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PHIL 266

Introduction to Philosophy of Religion

3 credits · Undergraduate

Fall 2026

Topics

  • Nature of religion
  • Concepts of the divine
  • Ontological and cosmological arguments
  • Design and fine-tuning
  • Religion and morality
  • Evil and divine goodness
  • Limits of reason
  • Religious experience
  • Prayer and worship
  • Afterlife
  • Religious diversity

Readings

  • Wilfred Cantwell Smith, “Introduction” (1962).
    Listed reading
  • Dalai Lama, “Buddhism and Other Religions” (2001).
    Listed reading
  • Interview with Jacob Olupona (2015), Harvard Gazette, “The Spirituality of Africa.”
    Listed reading
  • Shankara, “Everything Has Its Self in Brahman.”
    Listed reading
  • Nagarjuna, “An Analysis of Nirvana.”
    Listed reading
  • Zhou Dunyi, “Non-Polar and Yet Supreme Polarity!”
    Listed reading
  • Maimonides, “Negative Theology” (1190).
    Listed reading
  • Thomas Aquinas, “God Is Omnipotent.”
    Listed reading
  • Boethius, “God Is Timeless” (523).
    Listed reading
  • Anselm, “The Classical Ontological Argument” (1077–1078).
    Listed reading
  • Gaunilo, “Critique of Anselm’s Argument.”
    Listed reading
  • Ibn Sina/Avicenna, “Proof of the Necessarily Existent” (c. 1020).
    Listed reading
  • William Paley, “The Analogical Teleological Argument” (1802).
    Listed reading
  • David Hume, “Critique of the Analogical Teleological Argument” (1779).
    Listed reading
  • Cory Juhl, “Fine-tuning Is Not Surprising” (2006).
    Listed reading
  • Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Grand Inquisitor” (1880).
    Listed reading
  • Immanuel Kant, “The Existence of God as a Postulate of Pure Practical Reason” (1788).
    Listed reading
  • Mengzi, 2A.6–7 and 6A.6–11.
    Listed reading
  • “God’s Message Is Garbled” (Kamba/Kenya).
    Listed reading
  • Manichean creation story.
    Listed reading
  • Augustine, “Evil as a Privation of the Good” (c. 420).
    Listed reading
  • David Hume, “The Argument from Evil” (1779).
    Listed reading
  • Leibniz, “Best of All Possible Worlds Theodicy” (1710).
    Listed reading
  • Fyodor Dostoevsky, “Rebellion” (1880).
    Listed reading
  • Marilyn McCord Adams, “Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God” (1989).
    Listed reading
  • Shankara, “Brahman, Creation, and Evil.”
    Listed reading
  • Zhuangzi, “Wandering Round and About” and “On Equalizing Things.”
    Listed reading
  • Al-Ghazali, “Scepticism and the Denial of All Knowledge.”
    Listed reading
  • Kierkegaard, “Truth Is Subjectivity” (1846).
    Listed reading
  • Teresa, “Religious Experiences” (1565).
    Listed reading
  • Al-Ghazali, “Divine Intoxication.”
    Listed reading
  • Ehei Dogen, “Manifesting Suchness.”
    Listed reading
  • William James, “Religious Experiences as Feelings Forming the Root of Religion” (1902).
    Listed reading
  • Hakuun Yasutani Roshi, “Religious Experience Brings about Awakening” (1989).
    Listed reading
  • Origen, “The Content of Prayer.”
    Listed reading
  • Bhagavad Gita, chapter 12 (Yoga of Devotion).
    Listed reading
  • “Nyikang and the Sun” (Shilluk/Sudan).
    Listed reading
  • Joshua Cockayne, “Personal and Non-personal Worship” (2020).
    Listed reading
  • Eleonore Stump, “Petitionary Prayer” (1979).
    Listed reading
  • Plato, “The Immortality of the Soul.”
    Listed reading
  • Epicurus, “Letter to Menoeceus.”
    Listed reading
  • Donald MacKay, “Brain Science and the Soul” (1987).
    Listed reading
  • Questions of King Milinda, “What Is Reborn Is Neither the Same Nor Another.”
    Listed reading
  • Ramanuja, “The Conscious Subject Persists in the State of Release.”
    Listed reading
  • Sri Aurobindo, “A Hindu View of Rebirth” (1912).
    Listed reading
  • Kwasi Wiredu, “An African Religions Perspective” (2011).
    Listed reading
  • Paul Griffiths, “The Universality and Uniqueness of Religious Doctrines” (1990).
    Listed reading
  • John Hick, “Religious Pluralism and Salvation” (2000).
    Listed reading
Sources