Author: nrloewen

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2015 AAR Seminar

The inaugural, 2015 session of the “Global Critical Philosophy of Religion Seminar” is devoted to determining the key topics or categories that will structure the content of the book. What core topics or problems should appear in a religiously inclusive and critically informed philosophy of religion?

The aim of the session was to start a constructive discussion about an introductory textbook for philosophy of religion that is religiously inclusive and critically informed. The initial concept was for a textbook that thoroughly integrates non theistic religious philosophies and critically engages the methodological and theoretical issues of religious studies. The seminar was constituted by area-specialist scholars of religion, comparativist philosophers of religion, critical theorists of religion, and traditional (analytic) philosophers of religion. Beginning with this session, the group began forming with an aim to identify the comparative categories and critical terms for global-critical philosophy of religion, to populate these categories with the arguments and ideas of a diversity of religious traditions, to take up critical issues pertaining to cross-cultural comparison and philosophy of these arguments and ideas, and to develop the blueprint and content for an innovative new undergraduate textbook in global-critical philosophy of religion. 

The session featured the following papers:

“From “Faith and Reason” to the Post-Colonial Re-Evaluation of
Religious Epistemologies,” Jacob Sherman (University of Cambridge)

“Rethinking the Categories of Philosophy of Religion Through the
Particularities of Shabistari and Sarasvati’s Epistemologies of the Self,” Nariman Aavani ( Harvard University)

“Philosophy of Religion and Disabilities” Nathaniel Holmes (Florida Memorial University)

“Scripture as a Topic in Global-Critical Philosophy of Religion: A
Preliminary Survey of Major Questions,” Steven G. Smith (Millsaps College)

“The Problem of Religious Language,” Lawrence Whitney (Boston University)

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Global Critical Philosophy of Religion: Global Categories and Problems

Bloomsbury, 2024.

Tim Knepper, Editor.

Global Categories and Problems develops chapters from papers developed for an NEH Collaborative Grant. The authors will present their drafts at a mini-conference in October 2021. 17 core scholars will propose core categories and questions from their own area of specialization (South Asian, East Asian, African, Native American, Abrahamic, and contemporary-academic philosophy of religion).

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Diversifying Philosophy of Religion: Critiques, Methods, and Case Studies

Bloomsbury, 2023.

Nathan Loewen and Agnieszka Rostalska, Editors.

How might philosophical studies of religion enter the globalized, 21st-century world? Diversifying Philosophy of Religion: Critiques, Methods, and Case Studies is the first of four volumes whose contributions develop neglected topics and issues in the philosophy of religion. The volume engages critical theoretical and methodological issues in the academic study of religion, especially as they implicate issues of power regarding who speaks for and represents religious traditions and philosophies. These issues encompass, though exceed, the following: the construction of religion and religious traditions; who represents or speaks about religious issues, how, and why; critical issues of power, race, class, sexuality, gender, and intersectionality; and the methods and aims of global philosophy of religion. Where much philosophical thinking about religion in the English-speaking world inherits the limitations of Eurocentrism, colonialism and orientalism, these volumes are designed to creatively address these boundaries by developing models for exploring global diversity. Each volume’s chapters demonstrate how expertise in different methods may be applied to various geographical regions, building constructive options for philosophical reflections on religion.

See the table of contents.

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How might philosophical studies of religion enter the globalized, 21st-century world?

Humanistic inquiry in the globalized, 21st century does, or at least should, involve cultural-historical diversity and self-critical reflexivity. For philosophers of religion, these are no small issues. If philosophy of religion were to globalize itself simply by “tacking on” the content of the many non-Abrahamic religions to its existing docket of questions, most of these religions would wind up looking weird, inferior, or wrong. Not much would change. Everything would stay the same. It is no surprise, therefore, that scholars of religion in general tend to disparage philosophy of religion as crypto Christian theology.

It is therefore necessary to rethink the philosophy of religion from the ground-up, with an entirely new set of categories and questions. This is no small task. On the one hand, scholars of religious ideas, reasons, and worldviews are trained and competent in a particular cultural- historical subset of such ideas, reasons, and worldviews. On the other hand, no set of categories and questions from within some particular religious or scholarly tradition translates across all religious and scholarly traditions.

Our project is comprised of scholars who aim to propose, test, and modify a set of categories and questions for cross-cultural philosophy of religion. Our site explains what projects we have launched to answer the following question:

If philosophy involves raising and pursuing questions of meaning, truth, and value (however possible), and if religion encompasses the dozens, if not hundreds, of globally “ism-ized” and more localized religious traditions and communities through space and time, then by what theoretical and methodological means, if at all, can philosophers of religion raise and pursue questions of meaning, truth, and value about these traditions and communities in a way that is globally inclusive and critically mindful?