas’s writings on language and communication: On the Pragmatics of Communication. John D. Caputo is David R. Cook Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University. He is the author of The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida: Religion without Religion, Deconstruction in a Nutshell: a Conversation with Jacques Derrida, Radical Hermeneutics: Repetition, Deconstruction, and the Hermeneutic Project, Against Ethics: Contributions to a Poetics of Obligation with Constant Reference to Deconstruction, Demythologizing Heidegger. Walford Gealy was Senior Lecturer in the Department of Extra-Mural Studies at University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He is the author of Wittgenstein, written in Welsh, and co-editor of the journal Efrydiau Athronyddol (Philosophical Studies). He is the author of over fifty arti- cles, most of them being in Welsh, his native language. Matthias Lutz-Bachmann is Professor of Philosophy at Goethe- University in Frankfurt, Germany. His publications include Kritische Theorie und Religion, Metaphysikkritik-Ethik-Religion (editor), Frieden durch Recht (co-editor), and Perpetual Peace: Essays on Kant’s Cosmopolitan Ideal (co-editor). Anselm Kyongsuk Min is Professor of Religion and Theology at Claremont Graduate University. He is the author of Dialectic of Salvation: Issues in Theology of Liberation. He is currently working on a new theological paradigm, Solidarity of Others, as a theology after postmodernism. viii Notes on the Contributors ix Stephen Mulhall is a Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at New College, Oxford. His recent publications include Faith and Reason, Heidegger and ‘Being and Time’, and The Cavell Reader (editor). Schubert M. Ogden is University Distinguished Professor of Theology Emeritus, Southern Methodist University. His most recent books include Is There Only One True Religion or Are There Many? And Doing Theology Today. D.Z. Phillips is Danforth Professor of the Philosophy of Religion, Claremont Graduate University and Rush Rhees Research Professor, University of Wales, Swansea. He is the author of The Concept of Prayer, Faith and Philosophical Enquiry, Death and Immortality, Moral Practices (with H.O. Mounce), Sense and Delusion (with Ilham Dilman), Athronyddu Am Grefydd, Religion without Explanation, Dramâu Gwenlyn Parry, Belief, Change and Forms of Life, Through a Darkening Glass, R.S. Thomas: Poet of the Hidden God, Faith after Foundationalism, From Fantasy to Faith, Interventions in Ethics, Wittgenstein and Religion, Writers of Wales: J.R. Jones, Introducing Philosophy, Recovering Religious Concepts, Philosophy’s Cool Place. He is editor of Swansea Studies in Philosophy and co-editor of Claremont Studies in the Philosophy of Religion published by Palgrave. He is also editor of the journal, Philosophical Investigations. Richard Swinburne is Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy