Syllabus for Independent Study on
POSTMODERN PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
METHODOLOGY
Read introductory texts, and later reflect on primary essays on the postmodern condition of theology and philosophy of religion. Evaluate learning by writing an essay with a descriptive historical development and discuss the themes in focus.
OBJECTIVE
Analyze historical context and development and gain insight into the implications of postmodernism with respect to religious thought, including postmodern critiques of past religio-metaphysical systems, the postmodern and deconstructive renewal of the search for transcendence, and the religious dimensions of deconstructive thought.
OUTLINE
The Postmodern Condition
Posmodernity: a defining attempt
The Death of God controversy
Christian Existentialism
Post-modern turn to religion
Post-Structuralism
Influences: Structuralism, Levinas, Foucault, Lacan, Ricouer
Deconstruction-and-religion
Limitation of language to comprehend reality
Negative or Apophatic manner
“Religion (without religion)”
Undeconstructible
Messianism vs. Messianic Hope
“Weak Theology”
Radical Orthodoxy
Reaffirmation of Christian theology in a contextual manner
Postliberal Theology
Narrative theology
Communitarian moral and epistemology
Ethics of Virtue
The Finite God
Finite Godism
Process Thought
Open Theism
Alternative Theologies
Liberation Theologies
Theology of Hope
Latin American Liberation Theology
Post-Colonial Theology
Black Theology
Feminist, Womanist Theology and Feminist Epistemology
Queer Theology
Peace Theology
Cosmic Ecology
Reconstructive Approaches
THEMES ON POSTMODERN PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
Religious Language & Epistemology of Religion
The problem of religious language
Vienna Circle, Wittgenstein, Deconstruction
Proposed Solutions: Analogy, Metaphor, Accommodation, Hermeutical method
Veracity and exclusiveness of a religion
Justification of religious belief
Critique of modern rationalist epistemology
Deconstruction critique of “truth” existence prior and independent to linguistic representation
Religion and Literary Theory
The Human Condition on Postmodernity
Theodicy
Mind/Body problem in current philosophical theologies
Social Action
Ontology of the Ultimacy
Heidegger
The Ultimate Ground: Tillich
A/Theology
The Non-Being: Deconstruction
A limited God: the Finite God options
CONCLUSION
The postmodern God
REFERENCES
Introductions
· Anderson, Pamela Sue A feminist philosophy of religion: the rationality and myths of religious belief (Oxford; Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 1998
· de Vries, Hent Philosophy and the Turn to Religion
· Hughes, Glenn. Transcendence and History. The Search for Ultimacy from Ancient Societies to Postmodernity. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2003.
· Penner, Myron, Christianity and the Postmodern Turn. Brazos, 2005.
· Robinson, John Honest to God. John Knox, 2003.
· Shanks, Andrew. God and Modernity: New and Better Way to Do Theology. London, UK: Routledge, 1999.
· Vanhoozer, Kevin. Biblical Narrative in the Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur: A Study in Hermeneutics and Theology. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1990.
· Winquist, Charles Desiring Theology .U Chicago Press
Anthologies
· Blond, Philips, ed. Post-Secular Philosophy, between Philosophy and Theology. London: Routledge, 1998.
· Geisler, Norman L.; House, H. Wayne; Herrera, Max. The Battle for God: Responding to the Challenge of Neotheism. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2001.
· Milbank, John, Pickstock, Catherine, Ward, Graham, Illuminations: Theory and Religion. Blackwell.
· Phillips, D. Z. ed. Philosophy of Religion in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.
· Vanhoozer, Kevin J. ed. The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
· Ward, Graham, ed. The Blackwell Companion to Postmodern Theology. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005
· Ward, Graham, ed. The Postmodern God: A Theological Reader. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997.
· Westphal, Merold, ed. Postmodern Philosophy and Christian Thought. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999.
· Christian Faith and Postmodernity: An Index of WWW Resources http://www3.baylor.edu/~Scott_Moore/Xnty_Pmism.html