WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION?

“Philosophy of religion” nowadays is one of most prevalent fields of “study of religion”. This assay puts “philosophy of religion” as its subject matter discussing its various aspects including background, definition, subject, questions and its nature. Despite of the old-age of philosophical reflections in religious issues, “philosophy of religion” in its exact meaning has begun by Hegel. The definition of “philosophy of religion” is difficult for three causes: a) the difficulty of defining its components (philosophy and religion), b) multiplicity of its topics and c) diversity of understandings of the relationship of philosophy with religion. Yet it has been defined in two ways: 1) Philosophical defense of religion, and 2) Philosophical reflection about religious topics. During this assay, it will be clarified that “philosophy of religion” is a first-rate discipline that philosophizes about religious concepts, ideas and deeds. But this philosophizing about religion is not the simple application of rational thinking in the religious issues; rather multiple western philosophical schools are the watering place of “philosophy of religion”. In real, belonging to a specific philosophical school and possessing particular philosophical ideas, each philosopher begins to study the aspects of religion and theorize about it. There are different sorts of questions discussed in philosophy of religion: some discuss about religion as a whole, others discuss common issues of theistic religions, and three investigate some particular doctrines of some religion. Finally, we can conclude that it is possible or even necessary to have an Islamic Philosophy of Religion. It would be philosophical scrutiny on religious issues especially Islamic ones, based on Islamic philosophy. Keywords: Philosophy of religion, Philosophical theology, Analytic philosophy, Apologetics, Islamic Philosophy of Religion.

Religion, as part of what is often called human culture, is also deeply concerned with questions of " making sense " and " meaning. " Because of this, the study of religion is likely to require the same interpretive techniques that use in examining and understanding other aspects of cultures. Philosophy can consider the methods employed in the study of religion, evaluate the evidence and arrive at the truth or otherwise of belief statements. Religion and Philosophy have more or less similar subject matters to deal with. Both of them raise the life of man and society to a higher and nobler level. Their purpose is peace, harmony, adjustment and salvation. Philosophy and religion thus deal often with the same ideas, such as the soul, its origin and density, God and creation. At all events, the relation between religion and philosophy is most intimate. The philosophy of religion is the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions. It is not an organ of religious teaching. Religious practices, rituals, worship, prayer, etc., need not be undertaken from the standpoint of philosophy of religion. All these are the activities of religion like the religious teaching, but in philosophy of religion have to observe the philosophical aspects of all these organs of religion. Not only the theist, but the atheist and the agnostic can philosophize about religion.

Journal of Philosophical Theological Research, 2023

If we want to talk about the philosophy of religion with an Islamic approach, we must clarify what are its differences and similarities with the conventional philosophy of religion in the West. For this purpose, in this paper, the meaning of comparative philosophy and its obstacles, possibilities, necessities, and benefits will first be investigated. After that, it will be shown what considerations should be taken into account in order to have a comparative philosophy. Then, we will show how to have a philosophy of religion with an Islamic approach and what differences and similarities this type of philosophy of religion has with the Western philosophy of religion. Following that, some hermeneutic considerations for this philosophical comparison will be mentioned, and afterward, it will be shown how the Christian background of Western philosophy of religion has affected it. Finally, we will review some of the main subjects of the philosophy of religion if it is to be rationally evaluated with the foundations of Islamic thought to show what differences it has with the conventional Western philosophy of religion.

(PR) undertakes a critical examination of the methods and reasoning behind theologies and arguments in a range of religious traditions. It also examines critical responses to the doctrinaire commitments of religions -from the alternative points-of-view of secularism, science, atheism (or variant nontheism and agnosticism), feminism and postcolonialism. Unlike the study of World Religions, which provides a descriptive account of religious beliefs, PR engages in critiquing, comparing and evaluating religious beliefs, theological doctrines and indeed arguments that are worked up within the respective traditions in defence of these. This helps toward gaining an insight into different typologies and patterns of religious beliefs, theological thinking and metaphysical arguments that ground them as well as their ideological and moral ramifications. Philosophy of religion as conventionally practiced in the Western academy has focused heavily on the problems chartered out by theodicy, which arise principally from the traditional tussle in natural theology over truth-claims based on faith as against the judgment of reason. In the Western context, the debates centre around five problems: the purported existence of God; the transcendent nature and goodness (omnibenevolence) of God against the overwhelming evidence of 'evil' in the world; the truth of 'revelation'; the foundations for right human conduct (i.e. morality); and salvation or life in the hereafter.

Teaching religion has often been considered from a problematic point of view in terms of our educational system. Carried out in a quite successful way through endowments (waqfs) in the rise of Ottoman period, religious education started to lose its success systematically with the period of regression Ottoman Empire. With the declaration of republic and the law of unification of education, it is not likely to say that religious education within the control of the state achieved the desired success. Religious education had its share from the approach of rejectionist attitude of the young regime which inherited almost all heritage of Ottoman and was not able to have an access to teaching programs in an independent way for a long time. The unit of the philosophy of religion and religious concepts were not given a place in the programs of teaching philosophy for a long time. In the current study, the units of the philosophy of religion and religious concepts in seven teaching programs of philosophy prepared in the period of republic were investigated.

The term "Philosophy of Religion" can be explained in two different senses, one of which has been used historically prior to the other. The first possible meaning of the term, derived from the Hegelian notion of philosophy of religion, is the study of absolute religion, i.e. the study of religion as a genus for concrete religions. The second meaning, which has been prevailed in contemporary philosophy of religion, is to explore problems of specific religions philosophically. Although the former meaning of the term is independent of any knowledge of specific religions, "philosophy of religion" in its latter meaning is relying on religious problems. In this sense, philosophy of religion could be religious, that is the philosopher can probe into problems of a concrete religion. Hence, philosophy of religion can simultaneously explore the general problems, which religions have in common, and the problems that belong to a concrete religion in particular. In the latter, when the problems are raised from a specific religion, the investigation of those problems would be a religious philosophy of religion. It should be noted that in this view of the notion, the term "religious" has not any apologetic implication, but it merely describes the sphere of the problems.

philosophyofreligion.org

This is a short paper in which I discuss what philosophy of religion is. Originally from philosophyofreligion.org

Journal of Educational and Social Research, 2017

From Plato to Aristotle, from Augustine to Aquinas from Pascal to Freud and Heidegger the world and philosophical thought has continually interpreted the human nature, the source of morality and religion, specifically what we call (metaphysics). Man of antiquity, the medieval, modern and contemporary has his attitude towards the sacred. But what is happening with the man of our age, what relation does it have nowadays with the sacred, what is his attitude and what are the reasons for this relationship with the sacred. All the above are part of this scientific research paper. To give readers an overview of attitudes of philosophical thought of different times in front of the sacred, what are its meanings at different times and how is the attitude toward the sacred today. Descriptive analysis of the philosophical and religious issues.

This research paper is to be a comparative work describing the certain properties of life, man, thought, belief, religion, and philosophy from the viewpoint of different philosophers and from the viewpoint of Islam. The aim of this paper is to explain these topics from the viewpoint of Islam. Furthermore, to show limitations of certain philosophers’ views in this matter and why, if applied to Islam, they cannot produce adequate explanations. The aforesaid aim of this paper is achieved by means of the collection of works called Risale-i Nur by Bediuzzaman Said Nursî, a commentary (tefsir) of the Qur’an.. The limitations of this study are 1) time (we never have enough), 2) Scope of arguments, 3) Scope of counter-arguments