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Religions
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New Voices in Philosophical Theology
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New Voices in Philosophical Theology

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 August 2023) | Viewed by 19748

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Derek A. Michaud

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Philosophy, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA
Interests: philosophy of religion; the history of philosophy; philosophical theology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Philosophical theology received authoritative summaries in English over ten years ago (Flint and Rea, 2011; Taliaferro and Meister, 2009). However, the previous decade has witnessed the rise of analytic theology (Crisp and Rea, 2009; Abraham, 2012), interreligious philosophy of religion (e.g., Global Philosophy of Religion Project), and increased sensitivity to the voices of persons with diverse identities and backgrounds. With roots in the anglophone philosophy of religion in the 1960s, analytic theology has become an area of joint inquiry with its own community, journals (e.g., Journal of Analytic Theology), and book series (e.g., Oxford Studies in Analytic Theology). Though it is clearly at least adjacent to philosophical theology, the precise nature of this proximity remains underdeveloped. While Crisp and Rea (2009) included chapters on Jewish, Islamic, and Confucian philosophical theologies, the field has lagged behind some recent work in the philosophy of religion in terms of becoming a truly global field. Finally, philosophical theology has been overwhelmingly associated with cisgender heterosexual Christian men.

In response to these developments and more, I am pleased to invite you and your colleagues and graduate students to contribute to “New Voices in Philosophical Theology,” a Special Issue of Religions.

This Special Issue aims to take stock of philosophical theology at this historical moment through both original constructive papers and review articles reflecting on the field. In either case, papers should situate their work within the field of philosophical theology as the author understands it. Broad questions include:

  • What methods, presuppositions, or practices differentiate philosophical theology from the philosophy of religion? What unites them?
  • What themes, issues, or texts drive current thinking?
    • Divine attributes and nature;
    • Revelation and religious epistemology;
    • Science and religion;
    • Interreligious dialogue or comparative theology;
  • How do issues of personal identity influence our work in philosophical theology?
  • Where is the proper home of philosophical theology?
    • Religious communities (i.e., churches, denominations, etc.)
    • Academia
    • Public life
  • What novel approaches, including reappropriations of old texts and traditions, are or should be developed?
  • How are developments in analytic, systematic/dogmatic, moral, biblical, and political theology influencing the field?

We are seeking papers from diverse perspectives to accurately reflect current work in the field and welcome novel approaches. Therefore, contributions from early career scholars, BIPOC and/or LGBTQ authors, and others historically underrepresented in the field are especially encouraged.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Derek A. Michaud
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • philosophical theology
  • fundamental theology
  • philosophy of religion
  • analytic theology
  • God
  • ultimate reality
  • divine attributes
  • religious epistemology
  • religion and science
  • theism

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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12 pages, 274 KiB  
Article
Returning to Spiritual Sense: Cruciform Power and Queer Identities in Analytic Theology
by David A. C. Bennett
Religions 2023, 14(12), 1445; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14121445 - 21 Nov 2023
Viewed by 2354
Abstract
In recent theological scholarship, there has been a wave of interest in the tradition of spiritual sense and marginal social identities within analytic and philosophical theology. In this article, I explore the theologies of spiritual sense in analytic theology (AT) to highlight part [...] Read more.
In recent theological scholarship, there has been a wave of interest in the tradition of spiritual sense and marginal social identities within analytic and philosophical theology. In this article, I explore the theologies of spiritual sense in analytic theology (AT) to highlight part of the reason for the predominance of cisgender heterosexual voices in the field. Many feminist voices in AT express a common concern for a lack of integration between the mind, the body, and spiritual sense, which has enshrined the post-enlightenment cisgender heterosexual ‘man of reason’. Through an exploration of these feminist voices (Sarah Coakley and Michelle Panchuk), I argue that the field does not simply need more diverse voices but also voices of spiritual sense that undo a straight cisgender elitism. This elitism has kept the field from widely examining the anthropological questions of sexuality and gender, ethics, and theodicean dilemmas of desire and faith. By opening analytic philosophical approaches to spiritual sense, the field releases noetic control that has two consequential outcomes. Firstly, the field revalorizes pneumatology and ethics. Secondly, as a consequence of this, the field can see those who were previously unseen and heard, and, therefore, AT can develop into a sensing and thinking discipline capable of perceiving the queer or other in its midst. Spiritual sense and its priority for bodily and cruciform realities of suffering and desire can move the field from homogeneity to embracing the diverse ethical concerns of sexuality, gender, and race, and subaltern or queer subjectivities which are yet to be represented well in its midst. Using a distinctly neo-Augustinian approach, I argue that Augustine’s philosophy of the amor dei, with its emphasis on analytic clarity and inner spiritual sense, can redeem the eyes of AT’s heart. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Voices in Philosophical Theology)
12 pages, 278 KiB  
Article
The Qurʾān and the Bible: Abrogation (naskh) or Confirmation (taṣdīq)?
by Mohammed Gamal Abdelnour
Religions 2023, 14(7), 856; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14070856 - 29 Jun 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3667
Abstract
Two Qurʾānic concepts have largely defined how the Qurʾān related to previous revelations. Those two concepts are taḥrīf (alteration) and naskh (abrogation). Appealing to those two concepts, the mainstream understating of the Qurʾān was that it superseded pre-Islamic scriptures and that, after its [...] Read more.
Two Qurʾānic concepts have largely defined how the Qurʾān related to previous revelations. Those two concepts are taḥrīf (alteration) and naskh (abrogation). Appealing to those two concepts, the mainstream understating of the Qurʾān was that it superseded pre-Islamic scriptures and that, after its revelation, such scriptures had limited epistemic value. With this in mind, this article aims to achieve descriptive and prescriptive goals. With the descriptive goal, it problematizes the theories of taḥrīf and naskh, with a view to showing how such concepts influenced Muslim understanding of the Straight Path (al-Ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm). With the prescriptive goal, it proposes the concept of taṣdīq (confirmation) as an alternative. In doing so, this article demonstrates how, despite the fact that the Qurʾān never shied away from critiquing what it believes to be forms of deviation in the Bible, it never introduced itself as an “abrogator” (nāsikh) to it but rather as a “confirmer” (muṣaddiq) in no less than 12 occurrences in the Qurʾān, but the concept of taṣdīq was largely overshadowed by the overemphasis on taḥrīf and naskh. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Voices in Philosophical Theology)
15 pages, 285 KiB  
Article
The Qurʾān and the Future of Islamic Analytic Theology
by Mohammed Gamal Abdelnour
Religions 2023, 14(4), 556; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040556 - 20 Apr 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3798
Abstract
Islamic analytic theology emerges into an uncharted territory that is dominated by two loosely defined areas: analytic philosophy and analytic theology. As a nascent field, this article argues that for Islamic analytic theology to move forward, it needs to place the Qurʾān at [...] Read more.
Islamic analytic theology emerges into an uncharted territory that is dominated by two loosely defined areas: analytic philosophy and analytic theology. As a nascent field, this article argues that for Islamic analytic theology to move forward, it needs to place the Qurʾān at its centre. To have a clear understanding of our terms, I begin by attempting a definition of Islamic analytic theology. Taking a normative approach to the subject, I consolidate the discussion with five methodical questions. Firstly, what has been going on in Islamic theology? (The descriptive task). Secondly, why has this been going on? (The interpretative task). Thirdly, what ought to be going on? (The normative task). Fourthly, how might we, as Muslim theologians, respond? (The pragmatic task). Fifthly, why should Muslim theologians conduct analytic theology? (The functional task) To situate Islamic analytic theology within this wider discussion, I end the article by offering some insights on how Islamic analytic theology relates to old Kalām. By the end of the article, we will have laid the groundwork showing the way forward for a more developed Islamic analytic theology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Voices in Philosophical Theology)
15 pages, 273 KiB  
Article
Wrangling about Innate Ideas? Reflections on Locke and Cudworth
by Jonathan David Lyonhart
Religions 2023, 14(3), 404; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14030404 - 16 Mar 2023
Viewed by 2513
Abstract
Locke contended that knowledge is learned from experience, taught from without rather than innately known from within. The notion of innate ideas has since been seen by many as innately ridiculous, as a battle long ago waged and won in the first book [...] Read more.
Locke contended that knowledge is learned from experience, taught from without rather than innately known from within. The notion of innate ideas has since been seen by many as innately ridiculous, as a battle long ago waged and won in the first book of Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding. However, there was no fight in the first place, for the most comprehensive defence of innate ideas in the 17th century was not published until the 18th century. Ralph Cudworth’s Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality was published posthumously nearly fifty years after its writing, and while Locke and Cudworth wrote on similar subjects—and around the same time and place—the fates never aligned for them to meet and ‘have it out’. This paper places Locke and Cudworth into conversation on this question of innate ideas. Such analysis will reveal that Cudworth sidestepped much of Locke’s critique by hanging his argument not on universal consent but on the Platonic principle of like-knows-like. In the process, Cudworth anticipated many of the responses to Locke that would come in the next century from Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Thus, his forgotten role in this narrative in the history of philosophy cries out for reappraisal, along with the renewed insights he might bring to the on-going contemporary discussion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Voices in Philosophical Theology)
9 pages, 187 KiB  
Article
Philosophical Theology for a New Age
by Robert Cummings Neville
Religions 2023, 14(3), 359; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14030359 - 9 Mar 2023
Viewed by 1506
Abstract
Having distinguished the primary philosophers of religion, those whose philosophies of “Everything” entail something about religion, from those who study only or mainly religion, this article discusses the necessary comparative base for the future of the field. It distinguishes the approach that begins [...] Read more.
Having distinguished the primary philosophers of religion, those whose philosophies of “Everything” entail something about religion, from those who study only or mainly religion, this article discusses the necessary comparative base for the future of the field. It distinguishes the approach that begins with the subject matter from the approach that sticks with a home tradition to which comparison adds new material, arguing for the former. The religions of West Asia, South Asia, and East Asia are discussed, noting the naturalistic form of the last. The fundamental comparative category for philosophy of religion is the Ultimate, of which I give my own version. This version also requires categories defining determinate things, their togetherness of various sorts, and their essential and conditional components. To be plausible, this theory needs to be associated positively and negatively with the main religious traditions and with our relation to nature and society. Religious lives need to be scaled from the primitive and literalistic all the way to the philosophical. Philosophy of religion or philosophical theology of all sorts is fallible and needs to prepare for the next step. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Voices in Philosophical Theology)
16 pages, 309 KiB  
Article
The Process Theology of John Elof Boodin
by Michael A. Flannery
Religions 2023, 14(2), 238; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14020238 - 10 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2326
Abstract
Despite his impeccable academic pedigree, a protégé of Josiah Royce and a friend and student of William James, John Elof Boodin is nearly forgotten today among American philosophers; hence, an essential aspect of his thought lost to history is his contribution to process [...] Read more.
Despite his impeccable academic pedigree, a protégé of Josiah Royce and a friend and student of William James, John Elof Boodin is nearly forgotten today among American philosophers; hence, an essential aspect of his thought lost to history is his contribution to process theology. The leading features of process thought demonstrate Boodin’s connections to this unique theology and show it to have been established early on, as early as 1900 and 1904. This places Boodin’s writing on process philosophy/theology well before Alfred North Whitehead, the putative pioneer in modern process metaphysics, by more than twenty years, and co-extensive with Henri Bergson, who influenced Whitehead. Nevertheless, when Boodin is discussed today, it is usually as an early pragmatist rather than as a process philosopher. The central claim of this essay argues that Boodin is best understood as a pragmatically influenced process theist, one of the first in a modern context. This historiographical revision will permit a better portrayal of process thought by revealing a more nuanced and pluralistic theological landscape beyond the standard Bergsonian/Whiteheadian/Hartshornian triumvirate. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Voices in Philosophical Theology)
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