Numa Verse

FoundationsHow does theology know what it knows?

Philosophy and philosophy of religion

What is philosophy and philosophy of religion?

Philosophy of religion is the sub-field of philosophy that examines religious concepts and claims and the questions they raise, from the divine attributes and arguments for God to evil and religious experience. It emerged as a distinct sub-field in the mid-twentieth century. For theology, philosophy supplies logic and the language of being and knowing; the creeds themselves use its terms.

  • 82Sources
  • 10Traditions
  • 16Dated entries
  • 12Minutes

Study v1.1, 6 November 2026

At a glance

Why it matters for reading Scripture

Philosophy supplies the tools theology reasons with: logic, the arguments about God, and the language of being and knowing. The creeds themselves use its terms.

What the study found

Christian theology adopted, transformed and contested philosophy's terms and logic, from Greek being, substance and hypostasis to modern epistemology; the creeds use these terms, and analytic philosophy of religion revived from the 1960s.

Where traditions divide

Traditions divide on how far reason reaches without revelation: natural theology, analogy or univocity, apophatic limits and essence-energies, Christological terms, analytic theology, and whether philosophy may correct readings of Scripture.

How the traditions compare

  • Catholic Church

    Holds, with the First Vatican Council, that God "can be known with certainty from the consideration of created things", and that there can never be any real disagreement between faith and reason.

    Aquinas made the other sciences the handmaidens of sacred doctrine, and held that names are said of God by analogy, which the Fourth Lateran Council bounds with an ever greater dissimilarity. Fides et Ratio (1998) calls philosophy "fundamental and indispensable to the structure of theological studies", yet says the Church "has no philosophy of her own".

    Sources1–5
  • Orthodox

    Follows Gregory Palamas in holding that God's essence is "absolutely unutterable" and that God is known only through participation in his uncreated energies, and joins this distinction to the apophatic tradition, putting negation first, with Pseudo-Dionysius.

    In the 1330s Barlaam of Calabria and Palamas both held natural theology possible; Palamas, who first defended dogmatic theology as a science, later revised that view as he developed the distinction between God's essence and energies. In the twentieth century Georges Florovsky led the Orthodox "return to the Church Fathers".

    Sources6–9
  • Oriental Orthodox churches

    The Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopian and Malankara churches did not receive Chalcedon and keep Cyril of Alexandria's formula, one incarnate nature of God the Word.

    Their joint commission with the Orthodox noted in 1989 that the Fathers did not use physis and hypostasis "always interchangeably", and agreed in 1990 that each family may keep its own terms, since the natures are distinguished "in thought alone". The Anglican and Oriental Orthodox statement explains that miaphysite teaching confesses "not a single nature but one incarnate united divine-human nature of the Word of God", and the Coptic Church confessed one Christ with the Catholic Church in 1973 without settling the terms.

    Sources10–12
  • Assyrian Church of the East

    Declared with the Catholic Church in 1994 that Christ's divinity and humanity are "united in one person, without confusion or change", and that past divisions were "due in large part to misunderstandings".

    Such disputes turn on how the same philosophical words were used.

    Sources13
  • Lutheran and Reformed

    Luther wrote in 1517 that "the whole Aristotle is to theology as darkness is to light", though the Stanford entry on Luther holds that his hostility to reason is often overstated: he wanted reason kept to its proper sphere.

    The Reformers set philosophy and theology apart, holding that the two have different starting points and methods, and Calvin said that scholastic philosophy had "drawn a veil over Christ to hide him". Herman Dooyeweerd argued that no theoretical thought is religiously neutral, and Nicholas Wolterstorff describes "a revulsion against arguments in favor of theism or Christianity" as characteristic of the Continental Calvinist tradition. Barth rejected natural theology and the analogia entis of Erich Przywara. Alvin Plantinga's "Advice to Christian Philosophers" (1984) held that "the Christian has as much right to his prephilosophical opinions as others have to theirs".

    Sources14–19
  • Evangelical

    The Evangelical Philosophical Society, founded in 1974, exists "to glorify God through the faithful practice of philosophy"; its members are "committed to a high view of biblical authority", it holds faith "rationally defensible", and it publishes Philosophia Christi.

    Sources20
  • Pentecostal

    James K. A. Smith's Thinking in Tongues (2010) opened the Pentecostal Manifestos series; its introduction asks "what hath Athens to do with Azusa Street?", and its chapters offer a Pentecostal epistemology and a Pentecostal critique of philosophy of religion.

    Sources21
  • Evidentialism

    Holds that a belief is justified only if it is proportioned to the evidence.

    W. K. Clifford's 1879 statement is the classic: "It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence", and Hume's rule for miracles applies the same principle to testimony.

    Sources22–23
  • Reformed epistemology

    Rejects evidentialism, as Wolterstorff (1976) and Plantinga (1983) did.

    Plantinga argued that classical foundationalism excludes beliefs such as that other persons exist and fails its own test, and that belief in God is in the same boat as belief in other minds, the past and perceptual objects. He draws on Calvin's sensus divinitatis, a natural sense of God, and answered the Great Pumpkin objection by holding that candidates can be told apart without stating criteria and that basic beliefs remain open to defeat.

    Sources2224
  • Analytic theology

    William Wood dates its rise from Analytic Theology (2009), edited by Oliver Crisp and Michael Rea, which set out to begin "a much-needed interdisciplinary conversation" between systematic theologians and analytic philosophers.

    Its defenders hope to restore rigor; its critics, from theology and from D. Z. Phillips's side of philosophy, argue that it is not theological enough or that it distorts faith.

    Sources1525–26

How the field developed

  1. Ancient Near East
    6th to 5th century BCE

    The Presocratics, recognized in antiquity as the first philosophers of the Western tradition, offer the ideas theology later took: a first principle (archē), the critique of gods pictured in human form, the logos, being, and mind (nous).27

  2. Early church
    c. 235

    Origen's letter to Gregory asks his pupil to take from Greek philosophy what serves Christianity, speaking of philosophy "as being ancillary to Christianity", and reads Israel's taking of Egyptian gold and silver for the tabernacle as the type of that use.28

  3. Late antiquity
    381 and 451

    The First Council of Constantinople confesses the Son "consubstantial with the Father" and one Godhead "in three most perfect hypostases, or three perfect persons"; the Council of Chalcedon confesses Christ "in two natures which undergo no confusion, no change, no division, no separation".2930

  4. Late antiquity
    c. 485 to 528

    Pseudo-Dionysius, who took the name of Paul's convert at Athens, writes the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology, reworking the Neoplatonism of Proclus and giving the apophatic tradition its texts.8

  5. Medieval
    1077 to 1078

    Anselm, whose motto was "faith seeking understanding", names God in the Proslogion "that than which a greater cannot be thought".31

  6. Medieval
    1190

    Maimonides's Guide of the Perplexed reads divine attributes as negations, so that "God is powerful" means "God is not lacking in power", and holds creation not proved but preferable to eternity.32

  7. Medieval
    1270 and 1277

    The Paris condemnations target views linked to Latin Averroism, and some of the 219 propositions condemned in 1277 seem to touch the teaching of Aquinas. Two years after his canonization on 18 July 1323, the bishop of Paris clarifies that the condemnations do not apply to him.3334

  8. Reformation
    1641

    Descartes's Meditations find a first certainty in "I think, therefore I am", argue from the idea of an infinite being to God, and hold that what is perceived very clearly and distinctly is true because God does not deceive.35

  9. Modern
    1781 to 1793

    Kant's Critiques criticize the ontological, cosmological and physico-theological proofs and limit knowledge to "make room for faith", with God and immortality as postulates of practical reason; in Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (1793) "morality inevitably leads to religion".36

  10. Modern
    24 April 1870

    The First Vatican Council's Dei Filius teaches "a twofold order of knowledge", distinct in source and object, and that "there can never be any real disagreement between faith and reason".1

  11. Modern
    1936

    A. J. Ayer's Language, Truth and Logic calls religious statements "literally meaningless", on the verification principle of the Vienna Circle; the principle failed, and by 1970 logical positivism was "pretty clearly over".3738

  12. Modern
    1967

    Alvin Plantinga's God and Other Minds (Cornell University Press) argues that belief in God is rational in the same way as belief in other minds; analytic philosophy of religion revives from the 1960s.3924

  13. Modern
    1984

    Faith and Philosophy, journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers, carries Plantinga's "Advice to Christian Philosophers" in its third issue.4041

  14. Modern
    14 September 1998

    John Paul II's Fides et Ratio opens: "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth."5

  15. Modern
    2009

    Analytic Theology: New Essays in the Philosophy of Theology, edited by Oliver Crisp and Michael Rea, is published by Oxford University Press, and William Wood dates the rise of analytic theology from it.2515

  16. Modern
    2020

    The PhilPapers Survey finds that philosophers as a whole and philosophers of religion differ sharply on God.4243

How to study philosophy and philosophy of religion

The questions it asks

  • How far does reason reach without revelation?117
  • How do words such as good or being apply to God: by analogy, in exactly the same sense as of creatures, or only by negation?34432
  • Is a belief in God justified only if it is proportioned to the evidence, or can it be basic, like belief in other minds?2224
  • Does infallible foreknowledge of a human act make the act necessary and hence unfree?45
  • What is it rational to believe on learning that intelligent and sincere people disagree?46
  • May philosophy correct readings of Scripture?4748

Its method

Start
  1. Name the kind of argument: deductive, inductive or probabilistic, abductive, or modal4950.

  2. For a deductive argument, ask whether the conclusion must be true if the premises are, and whether the premises are true49.

  3. For a probabilistic argument, weigh how probable the hypothesis is on the total evidence, as in Swinburne's Bayesian case22.

  4. For an abductive argument, compare the rival explanations by the theoretical virtues, such as simplicity, generality and coherence with established theories, remembering van Fraassen's objection that the best explanation considered may be only "the best of a bad lot"49.

  5. Find the premise that carries the weight, and state the argument's best-known objection.

  6. Check for the common informal fallacies, such as begging the question, attacking the person, the straw man, equivocation and false cause51.

  7. Read each term in its context: words such as person and nature have changed meaning or carry more than one sense5210.

  8. Read the primary texts themselves, and keep popular phrases apart from them: "I believe because it is absurd" is not Tertullian's5354.

What to read

Its primary witnesses

  • The Greek philosophers: the Presocratics, Plato's Phaedo, Republic and Timaeus, Aristotle's Categories and Metaphysics, and Plotinus's Enneads27555657.
  • The Fathers on philosophy: Tertullian's The Prescription against Heretics, Clement's Stromata, Origen's letter to Gregory and Augustine's On Christian Doctrine58592860.
  • Creeds and councils: Constantinople (381), Chalcedon (451), the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and the First Vatican Council's Dei Filius (1870)293041.
  • Boethius's Against Eutyches and Nestorius and the Consolation, and Athanasius's Tome to the People of Antioch616263.
  • Anselm's Proslogion and Cur Deus Homo, and the Summa Theologiae of Aquinas3123.
  • Jewish and Islamic philosophers: Saadia Gaon's Book of Beliefs and Opinions, Avicenna's The Healing, Averroes's Decisive Treatise and Maimonides's Guide of the Perplexed6465663332.
  • Modern texts: Descartes's Meditations, Hume's Enquiry and Dialogues, Kant's Critiques and Kierkegaard's Fragments and Postscript35233667.
  • Twentieth-century texts: Wittgenstein's Tractatus and Philosophical Investigations, Ayer's Language, Truth and Logic and Plantinga's God and Other Minds683739.
  • Church documents: Providentissimus Deus (1893), Fides et Ratio (1998) and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 362 to 36847569.
  • Agreed statements: Catholic and Coptic (1973), Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox (1989 and 1990), Catholic and Assyrian Church of the East (1994), and Anglican and Oriental Orthodox (2002, revised 2014)12101311.
  • Thought beyond the West: Mbiti's African Religions and Philosophy (1969), Upadhyay's journal Sophia (1894 to 1900), and Dussel's Filosofía de la liberación (1977)70717273.

Standard reference works

  • The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, among its entries Taliaferro's "Philosophy of Religion" and Wood's "Philosophy and Christian Theology"7415.
  • The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, among its entries "Reformed Epistemology" and "Religious Language"2475.
  • A five-volume History of Western Philosophy of Religion (2009) and a four-volume Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion (2021)74.
  • Faith and Philosophy, journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers4140.
  • Philosophia Christi, published by the Evangelical Philosophical Society20.
  • Religious Studies (Cambridge), which has reviewed the field since the 1960s39.
  • The 2020 PhilPapers Survey, its survey site and published paper, and the earlier survey published as "What do philosophers believe?" (2014)764377.
  • Analytic Theology: New Essays in the Philosophy of Theology (2009), edited by Oliver Crisp and Michael Rea25.

Scholarship referenced in this study

The works below shaped the field and are cited in this study, from the earliest to the most recent. Hover over a book, or select it, to see its author and the sources behind it.

  • 1077 to 1078ProslogionAnselmProslogion (1077 to 1078)Anselm (1033 to 1109)Sources31
  • 1190Guide of the PerplexedMaimonidesGuide of the Perplexed (1190)Maimonides (1138 to 1204)Sources32
  • 1517Disputation against Scholastic TheologyMartin LutherDisputation against Scholastic Theology (1517)Martin LutherSources14
  • 1641MeditationsRené DescartesMeditations (1641)René Descartes (1596 to 1650)Sources35
  • 1748EnquiryHumeEnquiry (1748)HumeSources23
  • 1781Critique of Pure ReasonKantCritique of Pure Reason (1781)KantSources36
  • 1936Language, Truth and LogicA. J. AyerLanguage, Truth and Logic (1936)A. J. AyerSources37
  • 1953Philosophical InvestigationsLudwig WittgensteinPhilosophical Investigations (1953)Ludwig WittgensteinSources68
  • 1967God and Other MindsAlvin PlantingaGod and Other Minds (1967)Alvin PlantingaSources2439
  • 1979The Existence of GodRichard SwinburneThe Existence of God (1979)Richard SwinburneSources22
  • 2009Analytic Theology: New Essays in the Philosophy of TheologyOliver CrispAnalytic Theology: New Essays in the Philosophy of Theology (2009)Oliver Crisp, with Michael ReaSources25
  • 2010Thinking in TonguesJames K. A. SmithThinking in Tongues (2010)James K. A. SmithSources21

Listed because this study draws on their published work; no association with or endorsement of Numa Verse is implied. Suggest a correction.

Key terms

The words that carry the most weight in this field, each defined from the sources of this study. Turn a card over to read its definition.

A thing that exists in its own right, not in another; the Latin translates Greek ousia, and in theology it rarely means a material5678.

In the Aristotelian sense, what a thing is, as its definition states56.

In Boethius, "the individual substance of a rational nature"; in the creeds it translates hypostasis and prosopon, while in modern speech it means a center of consciousness, which led some theologians, including Barth and Rahner, to propose phrases such as "modes of being"6152.

What a thing is by kind; in Chalcedon's formula it means the divine and the human natures, while in Cyril's one incarnate nature it names the one incarnate Word61301011.

A word used of two things in related, not identical, senses; medieval writers distinguished analogy of attribution and of proportionality379.

A word used in exactly the same sense of both; Scotus held that "being" is univocal44.

In the classical Latin account, God has no parts of any kind and is identical with his attributes; Orthodox teaching distinguishes God's essence from his uncreated energies, and some analytic writers question the doctrine8046.

God's uncreated activities, through which God is known and shared, distinct from God's unknowable essence6.

Of a statement, true in every possible world; of a being, unable not to exist; the possible-worlds language is a modern framework5066.

The view that free will is compatible with determinism, as against libertarian free will, which requires that determinism is false8182.

Questions people ask

No: the phrase misstates him, and Eric Osborn notes that he never said it53. In On the Flesh of Christ 5 he wrote of the death of the Son of God that it is credible "because it is unfitting", foolish by worldly standards but not a contradiction54. He did ask "What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?", yet he drew heavily on Stoic philosophy5815.

In four ways, on William Wood's account: integration, and three kinds of contrast, namely cooperation, disjunction and conflict15. Early Christians presented their faith as the true philosophy; Aquinas developed the cooperation model, in which philosophy prepares the ground for theology; and the Reformers moved to disjunction15.

Not on the 2020 PhilPapers Survey: of the 1,770 who answered the question, 18.9 percent accepted or leaned to theism and 66.9 percent to atheism4243. Among philosophy of religion specialists, 78 percent endorsed theism against 17 percent of others, the largest specialist effect in the survey as the authors report it43. The authors add that these data "do not tell us anything about whether specialist opinion correlates with philosophical truth"43.

They keep Cyril of Alexandria's formula, one incarnate nature of God the Word, in which physis is used of the one concrete reality, not a mixed nature10. The Anglican and Oriental Orthodox statement explains that this teaching confesses "not a single nature but one incarnate united divine-human nature of the Word of God", and the Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox joint commission agreed in 1990 that each family may keep its own terms1110.

Fides et Ratio (1998) says the Church "has no philosophy of her own nor does she canonize any one particular philosophy in preference to others", while calling philosophy fundamental and indispensable to theological studies5. The First Vatican Council taught that God "can be known with certainty from the consideration of created things"1.

Contribute to philosophy and philosophy of religion

Register to contribute

  1. 1First Vatican Council, Dei Filius (Papal Encyclicals Online)https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum20.htm (opens in a new tab)
  2. 2Summa Theologiae I, question 1 (New Advent)https://www.newadvent.org/summa/1001.htm (opens in a new tab)
  3. 3Summa Theologiae I, question 13 (New Advent)https://www.newadvent.org/summa/1013.htm (opens in a new tab)
  4. 4Fourth Lateran Council, 1215, constitutions 1 and 2 (Papal Encyclicals Online)https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum12-2.htm (opens in a new tab)
  5. 5Fides et Ratio (Vatican)https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html (opens in a new tab)
  6. 6Knowledge of God in St Gregory Palamas, Micał (Studia Religiologica)https://ejournals.eu/en/journal_article_files/full_text/018ecee0-ff3b-7336-8b7d-2a7d19e193ed/download (opens in a new tab)
  7. 7Kanaeva, Attitude to the legacy of Thomas Aquinas in Byzantine theology during the initial period of hesychastic discussions (Vestnik PSTGU, DOAJ)https://doaj.org/article/8e23b5c98c97450c84b01596990313e4 (opens in a new tab)
  8. 8Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Harrington (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pseudo-dionysius-areopagite/ (opens in a new tab)
  9. 9Georges Florovsky and the Russian Religious Renaissance, Gavrilyuk (Oxford University Press)https://academic.oup.com/book/3717 (opens in a new tab)
  10. 10Agreed Statements of the Joint Commission of the Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches, 1989 and 1990 (trinityorthodox.ca)https://www.old.trinityorthodox.ca/sites/default/files/Agreed%20Statements-Orthodox-Oriental%20Orthodox%20Dialogue-1989-1990.pdf (opens in a new tab)
  11. 11Agreed Statement on Christology, Anglican and Oriental Orthodox International Commission, Cairo 2014 (Anglican Communion)https://www.anglicancommunion.org/media/103502/Anglican-Oriental-Orthodox-Agreed-Statement-on-Christology-Cairo-2014.pdf (opens in a new tab)
  12. 12Common Declaration of Paul VI and Shenouda III, 10 May 1973 (Vatican)https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/speeches/1973/may/documents/hf_p-vi_spe_19730510_dichiarazione-comune.html (opens in a new tab)
  13. 13Common Christological Declaration between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East (Vatican)https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1994/november/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19941111_dichiarazione-cristologica.html (opens in a new tab)
  14. 14Martin Luther, Leppin (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/luther/ (opens in a new tab)
  15. 15Philosophy and Christian Theology, Wood (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/christiantheology-philosophy/ (opens in a new tab)
  16. 16Dialogue and Antithesis, chapter 7, Choi (The Dooyeweerd Pages)https://dooy.info/papers/choi/ch7.concln.html (opens in a new tab)
  17. 17Natural Theology and Natural Religion, Pereboom (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/natural-theology/ (opens in a new tab)
  18. 18Review of White (ed.), The Analogy of Being (Center for Barth Studies)https://barth.ptsem.edu/the-analogy-of-being/ (opens in a new tab)
  19. 19Advice to Christian Philosophers, Alvin Plantinga (Faith and Philosophy, andrewmbailey.com PDF)https://www.andrewmbailey.com/ap/Advice.pdf (opens in a new tab)
  20. 20About (Evangelical Philosophical Society)https://epsociety.org/about/ (opens in a new tab)
  21. 21Thinking in Tongues, catalogue record (Christian Heritage College library)https://library.ccs.edu.au/bib/46989 (opens in a new tab)
  22. 22The Epistemology of Religion, Forrest (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/religion-epistemology/ (opens in a new tab)
  23. 23Hume on Religion, Kraal (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-religion/ (opens in a new tab)
  24. 24Reformed Epistemology, Bolos and Scott (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://iep.utm.edu/ref-epis/ (opens in a new tab)
  25. 25Analytic Theology: New Essays in the Philosophy of Theology (University of Bristol research portal)https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/analytic-theology-new-essays-in-the-philosophy-of-theology/ (opens in a new tab)
  26. 26Advice to Philosophers who are Christians, D. Z. Phillips (New Blackfriars, Cambridge Core)https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/new-blackfriars/article/abs/advice-to-philosophers-who-are-christians/64E11DBC758059E63F7A4A97289C5A40 (opens in a new tab)
  27. 27Presocratic Philosophy, Curd (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/presocratics/ (opens in a new tab)
  28. 28Origen, Letter to Gregory (Fordham Medieval Sourcebook)https://sourcebooks.web.fordham.edu/Halsall/source/origen1.asp (opens in a new tab)
  29. 29First Council of Constantinople, 381 (Papal Encyclicals Online)https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum02.htm (opens in a new tab)
  30. 30Council of Chalcedon, 451 (Papal Encyclicals Online)https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum04.htm (opens in a new tab)
  31. 31Saint Anselm, Williams (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/anselm/ (opens in a new tab)
  32. 32Maimonides, Seeskin (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/maimonides/ (opens in a new tab)
  33. 33Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Pasnau (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ibn-rushd/ (opens in a new tab)
  34. 34Thomas Aquinas, Pasnau (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas/ (opens in a new tab)
  35. 35René Descartes, Hatfield (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes/ (opens in a new tab)
  36. 36Kant's Philosophy of Religion, Fugate (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-religion/ (opens in a new tab)
  37. 37Religious Language, Scott (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/religious-language/ (opens in a new tab)
  38. 38Logical Empiricism, Creath (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logical-empiricism/ (opens in a new tab)
  39. 39Review of Plantinga, God and Other Minds, Mascall (Religious Studies, Cambridge Core)https://cambridge.org/core/journals/religious-studies/article/alvin-plantinga-god-and-other-minds-a-study-of-the-rational-justification-of-belief-in-god-pp-xii-278-ithaca-ny-cornell-university-press-1967-850/2946312FDEC2311A100275E182178A6E (opens in a new tab)
  40. 40Faith and Philosophy, volume 1, issue 3 (Asbury ePLACE)https://place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphilosophy/vol1/iss3 (opens in a new tab)
  41. 41Society of Christian Philosophers, home page (Society of Christian Philosophers)https://www.societyofchristianphilosophers.com/ (opens in a new tab)
  42. 42PhilPapers Survey 2020, results for all questions (PhilPeople)https://survey2020.philpeople.org/survey/results/all (opens in a new tab)
  43. 43Philosophers on Philosophy: The 2020 PhilPapers Survey, Bourget and Chalmers (Philosophers' Imprint, PhilArchive)https://philarchive.org/archive/BOUPOP-3 (opens in a new tab)
  44. 44John Duns Scotus, Williams (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/duns-scotus/ (opens in a new tab)
  45. 45Foreknowledge and Free Will, Zagzebski (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/free-will-foreknowledge/ (opens in a new tab)
  46. 46Religious Diversity (Pluralism), Basinger (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/religious-pluralism/ (opens in a new tab)
  47. 47Providentissimus Deus, Leo XIII (Vatican)https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_18111893_providentissimus-deus.html (opens in a new tab)
  48. 48Baruch Spinoza, Nadler (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza/ (opens in a new tab)
  49. 49Abduction, Douven (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/abduction/ (opens in a new tab)
  50. 50Possible Worlds, Menzel (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/possible-worlds/ (opens in a new tab)
  51. 51Fallacies, Hansen (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/fallacies/ (opens in a new tab)
  52. 52Trinity, Tuggy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/trinity/ (opens in a new tab)
  53. 53Fideism, Amesbury (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/fideism/ (opens in a new tab)
  54. 54On the Flesh of Christ, chapter 5, Latin text and Evans translation (tertullian.org)https://www.tertullian.org/works/de_carne_christi.htm (opens in a new tab)
  55. 55Plato, Kraut (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato/ (opens in a new tab)
  56. 56Aristotle's Metaphysics, Reeve (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-metaphysics/ (opens in a new tab)
  57. 57Plotinus, Kalligas (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plotinus/ (opens in a new tab)
  58. 58The Prescription against Heretics, Tertullian (New Advent)https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0311.htm (opens in a new tab)
  59. 59Stromata, Book 1, Clement of Alexandria (New Advent)https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/02101.htm (opens in a new tab)
  60. 60On Christian Doctrine, Book 2, Augustine (New Advent)https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/12022.htm (opens in a new tab)
  61. 61Against Eutyches and Nestorius, chapter 3, Boethius, tr. Stewart and Rand (Logos Library)https://logoslibrary.org/boethius/eutyches/3.html (opens in a new tab)
  62. 62Boethius, Marenbon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/boethius/ (opens in a new tab)
  63. 63Tome to the People of Antioch, Athanasius (New Advent)https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2818.htm (opens in a new tab)
  64. 64Saadya, Saadiah Gaon (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/saadya/ (opens in a new tab)
  65. 65Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Gutas (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ibn-sina/ (opens in a new tab)
  66. 66Ibn Sina's Metaphysics, Lizzini (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ibn-sina-metaphysics/ (opens in a new tab)
  67. 67Søren Kierkegaard, Evans (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kierkegaard/ (opens in a new tab)
  68. 68Ludwig Wittgenstein, Matar (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein/ (opens in a new tab)
  69. 69Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 362 to 368 (Vatican)https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1B.HTM (opens in a new tab)
  70. 70A Critique of John Mbiti's Understanding of the African Concept of Time, Moreau (East Africa Journal of Evangelical Theology, gospelstudies.org.uk)https://gospelstudies.org.uk/biblicalstudies/pdf/ajet/05-2_036.pdf (opens in a new tab)
  71. 71Building Christianity on Indian Foundations, Tennent (University of Edinburgh)https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/30823 (opens in a new tab)
  72. 72Indian Theological Association, statement on Brahmabandhab Upadhyay (Asian Horizons)https://dvkjournals.in/index.php/ah/article/download/2394/2301/5113 (opens in a new tab)
  73. 73Introduction: The Path to Liberation, Mills (Palgrave, SpringerLink)https://rd.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-94550-7_1 (opens in a new tab)
  74. 74Philosophy of Religion, Taliaferro (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philosophy-religion/ (opens in a new tab)
  75. 75Religious Language (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://iep.utm.edu/rel-lang/ (opens in a new tab)
  76. 76The 2020 PhilPapers Survey (PhilPeople)https://survey2020.philpeople.org (opens in a new tab)
  77. 77What do philosophers believe?, Bourget and Chalmers (Philosophical Studies, PhilPapers)https://philpapers.org/rec/BOUWDP (opens in a new tab)
  78. 78Substance, Weir (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/substance/ (opens in a new tab)
  79. 79Medieval Theories of Analogy, D'Ettore (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/analogy-medieval/ (opens in a new tab)
  80. 80Divine Simplicity, Vallicella (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/divine-simplicity/ (opens in a new tab)
  81. 81Compatibilism, Coates (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/compatibilism/ (opens in a new tab)
  82. 82Incompatibilist (Nondeterministic) Theories of Free Will, Swenson, Clarke and Capes (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/incompatibilism-theories/ (opens in a new tab)

Page record

Reviewed and approved by Duane Herholdt, BA (Theology), Chief Executive Officer, Numa Verse

Study version: v1.1, 6 November 2026 (theology map v1.27)

Last reviewed: 9 November 2026

How these pages are made

  • 9 November 2026: First draft from the approved assessment v1.1.