Blackwell Reference Online

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This Companion , like the first edition, is a guide to philosophy of religion for non-specialists, but it will also engage specialists. When the first edition was published in 1997, there was nothing else like it in print. It is a testament to the success of that edition that this second edition emerges in a crowded field. Such crowding is not necessarily bad. There is strength in numbers because no single collection can hope to cover all there is to cover in a field as rich and diverse as philosophy of religion. Our challenge as editors of a second edition was both to retain and build on the strengths of the first edition and to add brand-new material that separates the new edition from its ancestor and from the rest of the field. To that end, we not only updated and reorganized the chapters in the first edition, but also added more than 20 new chapters. One of the unique parts of this edition is the last one, which is called “Current Trends and New Directions.” It contains new essays on Wittgensteinian philosophy of religion (by John Whittaker), continental philosophy of religion (by John Caputo), evidentialism (by Richard Swinburne), and philosophical reflection on mysticism (by Anthony Perovich). These are combined with updated chapters on theological realism and antirealism, reformed epistemology, feminism, philosophical reflection on scripture and revelation, religious pluralism, ... log in or subscribe to read full text