The second edition of this excellent anthology in the philosophy of religion examines both the basic classical and a host of contemporary issues. Assuming little or no familiarity with the religious concepts it addresses, it provides a well-balanced and accessible approach to the field. The seventy-one articles cover standard subjects–including religious experience, theistic arguments, the problem of evil, and miracles–as well as topics that have recently gained the attention of philosophers of religion, such as reformed epistemology, the philosophical analysis of theological doctrine, and the kalam theological argument. The collection also discusses topics often requested by instructors but seldom covered in competing texts, including religion and science, religious pluralism, process theism, and religious ethics.
An ideal teaching text, Philosophy of Religion, 2/e, is organized into thirteen thematic sections. Each section begins with a revised introduction and ends with updated suggestions for further reading. While it deals primarily with the Western tradition in the philosophy of religion, this second edition also adds readings representing continental, feminist, and Asian contributions to the field. New selections include essays by Sarah Coakley, the Dalai Lama, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Jay Gould, Lao Tsu, Moses Maimonides, and the Upanishads. Philosophy of Religion, 2/e, functions well as a stand-alone textbook for courses in the philosophy of religion and is readily compatible for use as a primary source reader in conjunction with a secondary text. It is an ideal companion to the editors’ textbook, Reason and Religious Belief, 2/e (OUP, 1997), as the two books share the same topical organization.
