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Skeptics and Believers: Religious Debate in the Western Intellectual Tradition
With the advent of modernity, the questions on which philosophers and religious thinkers had been reflecting for centuries underwent a dramatic and unprecedented change.
For over a thousand years, the existence of God and the importance of religion had gone unquestioned in the Western world. Any discussion was confined to the best ways of understanding and putting into practice a religious truth that had already been revealed.
But beginning in the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation and the Scientific Revolution began to erode the position of authority held by religion. A new willingness to confront religious authority and a new respect for reason and its accomplishments began to counter established ways of thinking based on revealed religious truth.
As a result, modern philosophy began to separate from theology, and new philosophers began constructing a universal, human rationality independent of faith. For the first time in human history, it had become possible to not simply ponder faith and its forms of expression, but to challenge it as a fundamental truth—and to even question the very existence of God.
This schism fundamentally changed the course of Western civilization, and it has had consequences that remain with us to this day.
Now, with Skeptics and Believers: Religious Debate in the Western Intellectual Tradition, noted scholar and Professor Tyler Roberts of Grinnell College leads you through a 36-lecture journey that will help you understand exactly what the debate has been and will continue to be about.
The Challenging Debate That Has Defined Western Culture
This conversation is especially important in the West, which still plays host to an active debate between belief and skepticism far more vigorous than in other parts of the world.
It's a debate that increasingly swirls around the role religion should have in our lives, not only in terms of our personal decisions about worship but over how much influence religion is to have in the public arena, including politics, education, and medicine and other sciences. And recent decades have seen a growing list of questions focused on that latter aspect.
-- Should "creation theory" be placed on an equal footing with the teaching of evolution in the public schools?
-- Should religious doctrine have a voice in determining the legality of contraception, abortion, or medical solutions to the inability to have children?
The unmistakable conclusion is that each of us has a vital stake in understanding the nuances of the debate as offered by this course, which can add significantly to the level of sophistication you already bring to one of today's most far-reaching issues.
By gaining a richer understanding of the key aspects of this debate—including the nature of the conflict, the meaning of the arguments, and what is at stake both philosophically and theologically—you also increase your understanding not only of Western civilization's past, but of the direction of its future, as well.
Grasp the Ideas of the West's Most Influential Theological and Philosophical Minds
Drawing on some of Western civilization's greatest theological and philosophical minds, Professor Roberts has designed a course that spans a theological spectrum ranging from the purely religious to the rigorously secular as he explores the intellectual approaches taken to answering the new questions modernity made possible.
-- Is religion irrational and illusory or is it actually essential for human life?
-- Is religious faith merely blind submission, or can it, in fact, be part of an intellectually vital and realistic view of the world?
Skeptics and Believers is not a course in religious doctrine but one of intellectual and philosophical exploration. It examines more than three centuries of debate in the Western world about the nature of religious faith and its compatibility with reason, even-handedly following and analyzing the arguments of both skeptics and believers.
You will see how some of these argued their positions from a religious perspective—primarily Christian and Jewish, since the focus of this course is on Western thought—and how others approached the issue as one of pure philosophy. And you will also encounter still others for whom a separation between these two spheres was impossible, as well as those who sought to explain religion as a psychological or social phenomenon.
In examining the challenges to religious thought and the defenses mounted in favor of it through the Protestant Reformation, Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment, and subsequent periods up to the present day and a discussion of secularism, Professor Roberts draws on the work of a stunning range of provocative thinkers—each of whom changed the face of the debate and left succeeding minds a fresh array of insights to deal with:
-- Thomas Aquinas, the theologian whose integration of theology and Aristotelian philosophy made him the mos...
For over a thousand years, the existence of God and the importance of religion had gone unquestioned in the Western world. Any discussion was confined to the best ways of understanding and putting into practice a religious truth that had already been revealed.
But beginning in the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation and the Scientific Revolution began to erode the position of authority held by religion. A new willingness to confront religious authority and a new respect for reason and its accomplishments began to counter established ways of thinking based on revealed religious truth.
As a result, modern philosophy began to separate from theology, and new philosophers began constructing a universal, human rationality independent of faith. For the first time in human history, it had become possible to not simply ponder faith and its forms of expression, but to challenge it as a fundamental truth—and to even question the very existence of God.
This schism fundamentally changed the course of Western civilization, and it has had consequences that remain with us to this day.
Now, with Skeptics and Believers: Religious Debate in the Western Intellectual Tradition, noted scholar and Professor Tyler Roberts of Grinnell College leads you through a 36-lecture journey that will help you understand exactly what the debate has been and will continue to be about.
The Challenging Debate That Has Defined Western Culture
This conversation is especially important in the West, which still plays host to an active debate between belief and skepticism far more vigorous than in other parts of the world.
It's a debate that increasingly swirls around the role religion should have in our lives, not only in terms of our personal decisions about worship but over how much influence religion is to have in the public arena, including politics, education, and medicine and other sciences. And recent decades have seen a growing list of questions focused on that latter aspect.
-- Should "creation theory" be placed on an equal footing with the teaching of evolution in the public schools?
-- Should religious doctrine have a voice in determining the legality of contraception, abortion, or medical solutions to the inability to have children?
The unmistakable conclusion is that each of us has a vital stake in understanding the nuances of the debate as offered by this course, which can add significantly to the level of sophistication you already bring to one of today's most far-reaching issues.
By gaining a richer understanding of the key aspects of this debate—including the nature of the conflict, the meaning of the arguments, and what is at stake both philosophically and theologically—you also increase your understanding not only of Western civilization's past, but of the direction of its future, as well.
Grasp the Ideas of the West's Most Influential Theological and Philosophical Minds
Drawing on some of Western civilization's greatest theological and philosophical minds, Professor Roberts has designed a course that spans a theological spectrum ranging from the purely religious to the rigorously secular as he explores the intellectual approaches taken to answering the new questions modernity made possible.
-- Is religion irrational and illusory or is it actually essential for human life?
-- Is religious faith merely blind submission, or can it, in fact, be part of an intellectually vital and realistic view of the world?
Skeptics and Believers is not a course in religious doctrine but one of intellectual and philosophical exploration. It examines more than three centuries of debate in the Western world about the nature of religious faith and its compatibility with reason, even-handedly following and analyzing the arguments of both skeptics and believers.
You will see how some of these argued their positions from a religious perspective—primarily Christian and Jewish, since the focus of this course is on Western thought—and how others approached the issue as one of pure philosophy. And you will also encounter still others for whom a separation between these two spheres was impossible, as well as those who sought to explain religion as a psychological or social phenomenon.
In examining the challenges to religious thought and the defenses mounted in favor of it through the Protestant Reformation, Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment, and subsequent periods up to the present day and a discussion of secularism, Professor Roberts draws on the work of a stunning range of provocative thinkers—each of whom changed the face of the debate and left succeeding minds a fresh array of insights to deal with:
-- Thomas Aquinas, the theologian whose integration of theology and Aristotelian philosophy made him the mos...
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First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 28, 2010
These thirty-six lectures span the theological and philosophical spectrum ranging from the purely religious to the rigorously secular while exploring various intellectual approaches to issues of faith and reason. Along the way the lectures introduce the listener to big names such as Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Barth. Whole lectures are devoted to these great thinkers, and in the cases of Kant, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, two lectures. These and many other great thinkers are discussed and explained with language that can be understood by those who will never read the original writing of these famous individuals.
The lectures toward the end of the series are focused on issues with the views from multiple scholars being described around the given topic. These topics include many of the issues of later 20th Century and the 21st Century (e.g. liberation theology, postmodern theologies, fundamentalism and Islamism, new atheism, and pluralism). The discussion of the Holocaust and related questions of theodicy were particularly well done. But of course, these lectures didn't present the conclusive and final answer to the problem of evil. But rather they provided a summary of the many different ways that Post-Enlightenment thinkers have approached the issue.
The material is presented in roughly chronological order with a solid historical foundation laid in the early lectures providing the listener with a basic beginning point. The differing points of view are presented even-handedly and objectively with no apparent bias. The lecturer maintains a thread of connections between the differing ideas and manages to weave a vast amount of material into a coherent whole.
However, the lectures are framed around the writings of Nietzsche in a way that some listeners may percieve to be a deference to his ideas. This is probably a product of Tyler T. Roberts' (the lecturer) doctoral thesis subject having been on Nietzsche:
Harvard University, Divinity School, Th. D. in Theology, 1993
Dissertation: "Asceticism and Affirmation: Nietzsche's Relevance as Religious Thinker" Advisor: Prof. Gordon Kaufman. Defended Nov. 30, 1992.
It's ironic that the words "skeptic" and "believer" which are in the title are (almost) never used within the lectures themselves. Within the lectures, "suspicion" is used in lieu of "skeptic" and "traditionalist" is often used in lieu of "believer." Nevertheless the title is an attention getter and serves its purpose. The subtitle--"Religious Debate in the Western Intellectual Tradition"--is more descriptive of the content of the lectures than the title. However, even the word "debate" is a bit of hyperbole because the lectures are mostly reporting on the writings of various Post Enlightnment philosphers and theologians. The lectures allow these famous thinkers to speak for themselves, and any debate is described with dispassionate second hand reporting. Perhaps an honest descriptive--but boring--title or subtitle would have been, "Post Enlightenment Philosophy of Religion In Its Many Varieties."
I found lectures 1 through 28 a bit of a challenge to follow since they were reporting on the complex thoughts contained in writings of famous philosophers and theologians. Lectures 29 through 36 were on more modern issues, and I found them a bit easier for me to follow. Generally, I would credit Roberts for explaining things as clearly as is humanly possible. That didn't always mean that I found it easy to understand.
The Post-Enlightenment evolution of philosophical and theological thought as described in these lectures is similar the spectrum of change that I have experienced growing up in a conservative religious community and taking on a more liberal and metaphorical view of religion as an adult. Of course the philosophers and theologians described in these lectures articulated their thinking with more precision than was ever done by me. But that is what made these lectures fascinating to me. It was—loosely speaking—an explanation of my own intellectual maturation with the tools and words that had not been available to me. I don’t claim to have understood or agreed with everything described in theses lectures. But there was enough that I could pick and choose from that I felt my listening time was well spent.
Course Lecture Titles:
1. Religion and Modernity
2. From Suspicion to the Premodern Cosmos
3. From Catholicism to Protestantism
4. Scientific Revolution and Descartes
5. Descartes and Modern Philosophy
6. Enlightenment and Religion
7. Natural Religion and Its Critics
8. Kant—Religion and Moral Reason
9. Kant, Romanticism, and Pietism
10. Schleiermacher—Religion and Experience
11. Hegel—Religion, Spirit, and History
12. Theology and the Challenge of History
13. 19th-Century Christian Modernists
14. 19th-Century Christian Antimodernists
15. Judaism and Modernity
16. Kierkegaard's Faith
17. Kierkegaard's Paradox
18. 19th-Century Suspicion and Feuerbach
19. Marx—Religion as False Consciousness
20. Nietzsche and the Genealogy of Morals
21. Nietzsche—Religion and the Ascetic Ideal
22. Freud—Religion as Neurosis
23. Barth and the End of Liberal Theology
24. Theology and Suspicion
25. Protestant Theology after Barth
26. 20th-Century Catholicism
27. Modern Jewish Philosophy
28. Post-Holocaust Theology
29. Liberation Theology
30. Secular and Postmodern Theologies
31. Postmodernism and Tradition
32. Fundamentalism and Islamism
33. New Atheisms
34. Religion and Rationality
35. Pluralisms—Religious and Secular
36. Faith, Suspicion, and Modernity
The lectures toward the end of the series are focused on issues with the views from multiple scholars being described around the given topic. These topics include many of the issues of later 20th Century and the 21st Century (e.g. liberation theology, postmodern theologies, fundamentalism and Islamism, new atheism, and pluralism). The discussion of the Holocaust and related questions of theodicy were particularly well done. But of course, these lectures didn't present the conclusive and final answer to the problem of evil. But rather they provided a summary of the many different ways that Post-Enlightenment thinkers have approached the issue.
The material is presented in roughly chronological order with a solid historical foundation laid in the early lectures providing the listener with a basic beginning point. The differing points of view are presented even-handedly and objectively with no apparent bias. The lecturer maintains a thread of connections between the differing ideas and manages to weave a vast amount of material into a coherent whole.
However, the lectures are framed around the writings of Nietzsche in a way that some listeners may percieve to be a deference to his ideas. This is probably a product of Tyler T. Roberts' (the lecturer) doctoral thesis subject having been on Nietzsche:
Harvard University, Divinity School, Th. D. in Theology, 1993
Dissertation: "Asceticism and Affirmation: Nietzsche's Relevance as Religious Thinker" Advisor: Prof. Gordon Kaufman. Defended Nov. 30, 1992.
It's ironic that the words "skeptic" and "believer" which are in the title are (almost) never used within the lectures themselves. Within the lectures, "suspicion" is used in lieu of "skeptic" and "traditionalist" is often used in lieu of "believer." Nevertheless the title is an attention getter and serves its purpose. The subtitle--"Religious Debate in the Western Intellectual Tradition"--is more descriptive of the content of the lectures than the title. However, even the word "debate" is a bit of hyperbole because the lectures are mostly reporting on the writings of various Post Enlightnment philosphers and theologians. The lectures allow these famous thinkers to speak for themselves, and any debate is described with dispassionate second hand reporting. Perhaps an honest descriptive--but boring--title or subtitle would have been, "Post Enlightenment Philosophy of Religion In Its Many Varieties."
I found lectures 1 through 28 a bit of a challenge to follow since they were reporting on the complex thoughts contained in writings of famous philosophers and theologians. Lectures 29 through 36 were on more modern issues, and I found them a bit easier for me to follow. Generally, I would credit Roberts for explaining things as clearly as is humanly possible. That didn't always mean that I found it easy to understand.
The Post-Enlightenment evolution of philosophical and theological thought as described in these lectures is similar the spectrum of change that I have experienced growing up in a conservative religious community and taking on a more liberal and metaphorical view of religion as an adult. Of course the philosophers and theologians described in these lectures articulated their thinking with more precision than was ever done by me. But that is what made these lectures fascinating to me. It was—loosely speaking—an explanation of my own intellectual maturation with the tools and words that had not been available to me. I don’t claim to have understood or agreed with everything described in theses lectures. But there was enough that I could pick and choose from that I felt my listening time was well spent.
Course Lecture Titles:
1. Religion and Modernity
2. From Suspicion to the Premodern Cosmos
3. From Catholicism to Protestantism
4. Scientific Revolution and Descartes
5. Descartes and Modern Philosophy
6. Enlightenment and Religion
7. Natural Religion and Its Critics
8. Kant—Religion and Moral Reason
9. Kant, Romanticism, and Pietism
10. Schleiermacher—Religion and Experience
11. Hegel—Religion, Spirit, and History
12. Theology and the Challenge of History
13. 19th-Century Christian Modernists
14. 19th-Century Christian Antimodernists
15. Judaism and Modernity
16. Kierkegaard's Faith
17. Kierkegaard's Paradox
18. 19th-Century Suspicion and Feuerbach
19. Marx—Religion as False Consciousness
20. Nietzsche and the Genealogy of Morals
21. Nietzsche—Religion and the Ascetic Ideal
22. Freud—Religion as Neurosis
23. Barth and the End of Liberal Theology
24. Theology and Suspicion
25. Protestant Theology after Barth
26. 20th-Century Catholicism
27. Modern Jewish Philosophy
28. Post-Holocaust Theology
29. Liberation Theology
30. Secular and Postmodern Theologies
31. Postmodernism and Tradition
32. Fundamentalism and Islamism
33. New Atheisms
34. Religion and Rationality
35. Pluralisms—Religious and Secular
36. Faith, Suspicion, and Modernity
November 5, 2022
Expired before I finished.
November 30, 2022
Tyler Roberts's lectures on "Skeptics and Believers," is a series of lectures that traces the history of modern theology and philosophy culminating in the response of the three major skeptics: Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud.
Roberts was a professor of religion with a specialty in Nietzche, so this series of lectures is right in his sweet spot. Where Roberts is weakest is with the theologians. I came with the inverse strengths. I have read some philosophy, but much more theology. Roberts's weakness in handling the theologians is understandable. No one can be an expert in everything, and everyone comes with a bias. Roberts himself is a skeptic, and while he does an admirable job of trying to be balanced, I actually think the lectures would have been stronger if he would have been clearer about his own biases as opposed to trying to lecture with a veneer of neutrality.
Anyone interested in the development of philosophy or theology would benefit from Roberts's lectures. I particularly appreciated how Roberts brought out the religious motivations for many philosophers in the journey. Descartes, Kant, Hegel, and others ended up raising significant challenges that theologians have to answer, but did so with convictions that were trying to make Christianity make sense in the world they inhabited.
Roberts concludes his lectures trying to make room for skeptics and believers alike without making any ultimate claims. While I think that Roberts's conclusion isn't intellectually or spiritually satisfying, I believe he is sincere. As a Christian, there are so many more thinkers I wish that could have been included into this conversation. I also chaffed at the (Hegelian) trajectory which to some degree implies intellectual development as the course progresses. This implicit chronological snobbery (which also ignores contemporary orthodox Christian thinkers) is disappointing.
I was grateful for the challenge and sharpening that Roberts brought to my thinking in "Skeptics and Believers."
For more reviews see thebeehive.live.
Roberts was a professor of religion with a specialty in Nietzche, so this series of lectures is right in his sweet spot. Where Roberts is weakest is with the theologians. I came with the inverse strengths. I have read some philosophy, but much more theology. Roberts's weakness in handling the theologians is understandable. No one can be an expert in everything, and everyone comes with a bias. Roberts himself is a skeptic, and while he does an admirable job of trying to be balanced, I actually think the lectures would have been stronger if he would have been clearer about his own biases as opposed to trying to lecture with a veneer of neutrality.
Anyone interested in the development of philosophy or theology would benefit from Roberts's lectures. I particularly appreciated how Roberts brought out the religious motivations for many philosophers in the journey. Descartes, Kant, Hegel, and others ended up raising significant challenges that theologians have to answer, but did so with convictions that were trying to make Christianity make sense in the world they inhabited.
Roberts concludes his lectures trying to make room for skeptics and believers alike without making any ultimate claims. While I think that Roberts's conclusion isn't intellectually or spiritually satisfying, I believe he is sincere. As a Christian, there are so many more thinkers I wish that could have been included into this conversation. I also chaffed at the (Hegelian) trajectory which to some degree implies intellectual development as the course progresses. This implicit chronological snobbery (which also ignores contemporary orthodox Christian thinkers) is disappointing.
I was grateful for the challenge and sharpening that Roberts brought to my thinking in "Skeptics and Believers."
For more reviews see thebeehive.live.
November 13, 2017
Hermeneutics is a big word, and in the end is really what this course is all about. The definition of 'hermeneutics' in the lecture notes is: "The study of methods of interpretation." In other sources the definition is further clarified as: "...that literal analysis meaning “a biblical text is to be deciphered according to the ‘plain meaning’ expressed by its linguistic construction and historical context.” The intention of the authors is believed to correspond to the literal meaning. Literal hermeneutics is often associated with the verbal inspiration of the Bible." Whew!
In these lectures, Dr Roberts (a thoroughly engaging lecturer and wonderfully knowledgeable on the philosophy of the Christian Bible), explores faith, versus the suspicion of faith, through the examination of philosophical writings from Anselm to modernity (such a better word than just saying 'modern times', don't you think?)...and there are quite a few famous and not-so-famous philosophers and biblical scholars that he cites...maybe too many. So Dr Roberts' methods of interpretation (hermeneutics) seems to contrast faith (defined by some as: "...strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof. Or, more secularly: "...complete trust or confidence in someone or something.") with reason (aka science, defined by some as: "...the power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgments by a process of logic." Or, in the case of science: "...a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe."). His arguments (apologies?) rely on the philosophers points of view as those points evolved through time (i.e. is the Bible to be taken literally? Was the Pentateuch written solely by Moses? Do Christians exhibit faith in religion or faith in Jesus?). These philosophers are countered by those employing reason...or the scientific method...whereby humanism is stressed, along with those pesky facts, and supernatural aspects are ignored. Nietzsche, Freud and Dawkins are but a few of those 'thinkers' who are suspicious of divinity.
While I admit that I struggled with keeping up with the arguments, and found myself shaking my head in disbelief of some particular line of reasoning, I found that I have profited from being made aware of these points of view, however much I disagreed with them. My rating of a '3' shouldn't suggest that these lectures aren't worthwhile...they are. But it takes a lot of mental work (and a fair amount of googling) to get the full measure of meaning. I just wish there were more arguments from the suspicious side, and a little less from the faithful.
Recommended, guardedly....and take your time.
In these lectures, Dr Roberts (a thoroughly engaging lecturer and wonderfully knowledgeable on the philosophy of the Christian Bible), explores faith, versus the suspicion of faith, through the examination of philosophical writings from Anselm to modernity (such a better word than just saying 'modern times', don't you think?)...and there are quite a few famous and not-so-famous philosophers and biblical scholars that he cites...maybe too many. So Dr Roberts' methods of interpretation (hermeneutics) seems to contrast faith (defined by some as: "...strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof. Or, more secularly: "...complete trust or confidence in someone or something.") with reason (aka science, defined by some as: "...the power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgments by a process of logic." Or, in the case of science: "...a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe."). His arguments (apologies?) rely on the philosophers points of view as those points evolved through time (i.e. is the Bible to be taken literally? Was the Pentateuch written solely by Moses? Do Christians exhibit faith in religion or faith in Jesus?). These philosophers are countered by those employing reason...or the scientific method...whereby humanism is stressed, along with those pesky facts, and supernatural aspects are ignored. Nietzsche, Freud and Dawkins are but a few of those 'thinkers' who are suspicious of divinity.
While I admit that I struggled with keeping up with the arguments, and found myself shaking my head in disbelief of some particular line of reasoning, I found that I have profited from being made aware of these points of view, however much I disagreed with them. My rating of a '3' shouldn't suggest that these lectures aren't worthwhile...they are. But it takes a lot of mental work (and a fair amount of googling) to get the full measure of meaning. I just wish there were more arguments from the suspicious side, and a little less from the faithful.
Recommended, guardedly....and take your time.
March 23, 2021
These lectures briefly review the development of religious thoughts from the enlightenment period (17th Century) to now.
The narrative is approximately chronological, starting from the emergence of Protestantism in the 16th-century. In that period, the mainstream was the "natural religion," which justifies religions based on reason and logic. This is a departure from the previous tradition of considering the scriptures as the sole source of the truth concerning religion. While Aguainus divides the world into natural and supernatural to reserve a boundary that "protects" God from rational questioning, Descartes and Locke try to justify God's existence based on reasons. In the process, they select and change religious teachings to fit them into the new "rational" framework. Such thinking is known as natural religion. On the other hand, empiricists such as Hume refuses to believe some scripture materials such as miracles unless supported by well-documented witnesses.
The effort of justifying religion through reason continued into the 18th-century and culminated with Kant. Kant unites rationalism and empiricism by identifying the human mind as the central agency for obtaining knowledge. He also admits that we cannot eliminate uncertainty beyond our limited experiences. Therefore, we can understand religion and God to a certain degree. Kant also establishes a rational ground for morality, another central topic in religion. He tries to ground morality on some universal principles.
Apart from the rational approach from the Enlightenment, several other trends developed in the 18th Century in understanding religion.
• Pietism stresses the personal connection with God based on revelations and experiences. This tradition leads to the emergence of evangelical Christianity in the United States.
• Romanticism thinks the region is the product of human creativity and is related to arts, poetry, etc.
• Schleiermacher protects religion from scientific criticisms by claiming it a separate "sphere" from science.
• Hegel considers God, our understanding and relationship with God, and the institution of religion as part of the dialectic development of reality. They interact and evolve together with history.
• Other scholars studied the history of Christianity. For example, they ask whether the Bible represents God's teaching or was written by multiple authors at the time. They hope to gain more understanding of the religion by treating it as a historical product. Such an approach is known as critical theology.
The lectures then turned into the 19th Century. In this period, both Protestant and Catholic Christians engage in two opposing movements. The modernists follow Schleiermacher's approach to stress personal experiences and personal connections. The Antimodernists attempted to return to the original authorities. On the other hand, Protestants and Catholics differ in their views about the authorities of the Pope and the Bible.
At the same time, Kierkegaard started another trend of discounting the role and power of reasons. He argues that the human lost the reasoning ability because they sinned. Therefore, they must rely on God to understand the world and themselves. This trend of thoughts was carried to the 20th Century by Barth. While rejecting the role of reasoning, Barth went farther and dismissed the Bible as "unfaith" and advocated getting God's message through Jesus only and treating the Bible as a witness to Jesus. Barth considered this approach a new way of gaining knowledge, known as confession, which is different from reasoning and revelation. He ended the liberal theology by refusing to project God to the human level. Another similar thinker is Ricoeur. He thought we should take the Bible as a whole, representing a message from God. We should not censor the Bible to reject what we consider as unreasonable.
Another important trend in the 19th Century is the suspicion movement. Starting from Hagel and Feuerbach and pushed by Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, the suspicions consider religion a social phenomenon. They explained that religions are created by humans to satisfy their psychological and societal needs. Therefore, religion will change or disappear as society changes.
As said above, some 19th Century trends continued into the 20th Century. On the other hand, the 20th Century also witnessed a general secularization of Western society. People cope with such a change by proposing new relationships between God and the human. At the same time, religious activities were further integrated into social movements, from the fundamentalism on the one side and secular theologies on the other. The lectures conclude by addressing the secular criticism from Sam Harris. The author argues that in the era of Modernity and post-Modernity, religions still have a place in human intellectual activities and society. Religious thinking and activities are beyond science and reason; they represent another dimension of human intelligence.
The author spent several lectures on Judaism and Islamism. The lectures do not include other religions such as Buddhism and Taoism.
Overall, the lectures provide a concise overview of Christianity facing the challenge of Enlightenment and Modernity. Although the lectures are in chronological order, the author devoted considerate efforts to highlight the connections among the multiple thinkers. Many lectures start by summarizing a thinker covered in a previous lecture before introducing the primary topic. Such an approach is very helpful for the students to grasp the threads of development. On the other hand, I found the recaps do not always match my impression from the previous lectures, causing confusion. The lectures are a bit difficult to follow because the author tends to repeat the same point in several ways. It is not always clear when the focus is transitioned from one point to the next. The later lectures are not as well-organized as the beginning ones.
The course description, including outlines for the lectures, is available here: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/cours....
More detailed notes are attached below.
1 Religion and Modernity
This lecture is the introduction chapter.
● The goal of the course: look at the role of religion in modern life by capturing the debate since Modernity between people who think religion is a relic of the past and people who think religion is still valid as it can be supported by rational arguments.
● Modernity: the period since the scientific revolution, which makes ration prevail.
● Religion is defined as beliefs, practices, and institutions that occupy a social sphere separated from science, politics, and arts.
● Religion has gain importance in recent decades as a driving force in both international and national political dynamics. So an on-going debate is whether Modernity will eventually render religion obsolete or religion has a comeback to end the modernity era.
● Modernity:
○ Accept reason, instead of scriptures, as the ultimate authority in thinking.
○ The rational thinking tradition is rooted in Judeo-Christrinality cultural tradition tracing back to Greek. So Jewdale-Christrinality will be the central thread for our discussion, with Islam added at a later stage.
○ Rational thinking is considered a universal standard for truth. Therefore, its unifying view transcends cultural and civilizational differences.
● There are two schools of religion: the theologian bases its arguments on scriptures and traditional teachings, while the philosophy justifies religious beliefs through reasoning.
● The first part of the book reviews the debates during the enlightenment era when people argue for and against religion based on rational contemplations.
● The next part of the book talks about the 18th Century, when Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud viewed religion as a human deception instead of a school of thinking. This school of thought is known as suspicion.
● One important topic is the revelation. Is it a valid way of thinking, outside of reasoning?
2 From Suspicion to the Modern Cosmos
This lecture talks about Nietzsche and Aquinas as contrasting views.
● The suspicion school does not consider religion on a rational basis. Instead, they focus on the effect of religion on humans and society.
● Marx criticizes religion as spiritual opium. He says that religion is used to mask the suffering caused by social injustice.
● Nietzsche claimed that "God is dead," and so is the world order and direction that He represents.
● This lecture and the next goes back to medieval times to trace the Christrinanity thinking as a framework for understanding the suspicion.
● Cosmos is the universe with order and harmony. Cosmos is Christianity's worldview.
● Aquinas is a Medieval theologian with tremendous influence. He started to introduce Aristotle's teaching, which was rediscovered to the Europeans at his time, into Christianity.
● Aristotle depicts a world order without God's intervention. How to reconcile such a worldview with that of Christianity, which says God is credited for sustaining the cosmos? Aquinas's solution was to separate the natural and the supernatural. He says God does two things. One is creating the world and humans. The other is providing a destination for humans: reuniting with God. So the world is assigned a purpose by God, even if God does not intervene in world operations regularly.
● Aquinas' view was challenged by Nietzsche, who thinks there is no cosmos. The world is chaotic and without a purpose. Such conflict is the root between the cosmos and suspicion.
3 From Catholicism to Protestantism
This lecture talks about Martin Luther and the Emergence of Protestantism, continuing to set the stage for Modernity.
● Catholicism was the dominant Christian institution in Medieval times.
● Martin Luther challenged Catholicism, leading to the emergence of Protestantism. His attacks are on three parts:
○ Our faith is from the Bible, not the priests or the church.
○ The Pope had too much power. The power should be shared by lower-level church authorities.
○ The idea of Indulgence is corrupt and should be abolished.
● Luther was only continuing and culminating a trend that challenged Catholicism. In addition to advocating changes in Christian institutions and practices, this trend also adopts the view of nominalism. Nominalism contends that human concepts are derived from concrete observations and sensing instead of being instilled by God. It further removes God's grace from the natural worlds, laying the foundation for the scientific revolution.
4 Scientific Revolution and Descartes
● The struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism continues for decades, leading to various church reforms and wars between different Christian factions.
● Eventually, the scientific revolution, led by Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton, further established a view of nature that does not include God's role in its operations, if not its creation.
● At the same time, Hobbes proposed a sociological view of religion. He thinks religion was established to address people's fear of natural phenomena and social chaos. And Hobbes proposed the concept of "social contract" as a replacement for religion. He said the societies should be governed by absolute power, a dictator. But his power is not derived from God.
● With this background, Descartes proposed to prove God's existence by reason instead of from scripture.
5 Descartes and Modern Philosophy
This section summarizes Descartes' thoughts in his work Meditation.
● The main goal of Descartes' work is to justify God's existence based on reasoning. The impact of this work is more profound than the question of God. It pioneers a new way of thinking. We no longer accept the scripture as the ultimate authority. We trust human reasoning.
● The first step of Descartes' thinking is the existence of himself, based on the fact that he is thinking. By this argument, Descarte proposes a duality: a human has mind and body, separated. The mind is more primary in existence. The fact one is thinking is a certainty. However, that does not mean one has a body, which could be an illusion.
● Next, Descartes argues that God exists because he has the idea of a perfect God. If there were no God, he wouldn't have come up with such an idea.
● Then, since God is perfect, he would create a human (Descartes) that can think correctly. Therefore, Descartes can continue to think about the existence of other things.
● Note that this argument justifies God's existence but says nothing about God's properties. It does not say God is as described by the Bible.
● Descartes started a new era of putting God in the position of an object for reasoning. Many later philosophers continued his work, while many others used the same tool to disprove God's existence.
6 Enlightenment and Religion
This lecture talks about the enlightenment era in the 16th Century, focusing on Locke and Voltaire.
● The Enlightenment era accompanies the scientific revolution, where reason is widely accepted as authoritative. Scientific discoveries presented a "mechanical world" where God is not involved in its daily operations.
● There are two schools of epistemology.
○ Rationalists such as Descartes believe knowledge is deduced from first principles by logic.
○ Empiricists such as John Locke believe knowledge comes from experiences and observations. The abstract concepts are the results of induction from real-world experiences.
● John Locke proposed "reasonable religion." He said there are two ways to justify religious teachings.
○ Reason: if the teachings can be derived independently from reasons, then they are valid. This way is the same as Descartes' view.
○ Revelation: if the teachings come as revelations and cannot be justified by reason, they should not violate any reasonable conclusions. The messengers for the revelation need some type of credibility, for example, as provided by miracles.
● Voltaire does not believe religions can be justified at any intellectual level. To him, religions are just superstitions. However, he thought religions are necessary to uphold moral standards in a society.
7 Natural Religion and Its Critics
This lecture summarizes the debate in the enlightenment era, where the intellectuals hail a new form of religion. As opposed to the "positive religion," or "revealed religion," that focuses on particular practices and beliefs, "natural religion" is more general and intellectual. They, like Voltaire, dismiss the old religion as superstition and try to rebuild religion based on reason. Descartes and Locke represented this trend, while Voltaire draws the distinction more explicitly.
However, there were critics at the time, as well. David Hume, an empiricist, argues that we cannot obtain reliable evidence of God throu
The narrative is approximately chronological, starting from the emergence of Protestantism in the 16th-century. In that period, the mainstream was the "natural religion," which justifies religions based on reason and logic. This is a departure from the previous tradition of considering the scriptures as the sole source of the truth concerning religion. While Aguainus divides the world into natural and supernatural to reserve a boundary that "protects" God from rational questioning, Descartes and Locke try to justify God's existence based on reasons. In the process, they select and change religious teachings to fit them into the new "rational" framework. Such thinking is known as natural religion. On the other hand, empiricists such as Hume refuses to believe some scripture materials such as miracles unless supported by well-documented witnesses.
The effort of justifying religion through reason continued into the 18th-century and culminated with Kant. Kant unites rationalism and empiricism by identifying the human mind as the central agency for obtaining knowledge. He also admits that we cannot eliminate uncertainty beyond our limited experiences. Therefore, we can understand religion and God to a certain degree. Kant also establishes a rational ground for morality, another central topic in religion. He tries to ground morality on some universal principles.
Apart from the rational approach from the Enlightenment, several other trends developed in the 18th Century in understanding religion.
• Pietism stresses the personal connection with God based on revelations and experiences. This tradition leads to the emergence of evangelical Christianity in the United States.
• Romanticism thinks the region is the product of human creativity and is related to arts, poetry, etc.
• Schleiermacher protects religion from scientific criticisms by claiming it a separate "sphere" from science.
• Hegel considers God, our understanding and relationship with God, and the institution of religion as part of the dialectic development of reality. They interact and evolve together with history.
• Other scholars studied the history of Christianity. For example, they ask whether the Bible represents God's teaching or was written by multiple authors at the time. They hope to gain more understanding of the religion by treating it as a historical product. Such an approach is known as critical theology.
The lectures then turned into the 19th Century. In this period, both Protestant and Catholic Christians engage in two opposing movements. The modernists follow Schleiermacher's approach to stress personal experiences and personal connections. The Antimodernists attempted to return to the original authorities. On the other hand, Protestants and Catholics differ in their views about the authorities of the Pope and the Bible.
At the same time, Kierkegaard started another trend of discounting the role and power of reasons. He argues that the human lost the reasoning ability because they sinned. Therefore, they must rely on God to understand the world and themselves. This trend of thoughts was carried to the 20th Century by Barth. While rejecting the role of reasoning, Barth went farther and dismissed the Bible as "unfaith" and advocated getting God's message through Jesus only and treating the Bible as a witness to Jesus. Barth considered this approach a new way of gaining knowledge, known as confession, which is different from reasoning and revelation. He ended the liberal theology by refusing to project God to the human level. Another similar thinker is Ricoeur. He thought we should take the Bible as a whole, representing a message from God. We should not censor the Bible to reject what we consider as unreasonable.
Another important trend in the 19th Century is the suspicion movement. Starting from Hagel and Feuerbach and pushed by Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, the suspicions consider religion a social phenomenon. They explained that religions are created by humans to satisfy their psychological and societal needs. Therefore, religion will change or disappear as society changes.
As said above, some 19th Century trends continued into the 20th Century. On the other hand, the 20th Century also witnessed a general secularization of Western society. People cope with such a change by proposing new relationships between God and the human. At the same time, religious activities were further integrated into social movements, from the fundamentalism on the one side and secular theologies on the other. The lectures conclude by addressing the secular criticism from Sam Harris. The author argues that in the era of Modernity and post-Modernity, religions still have a place in human intellectual activities and society. Religious thinking and activities are beyond science and reason; they represent another dimension of human intelligence.
The author spent several lectures on Judaism and Islamism. The lectures do not include other religions such as Buddhism and Taoism.
Overall, the lectures provide a concise overview of Christianity facing the challenge of Enlightenment and Modernity. Although the lectures are in chronological order, the author devoted considerate efforts to highlight the connections among the multiple thinkers. Many lectures start by summarizing a thinker covered in a previous lecture before introducing the primary topic. Such an approach is very helpful for the students to grasp the threads of development. On the other hand, I found the recaps do not always match my impression from the previous lectures, causing confusion. The lectures are a bit difficult to follow because the author tends to repeat the same point in several ways. It is not always clear when the focus is transitioned from one point to the next. The later lectures are not as well-organized as the beginning ones.
The course description, including outlines for the lectures, is available here: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/cours....
More detailed notes are attached below.
1 Religion and Modernity
This lecture is the introduction chapter.
● The goal of the course: look at the role of religion in modern life by capturing the debate since Modernity between people who think religion is a relic of the past and people who think religion is still valid as it can be supported by rational arguments.
● Modernity: the period since the scientific revolution, which makes ration prevail.
● Religion is defined as beliefs, practices, and institutions that occupy a social sphere separated from science, politics, and arts.
● Religion has gain importance in recent decades as a driving force in both international and national political dynamics. So an on-going debate is whether Modernity will eventually render religion obsolete or religion has a comeback to end the modernity era.
● Modernity:
○ Accept reason, instead of scriptures, as the ultimate authority in thinking.
○ The rational thinking tradition is rooted in Judeo-Christrinality cultural tradition tracing back to Greek. So Jewdale-Christrinality will be the central thread for our discussion, with Islam added at a later stage.
○ Rational thinking is considered a universal standard for truth. Therefore, its unifying view transcends cultural and civilizational differences.
● There are two schools of religion: the theologian bases its arguments on scriptures and traditional teachings, while the philosophy justifies religious beliefs through reasoning.
● The first part of the book reviews the debates during the enlightenment era when people argue for and against religion based on rational contemplations.
● The next part of the book talks about the 18th Century, when Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud viewed religion as a human deception instead of a school of thinking. This school of thought is known as suspicion.
● One important topic is the revelation. Is it a valid way of thinking, outside of reasoning?
2 From Suspicion to the Modern Cosmos
This lecture talks about Nietzsche and Aquinas as contrasting views.
● The suspicion school does not consider religion on a rational basis. Instead, they focus on the effect of religion on humans and society.
● Marx criticizes religion as spiritual opium. He says that religion is used to mask the suffering caused by social injustice.
● Nietzsche claimed that "God is dead," and so is the world order and direction that He represents.
● This lecture and the next goes back to medieval times to trace the Christrinanity thinking as a framework for understanding the suspicion.
● Cosmos is the universe with order and harmony. Cosmos is Christianity's worldview.
● Aquinas is a Medieval theologian with tremendous influence. He started to introduce Aristotle's teaching, which was rediscovered to the Europeans at his time, into Christianity.
● Aristotle depicts a world order without God's intervention. How to reconcile such a worldview with that of Christianity, which says God is credited for sustaining the cosmos? Aquinas's solution was to separate the natural and the supernatural. He says God does two things. One is creating the world and humans. The other is providing a destination for humans: reuniting with God. So the world is assigned a purpose by God, even if God does not intervene in world operations regularly.
● Aquinas' view was challenged by Nietzsche, who thinks there is no cosmos. The world is chaotic and without a purpose. Such conflict is the root between the cosmos and suspicion.
3 From Catholicism to Protestantism
This lecture talks about Martin Luther and the Emergence of Protestantism, continuing to set the stage for Modernity.
● Catholicism was the dominant Christian institution in Medieval times.
● Martin Luther challenged Catholicism, leading to the emergence of Protestantism. His attacks are on three parts:
○ Our faith is from the Bible, not the priests or the church.
○ The Pope had too much power. The power should be shared by lower-level church authorities.
○ The idea of Indulgence is corrupt and should be abolished.
● Luther was only continuing and culminating a trend that challenged Catholicism. In addition to advocating changes in Christian institutions and practices, this trend also adopts the view of nominalism. Nominalism contends that human concepts are derived from concrete observations and sensing instead of being instilled by God. It further removes God's grace from the natural worlds, laying the foundation for the scientific revolution.
4 Scientific Revolution and Descartes
● The struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism continues for decades, leading to various church reforms and wars between different Christian factions.
● Eventually, the scientific revolution, led by Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton, further established a view of nature that does not include God's role in its operations, if not its creation.
● At the same time, Hobbes proposed a sociological view of religion. He thinks religion was established to address people's fear of natural phenomena and social chaos. And Hobbes proposed the concept of "social contract" as a replacement for religion. He said the societies should be governed by absolute power, a dictator. But his power is not derived from God.
● With this background, Descartes proposed to prove God's existence by reason instead of from scripture.
5 Descartes and Modern Philosophy
This section summarizes Descartes' thoughts in his work Meditation.
● The main goal of Descartes' work is to justify God's existence based on reasoning. The impact of this work is more profound than the question of God. It pioneers a new way of thinking. We no longer accept the scripture as the ultimate authority. We trust human reasoning.
● The first step of Descartes' thinking is the existence of himself, based on the fact that he is thinking. By this argument, Descarte proposes a duality: a human has mind and body, separated. The mind is more primary in existence. The fact one is thinking is a certainty. However, that does not mean one has a body, which could be an illusion.
● Next, Descartes argues that God exists because he has the idea of a perfect God. If there were no God, he wouldn't have come up with such an idea.
● Then, since God is perfect, he would create a human (Descartes) that can think correctly. Therefore, Descartes can continue to think about the existence of other things.
● Note that this argument justifies God's existence but says nothing about God's properties. It does not say God is as described by the Bible.
● Descartes started a new era of putting God in the position of an object for reasoning. Many later philosophers continued his work, while many others used the same tool to disprove God's existence.
6 Enlightenment and Religion
This lecture talks about the enlightenment era in the 16th Century, focusing on Locke and Voltaire.
● The Enlightenment era accompanies the scientific revolution, where reason is widely accepted as authoritative. Scientific discoveries presented a "mechanical world" where God is not involved in its daily operations.
● There are two schools of epistemology.
○ Rationalists such as Descartes believe knowledge is deduced from first principles by logic.
○ Empiricists such as John Locke believe knowledge comes from experiences and observations. The abstract concepts are the results of induction from real-world experiences.
● John Locke proposed "reasonable religion." He said there are two ways to justify religious teachings.
○ Reason: if the teachings can be derived independently from reasons, then they are valid. This way is the same as Descartes' view.
○ Revelation: if the teachings come as revelations and cannot be justified by reason, they should not violate any reasonable conclusions. The messengers for the revelation need some type of credibility, for example, as provided by miracles.
● Voltaire does not believe religions can be justified at any intellectual level. To him, religions are just superstitions. However, he thought religions are necessary to uphold moral standards in a society.
7 Natural Religion and Its Critics
This lecture summarizes the debate in the enlightenment era, where the intellectuals hail a new form of religion. As opposed to the "positive religion," or "revealed religion," that focuses on particular practices and beliefs, "natural religion" is more general and intellectual. They, like Voltaire, dismiss the old religion as superstition and try to rebuild religion based on reason. Descartes and Locke represented this trend, while Voltaire draws the distinction more explicitly.
However, there were critics at the time, as well. David Hume, an empiricist, argues that we cannot obtain reliable evidence of God throu
July 22, 2017
Great overview of theological history, tackling big thinkers: Descartes, Kant, Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard, Barthes, Frued, Nietzche, Marx... Clear and engaging. Good introduction to lots of thinkers I was unfamiliar with, and good review of lots I was acquainted with already. I learned a lot-- though now, as I look back at the table of contents a few months later, I realize have forgotten a lot, too. :( Curse this imperfect memory!
One big take-away (that I can remember!) was that skeptics and skepticism (Freud, Marx, Nietzche, Fuerbacher) did a good service to religion and philosophy because it caused theologians to be more cautious and nuanced in their faith claims. Fuerbacher was, for instance, really influential to Barthes and Ricour, bc he convinced them that much of what we claim about God/Christ probably are, as Fuerbacher charged, projections. This healthy skepticism is a guard against foolhardy confidence about God and a reminder to be humble about Mystery.
Prof. Roberts comes off as very likeable-- I wish I could take a class from him!
This is one I should re-listen to in a couple of years. Definitely did not absorb all of Prof. Roberts' wisdom in the first listen, and a lot of the subtleties of the various theologies escaped my understanding.
One big take-away (that I can remember!) was that skeptics and skepticism (Freud, Marx, Nietzche, Fuerbacher) did a good service to religion and philosophy because it caused theologians to be more cautious and nuanced in their faith claims. Fuerbacher was, for instance, really influential to Barthes and Ricour, bc he convinced them that much of what we claim about God/Christ probably are, as Fuerbacher charged, projections. This healthy skepticism is a guard against foolhardy confidence about God and a reminder to be humble about Mystery.
Prof. Roberts comes off as very likeable-- I wish I could take a class from him!
This is one I should re-listen to in a couple of years. Definitely did not absorb all of Prof. Roberts' wisdom in the first listen, and a lot of the subtleties of the various theologies escaped my understanding.
September 22, 2018
This is a fantastic course if you are interested in how theology and philosophy (also a bit of psychology and sociology) are connected. Some reviewers have been disappointed because the main thread is religion/theology and the work of religious and non-religious thinkers is analysed in terms of what it has to say on the development of religious thought (thus the professor talks, for example, about 'Moses and Monotheism', when dealing with Freud, rather than his other more famous works). Definitely worth studying!!
August 30, 2022
Skeptics and Believers: Religious Debate in the Western Intellectual Tradition by Tyler Roberts is a fantastic survey course. Roberts was even handed, betraying no over sympathy for either position. He walks us through the first kernels of faith and the tension that inspired among skeptics right down to the modern era where he cites still living people, a couple of which might be more than familiar to those interested in taking this course. Give it a go if you're into philosophy and theology.
December 21, 2019
Very informative both of the progress of religious thought, but of the contribution of skeptics to drive the process.
December 3, 2021
Typical Great Courses book. You can get a lot out of it by treating it like a classroom lecture and taking notes. A little dry and long for reading it like a novel.
September 19, 2022
Not bad
November 13, 2023
The first few and last few lectures were interesting.
July 31, 2016
This was an excellent discussion of religious debate and critique in the modern period. The lecturer has passion about the subject and a lively style of presentation. His own views clearly come through on the topic. But it would be impossible and inconsistent for them not to since he ultimately argues that the idea of a "strong secularism" that seeks religious neutrality is not possible and that secularism itself comes in the form of a religion. By the end of the course he makes a strong case that critical thinking is necessary within religious traditions and argues that a hermeneutics of suspicion can actually be a self correcting and faithful part of a tradition itself. He offers examples that range from theistic believers/thinkers such as Barth, Kierkegaard and liberation theologians on the one hand to atheists such as Marx and Freud. What I found most interesting is that some criticism of religion often come from the vantage point of the tradition one is working from itself and is actually a faithful response to the tradition. Barth is an excellent example of one who is critical of religion because of his faith commitments to Jesus Christ. This really devastates much of the criticism of the "new atheists," such as Sam Harris i.e. many of their critiques have already been made from *within* the traditions they are criticizing and there has been self correction from *within* those traditions as well! This course was overall thought provoking and worthwhile. I highly recommend it!
February 4, 2017
This is the best of TTC's courses I have listened to so far. Someone said it was too light on skeptics and they wouldn't have purchased it had they known that. All I can say is what did you expect? It's represented viewpoints are shown by in the order they occurred historically, and there happened to be more theists.
I learned more from this than in TTC's other Philosophy of Religion courses combined (the ones by James Hall and Philip Cary), and it even reflected substantially on the culture wars to such an extent that I now sympathize with some of the views of those that disagree with my own, such as those of Dennett. Nobody was misrepresented and all views I could think of were given time in the spotlight. The best chapters were those on the hermeneutic of suspicion and how it has been applied by theists and skeptics alike.
I learned more from this than in TTC's other Philosophy of Religion courses combined (the ones by James Hall and Philip Cary), and it even reflected substantially on the culture wars to such an extent that I now sympathize with some of the views of those that disagree with my own, such as those of Dennett. Nobody was misrepresented and all views I could think of were given time in the spotlight. The best chapters were those on the hermeneutic of suspicion and how it has been applied by theists and skeptics alike.
October 24, 2012
Three parts, one done.
September 4, 2015
I really Enjoyed this course and continue to enjoy listening
https://youtu.be/o2uy5k1KDFQ
https://youtu.be/o2uy5k1KDFQ
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