Religion in Philosophy Textbooks

NINE years ago the Hazen Foundation and the Committee on Religion and Higher Education of the American Council of Education sponsored a volume, College Reading and Religion,1 composed of thirteen chapters each dealing with a major college discipline and written by a specialist within the field. The whole was an attempt to evaluate the treatment of religion in college texts. The chapter on "Problems of Philosophy" was written by Peter A. Bertocci of Boston University and included a series of criteria by which introductory texts in philosophy should be judged. They must "explain the essential scope and meaning of the Hebrew-Christian standpoint, without disregarding other influential religious world views."2 Specifically this means "the belief in a Being, independent of man, who is the ultimate Source and Conserver of existence and values . . a person."3 The nature and attributes of this God, arguments for and against God, the case for human freedom, the case for personal immortality, the philosophical conclusions and ethical attitudes to which religious belief leads must be expounded. This paper attempts to continue the earlier study by examining in the light of its criteria six texts which have appeared within the present decade. Their treatment of religion will be briefly summarized, their adequacy judged, and certain conclusions noted. Louis O. Kattsoff in Elements of Philosophy4 attempts to meet the need for "a general, philosophic introduction to the meanings of ideas and ... the methods of critically analyzing and evaluating them."5 This analytic approach is well illustrated in a chapter devoted to "The Religious Problem" which revolves about answers to six questions. 1. What is meant by "religion"? "A religion expresses a set of behavior patterns and beliefs as to the highest and best values; it concerns itself with enumerating and explaining them and not with justifying them, except in a secondary sense."6 2. What is meant by the word "God"? Some characteristic adjectives used to modify the word "God" are noted, and it is pointed out that these terms applied univocally to God are difficult to accept, e.g., the notion of God as "father" or "creator." Additional problems include the reconciliation of an unchanging God and the act of creation, the reconciliation of an allgood and all-powerful God with the problem of evil, the affirmation of the existence of a God whose nature is beyond human knowledge. 3. What is meant by "God exists"? This means that "God is real," that "there is a being God, having certain properties."' 4. What is the evidence for the existence of God? The ontological, psychological, cosmological, teleological, moral, and probability arguments are stated, but none of these is said to be logically valid since they all make dubious assumptions. 5. What are some of the solutions to the problems in philosophy of religion? Ayer's positivism, Dewey's naturalism, Brightman's empiricism, and Hocking's idealism are all briefly described. To his last question, 6. How do we know facts about God ? Kattsoff gives no specific answer but points out that here we return to the basic problem of all philosophy, "How should one conceive reality ?" Archie J. Bahm's Philosophy, An Introduction8 devotes a chapter to philosophy of religion which is defined as the "scientific study of religion" the general problem of which is "to discover the nature of religion" and investigate its "various characteristics * BERT C. WILLIAMS is Professor of Philosophy in Chapman College, Orange, California.