M2 - Philosophy of Religion

Every worldview consists of 3 fundamental elements

• Transcendent Element (God/Theos)

• World

• Humanity (Anthropos)

Transcendent element

something that transcends all reality

Cosmos

the world where everything interacts

Humanity

the being who asks questions about religion and reality

Classical Cosmocentrism believes in the

Unity between God, humanity, and nature

What worldview shift believes that what affects one element affects all others?

Classical Cosmocentrism

Medieval theocentrism happened during

5th-15th centuries

What worldview believed that to understand creation, one must understand God’s mind?

Medieval theocentrism

Modern Anthropocentrism

• fragmentation of God, humanity, and nature

• René Descartes and his ‘I think therefore I am’

Medieval theocentrism believed that

God (Creator) separate from creation (humanity + nature)

Who is a key figure in medieval theocentrism?

Aristotle

Aristotle’s idea

Primo movens - there must be someone/something that caused movement

Who re-founded knowledge on the basis of clear and distinct ideas?

Descartes

Who believed that God and nature can be doubted?

Descartes

What worldview shift believes that it is up to the human person to imagine the relationship between all the realities?

Modern anthropocentrism

Xenophanes of Colophon

criticized gods’ immorality and anthropomorphism

Who said '"If horses could draw, their gods would look like horses"

Xenophanes of Colophon

Mechanistic Explanation as criticism against religion argued that

• natural events explained by atomic interactions

• changed the discourse by providing a different language

The divinities criticism against religion was by

Plato and Aristotle, who applied ‘divine’ to realities as diverse as intellect, heavenly spheres, the Olympian gods, the separate forms (Plato) and the First Mover of the universe (Aristotle)

Who was the first to use the word ‘theologos’

Plato

Divinities means:

anything beyond human experience

Characteristics of Primum Movens

• Eternal

• Incorporeal (without body)

• Indivisible (one unity)

• Immutable (unchanging)

• Perfect life and knowledge

What is the only object of awareness of the First Mover?

itself

What is the activity of the Prime Mover?

‘thinking of thinking’ (noesis noeseos)

Etienne Gilson

‘with Aristotle, the Greeks has gained an indisputably rational theology, but they had lost their religion’

What is Pascal's distinction regarding the problem of rational theology?

made the distinction between the ‘God of philosophers’ and the ‘God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,’ he was referring to this Aristotelian concept of divinity

In Medieval Period, religion was understood under two discourses

• Greek thought

• Jewish and Christian faith

Greek thinker’s basic premise

Nihil ex nihilo (nothing comes from nothing)

Nihil ex nihilo is challenged by

Christianity with creatio ex nihilo, where God puts order in chaos

Creatio ex nihilo

• Question of creation

• Question of resurrection

In philosophy, the renewed representation of the divine can be observed in the rise of

Neoplatonism of Plotinus

Neoplatonism of Plotinus

with Aristotle’s philosophy, what he gained was a rational philosophy but eventually the result was theology

This school had a philosophical exploration of scriptures and the contention that the best philosophy is to be found in scriptures

School of Alexandria

Credo ut intelligam

(I believe that I may understand)

Who said “Credo ut intelligam”

St. Augustine

Fides quaerens intellectum

Faith seeking understanding

Who said “Fides quaerens intellectum”

St. Anselm

Archbishop St. Anselm got his inspiration from

St. Augustine

What medieval thinkers thought that the central theme is the conversion or ascent of philosophy to faith

Augustine and Bonaventure

Augustine of Hippo

City of God: denied the activity of pagan gods because they are merely creatures like ourselves

Who recognizes that there are other gods in Greek religion but sees them as creatures like ourselves?

Augustine of Hippo

Most enduring model for philosophical speculation on divine matters was

Anselm of Canterbury

The other early Catechetical school which emphasized a more literal reading of scripture

School of Antioch

Medievals that argued it’s exigent to study philosophy first before theology

Moises Maimonides and Roger Bacon

Divinity of Parmenides

The One

Divinity of Anaxogoras

Nous (reason)

Divinity of Heraclitus

Fire

Sola fide

faith alone suffices

Sola gratia

grace alone

Sola scripture

scripture and tradition

What is Plato’s philosophical representation of the divine agent

good

What book does Augustine argue that pagan dogs are merely creatures like ourselves

City of God

What is Anselm’s ontological argument

systematic investigation of God’s existence

3 ways fides quaerens intellectum’s legacy was complicated

• Christian reform movements (reformation) were critical of using philosophy to discuss of God and creation

• Disputes over nova scientia

• General impoverishment of traditional philosophical speculation on divine matters

Nova scientia

new science

Religion as virtue

• Religion relates only and directly with God

• Religion is a virtue. It is a habit

• Religion involves external acta

• Religion is to be identified with holiness

By the end of 13th and 14th century, this philosopher argued that theology employs, improves and perfects the best of ancient philosophy

Thomas Aquinas

Who argued for the mechanistic explanation of phenomena, specifically atomism

Democritus

Who redefined divinity in terms beyond ordinary experience

Plato and Aristotle

‘theologos’ means

rational reflection on beliefs about gods

TRUE OR FALSE: Plato urged the worship of the forms

FALSE, Plato never urged worship of the forms

What does Plato mean when he describes the divinities?

by calling them divine, Plato underscores their unparalleled excellence, not that they are gods

What is the soul’s journey according to Plato?

• Pre-existence: soul contemplated forms before birth

• Soul fell from the world of forms due to passions

• Knowledge as recollection of forgotten truths

• Becoming like the object we contemplate

Anamnesis means

recollection

Who said '‘with Aristotle, the Greeks has gained an indisputably rational theology, but they had lost their religion’

Etienne Gilson

What book of Anselm argued that the expression fides quarens intellectum doesn’t mean that the medievals already know what they believe?

Proslogion

Who rebuked a student who wished to skip philosophy in order to reach theology?

Moises Maimonides

Who argued that nothing can be known about God without prior study of languages, mathematics and optics?

Roger Bacon

What does Res cogitants mean

humans are thinking things

What does Res infinita mean?

God

What does Res extensa mean?

nature

What are res cogitants, res infinita, and res extensa?

all of them are res (separate substances), meaning that it is up to the human person to project unity in that worldview

Who formulated 3 stages in the development of civilization?

August Comte

What did August Comte contribute as a critique to religion?

developed the 3 stages in the development of civilization

What are the 3 stages in the development of civilization 

• Religious/primitive explanation of the universe 

• Philosophical hypothesis 

• Scientific consequences 

The religious/primitive explanation of the universe is a stage characterized as

a period where people had religious explanations for natural phenomena  

Philosophical hypothesis is a stage characterized as

mythos becoming logos and people using reason to explain natural phenomena

Scientific knowledge is a stage characterized as

people using experimental methods to explain phenomena

Anglo-Saxxon philosophy was dominant in

England and Scotland

Anglo-Saxxon philosophy focused on

analytic philosophy, the analysis of language

Continental philosophy was dominant in 

Europe 

Continental philosophy focused on 

phenomenology and existentialism 

Roger Bagon emphasized the philosophy of 

language

Paul Ricoeur was known for the field of

hermeneutics

The two modes of interpretation at work in hermeneutics are

• restoration or recollection of meaning

• as an exercise of suspicion

The 3 masters of suspicion are

Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud

Marx believed that religion is

opiate of the oppressed class

Nietzsche believed that religion is 

the manifestation of ressentiment in a slave ethic 

Freud believed that religion is

an illusory attempt at wishful thinking

The goal of the masters of suspicion is the

flattening of the vertical dimension of religion

Ludwig Feuerbach believed that religion as 

self-objectification of humanity’s ultimate hope and destiny 

Feurerbach argued that theology is reduced to anthropology because

what we discover in religion is our own hope

Marx’s main ideas about religion are

• Anthropocentrism of religion 

• Religion persists as long as humanity is alienated from itself 

• Religion is ideological and has a double character

• Religion misconstrued the world 

• No place for religion in an emancipated society

According to Marx, religion persists as long as

humanity is alienated from itself