Welcome to the sixth edition of Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology. This
volume, originally edited by the late Louis Pojman, has been in print for
nearly twenty years, and it has enjoyed wide use throughout the profession.
The purpose of the volume is to provide an accessible and engaging introduction
to some of the most important ideas, topics and figures in contemporary philosophy
of religion. It is exciting to have once again the opportunity to revise and
update the text, breathing fresh air into several sections of the work while at the
same time retaining what has consistently proven useful to a wide variety of instructors
and students over the life of the anthology.
The most significant changes in the present edition are the inclusion of a
new section entitled “Concepts of God and the Ultimate,” and a somewhat different
organizational structure. Since the revival of philosophy of religion in the
1960s, the field has focused primarily on questions having to do with belief in
the God of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Moreover, the concept of God in play
has tended to be the “classical” concept handed down from medieval philosopher-
theologians like Anselm, Aquinas, Maimonides and others. But there is a
wide variety of other ways of thinking about the divine, both within and outside
of Jewish, Christian and Islamic theology; and many philosophers of religion
have started to engage these other concepts of God both in their own research
and in the textbooks they edit and write. The “concepts of God” section represents
a step toward introducing readers to just a few of the more important alternative
conceptions currently under discussion. Moreover, whereas previous
editions of this anthology treated “the attributes of God” both without comment
on which conception of God was in play and after arguments for and against the
existence of God had already been covered, the present edition is organized differently.
In the present edition, we discuss the concept of God first, before discussing
arguments about God’s existence.