Abstract
Three interconnected issues are addressed: whether philosophy of religion needs to move away from theism; what could replace it; and how nontheistic conceptions of the divine should be incorporated in the field’s future discussions. Among the central points made are these: that attention to theism should diminish as a large number of nontheistic topics receive discussion in the philosophy of religion; that theism’s dominance in the structuring of our discussions should be replaced by a more deliberate focus on the aims of philosophy of religion, including in particular certain higher-level aims involving the resolution of problems in other areas of philosophy and the evaluation of religious practice; and that some of the most potentially fruitful ideas of the divine are not alternative conceptions of it per se, but rather are quite general ideas offering a framework for the discussion of alternative conceptions including theism.
Reference14 articles.
1. Bishop, J. & K. Perszyk. (2023). God, Purpose, and Reality: A Euteleological Understanding of Theism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2. Buckareff, A. & Y. Nagasawa. (2016). Alternative Concepts of God: Essays on the Metaphysics of the Divine. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
3. Davies, B. (2020). An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion (4th edition). Oxford: University Press.
4. Dole, A. (2013). Is Sceptical Religion Adequate as a Religion? Religious Studies, 49(2), pp. 235–248. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412513000103
5. Dumsday, T. (Forthcoming). Alternative Conceptions of the Spiritual. New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury.