Objections to Christian Belief (AP2830Y)

Content

Christian beliefs and practices have been subjected to a variety of critiques of varying intensity over the centuries. Christian responses to these objections have themselves taken different forms: from philosophical apologetics, through to philosophically-informed self-critical theological reflection. This unit evaluates through a philosophical lens the assumptions and material content of a range of prominent objections from, for instance, disciplines such as a variety of sciences, psychology, and philosophy itself. Topics may include the role of history in belief, the impact of religious pluralism, gender studies, political theologies, post-colonialism, Critical Race Theory, and trans/posthumanism.

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

Either an UG level 1 AP or CT unit

Pedagogy

Asynchronous lectures and synchronous tutorials

Indicative Bibliography

• Arendt, Hannah. Love and St Augustine Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1996.
• Butler, Judith. Who's Afraid of Gender?* New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024.
• Eagleton, Terry. Reason, Faith and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009.
• Fergusson, David. Faith and Its Critics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
• Girard, René. Violence and the Sacred. Translated by Patrick Gregory. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1977.
• Jantzen, Grace M. Foundations of Violence: Death and the Displacement of Beauty. London and New York: Routledge, 2004.
• Kearney, Richard. Anatheism: Returning to God After God. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.
• Martin, Michael (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Atheism Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
• Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age A Secular Age. Cambridge, Mass., and London: Belknap Press, 2007.
• Westphal, Merold. Suspicion and Faith: The Religious Uses of Modern Atheism. New York: Fordham University Pres, 1993.
• Žižek, Slavoj. Heaven in Disorder. OR Books, 2021.

Assessment