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Philosophy of Religion

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Philosophy of Religion

By: James Hall, The Great Courses
Narrated by: James Hall
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About this listen

These 36 intellectually challenging yet remarkably clear lectures take you on an intellectual journey to explore the questions of divine existence, not from the standpoint of theology, but as an issue of epistemology, the classic branch of philosophy that concerns itself with knowledge theory: how we can know things and how we can know we know them.

If you enjoy wrapping your mind around questions for which every potential answer triggers a new set of questions and issues, you will find this course particularly enjoyable, regardless of whether you define yourself as a believer, an atheist, or an agnostic. Professor Hall lays out many of the fundamental questions and issues related to the philosophy of religion: What do we mean by "God"? Consider the many characteristics of a monotheistic deity - including omnipotence, omniscience, omniperfection, and asceity.

Can we know if there is a God? Examine the ontological, cosmological, and teleological arguments for the existence of God and the problem of evil. Weigh the arguments and counterarguments for whether the existence of evil - sometimes natural and sometimes human - is compatible with the existence of a god.

You won't be surprised to discover that the issue of divine existence remains undecided after the arguments for and against have been put on the table and analyzed. This provocative course will hold the attention of believers, skeptics, and agnostics alike. While your mind may not be changed, it will definitely be put to work.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2003 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2003 The Great Courses Philosophy

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This is without doubt the best of the Great Courses I've purchased. Professor James Hall is a pleasure to listen to: he is a master of his subject and has an excellent speaking voice. He doesn't assume any prior knowledge on the part of the listener and his descriptions of (for instance) the Ontological, Cosmological and Teleological Arguments for the existence of God are the best I've come across. Highly recommended to anyone - believer, agnostic or atheist - interested in the subject.

Superb!

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A difficult subject well explained, the professor covers a lot of ground and is even handed in his treatment of the subject matter. Most of the chapters are very interesting although the latter chapters about stories did not seem so interesting or critical to the subject . Well narrated.

A well balanced course.

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What I have found generally in The Great Courses is the lecturer tries to give the listener a good general understanding of the topic with an occasional "this is what I think" aside at some points. Of course to some degree all presentations of a subject are what the author thinks, but mostly I get the impression that the lecturer is doing as good a job as they can of trying to cover the general points at issue, and then perhaps just saying which side they personally come down on.

My problem with this course was it seemed very much as if the whole course was James Hall giving his own reasons for his own personal points of view. Of course being a Professor he is going to take quite a while to explain himself, and so over the course of the lectures he does cover a lot of ground in the philosophy of religion, but I never felt he was fairly covering the various points held, but rather lining up the arguments he disagreed with it make them sound quite absurd.

Another problem is he often just says "some philosophers argue..." without giving examples of who has actually proposed that argument - making it difficult to cross-reference if he is being fair. As an example one lecture is about the idea that religion can be bracketed off from philosophy and so no "natural theology" can be done. This sounds like Karl Barth but the presentation of the position was nothing like Barth argues, so whose argument was he presenting? We just don't know so it is difficult to evaluate how fair he is being.

When he does cite someone however it was almost as confusing, because he kept citing Voltaire as presenting an argument about this being the best of all possible worlds - but Voltaire parodies this argument, which in any case is one I've only heard Leibnitz present, it certainly isn't one Aquinas agrees with and I'm not aware of any theologian or Christian philosopher who does.

Similarly he cites Paley in the argument from design - but Paley wasn't a Christian theologian or philosopher and in fact as Alister McGrath‎ has shown Christian theologians at the time disagreed with Paley, so he is hardly representative. What he is know for is being a well know straw man for the atheists to argue against. So again Professor Hall is giving a very misleading picture of the debate.

If you want to learn about philosophy of religion I wouldn't start here. Whatever Professor James actually thinks is hard to discover and I suspect anyone trying to fit together what he says into a single whole is going to end up very confused - the implications of what Professor James argues are very contradictory and if you have a good grasp of logic you will be saying "wait - how can you believe both X and Y??"

From The Great Courses I would suggest a better alternative is to listen to both sides separately - listen to a pro-theist and then an anti-theist lecturer and make your mind up that way - I think hoping for one person to give you a fair summary of both sides is perhaps hoping for too much, although on that basis, Professor James might count as a valid option for the anti-theist view.

A very personal view of the Philosophy of Religion

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Where does Philosophy of Religion rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Religions and their various aspects are an area of interest for me. The fact it is actually a lecture given by an academic, not just an audiobook, makes it even more attractive to me. It feels more authentic and at certain points I felt like sitting in a lecture hall listening.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Philosophy of Religion?

It is hard to say. There are many interesting points throughout all the book. It is a lecture, not a movie.

Have you listened to any of Professor James Hall’s other performances? How does this one compare?

It has been my first and so far only encounter with Professor Hall. One of the reasons I did purchase this book was the fact his voice felt well comprehensible and comfortable to listen.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Not a film, but perhaps a documentary. Tag line? "Anything you ever wanted to know about Philosophy of Religion but were afraid to ask." ;-)

Any additional comments?

A book for anybody who wishes to educate her/himself.

Interesting listen

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it say "write your review (optional)", yet, I have to put here 15 words to submit.

cliche

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