A Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion, Edited by Charles Taliaferro and Elsa J. Marty. [Purchase UK | Purchase US]

A Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion is an indispensable source for students and scholars. Covering historical and contemporary fi gures, arguments, and terms, it offers an overview of the vital themes that make philosophy of religion the growing, vigorous fi eld that it is today. In addition to the entries co-authored by Taliaferro and Marty, leading scholars in philosophy of religion have contributed to the Dictionary, including Brian Davies, Pamela Sue Anderson, Paul Draper, Jerry Walls, Paul Griffi ths, Douglas Hedley, Dale Jacquette, and Victoria Harrison. The Dictionary includes a chronology, an extensive introduction to modern philosophy of religion, and a bibliography.

“…the fi rst signifi cant dictionary of its kind to appear in over 20 years. […] A need has existed for an up-to-date, high-quality dictionary to cover new topics, concepts, and people, along with new developments on established themes. Summing Up: Essential.” — Choice

Charles Taliaferro is Professor of Philosophy at St. Olaf College, MN.

Elsa J. Marty is a graduate student in theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School, IL.

The Image In Mind: Theism, Naturalism, and the Imagination (Continuum Studies in Philosophy of Religion), by Charles Taliaferro and Jil Evans [Purchase UK | Purchase US]

The Image in Mind is a philosophical inquiry into the strengths and weaknesses of theism and naturalism in accounting for the emergence of consciousness, the visual imagination and aesthetic values. Taliaferro and Evans argue that evolutionary biology alone is insuffi cient to account for consciousness, the visual imagination and aesthetic values. Insofar as naturalism is compelled to go beyond evolutionary biology, it does not fare as well as theism in terms of explanatory power.

“Were it not for the infl ationary use of the word, I would describe this contribution as ‘inspirational.’ […] The balance in these pages between poetry and philosophy, art and science, faith and reason is exemplary.” — Daniel N. Robinson, University of Oxford, UK

Jil Evans has exhibited her paintings and prints in Minnesota, Chicago, New York City, Michigan, Memphis, Washington D.C., California, Paris, and Rome.

Charles Taliaferro is Professor of Philosophy at St. Olaf College, MN.

Ontotheological Turnings?: The Decentering of the Modern Subject in Recent French Phenomenology (SUNY series in Theology and Continental Thought), by Joeri Schrijvers. [Purchase UK | Purchase US]

This incisive work examines questions of ontotheology and their relation to the so-called “theological turn” of recent French phenomenology. Joeri Schrijvers explores and critiques the decentering of the subject attempted by Jean-Luc Marion, Jean-Yves Lacoste, and Emmanuel Levinas, three philosophers who, inspired by their readings of Heidegger, attempt to overturn the active and autonomous subject. In his consideration of each thinker, Schrijvers shows that a simple reversal of the subject-object distinction has been achieved, but no true decentering of the subject. For Lacoste, the subject becomes God’s intention; for Marion, the subject becomes the object and objective of givenness; and for Levinas, the subject is without secrets, like an object, before a greater Other. Critiquing the axioms and assumptions of contemporary philosophy, Schrijvers argues that there is no overcoming ontotheology. He ultimately proposes a more phenomenological and existential approach, a presencing of the invisible, to address the concerns of ontotheology.

Joeri Schrijvers is a Postdoctoral Researcher of the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO), Faculty of Theology, at Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. He is coeditor (with Lieven Boeve, Wessel Stoker, and Hendrik M. Vroom) of Faith in the Enlightenment? The Critique of the Enlightenment Revisited.

• View Table of contents here.
• Read the first chatper here.