Sunday, April 06, 2008

Faith and Reason: Philosophy of Religion

I stumbled across a great audio book by Dr. Peter Kreeft called Faith and Reason: The Philosophy of Religion. Dr. Kreeft is a professor of philosophy at Boston College and is the author of over forty books. The "book" is actually a set of audio CD recordings of 14 lectures on the subject, given by Dr. Kreeft. It is truly outstanding series. If you are interested you can purchase the series, here: Modern Scholar, or borrow it from your local library. If you library doesn't have it, perhaps they can obtain it through an Interlibrary Loan. Here's an description of the audio book from the Modern Scholar website:

Faith and REasonFaith and Reason: The Philosophy of Religion

Through the ages, mankind has pursued questions of faith in something beyond the world of ordinary experience. Is there a God? How can we explain the presence of evil? Do humans, or human souls, live on after death? Is there a hell? The following lectures examine these eternal questions and present the most compelling arguments for and against God’s existence, the seeming conflicts between religion and science, and the different truth-claims of the world’s most popular religions. By delving into the major characteristics of world religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, mankind’s association with the many different varieties of religious practice is brought to light. Above all, Faith and Reason: The Philosophy of Religion lays the groundwork for a rational approach to pursuing questions of faith—and at the same time provides a better understanding of religion’s ongoing importance in the realm of human experience.

Course Syllabus

Lecture 1 What Is Religion? Why Is It Worth Thinking About?

Lecture 2 Atheism

Lecture 3 The Problem of Evil

Lecture 4 Arguments for God’s Existence from Nature (Cosmological Arguments)

Lecture 5 Arguments for God’s Existence from Human Experience (Psychological Arguments)

Lecture 6 Religion and Science

Lecture 7 The Case Against Life After Death

Lecture 8 The Case for Life After Death: Twelve Arguments

Lecture 9 Different Concepts of Heaven

Lecture 10 Hell

Lecture 11 Testing the Different Truth-Claims of Different Religions

Lecture 12 Comparative Religions

Lecture 13 What Would Socrates Think?

Lecture 14 Religious Experience


God bless,

Dave