Product Description

What does belief in God amount to? Can we reasonably believe in God's existence without argument or evidence? Can God's existence be proved? Can we believe in miracles? Is there life after death?
In this book, Brian Davies provides a critical examination of some fundamental questions posed by religious belief. Completely rewritten in order to cover the latest developments in the field, the new edition of this highly successful textbook will once again prove the ideal introduction for all students of the philosophy of religion. The book is highly accessible and covers all the key elements of a course in the philosophy of religion. It is designed to complement Brian Davies' Philosophy of Religion: A Guide and Anthology, although the book can also be used as a stand-alone introduction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #203113 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 344 pages

Review
`'Davies' book is among the best, if not the best introductions to philosophy of religion. It is engaging, clear, rich in arguments, and provocative. This book provides a wonderful entry point into the field as well as offering the trained scholar some powerful, challenging arguments'' Charles Taliaferro, St Olaf College

`'This new edition of Brian Davies' work is written with his usual clarity and will again prove useful to students'' H. O. Mounce, University of Wales, Swansea

About the Author
Brian Davies is Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University, New York.

Customer Reviews

Complex issues in common language...
Brian Davies takes complicated issues involving God, metaphysics, ethics, etc. and presents them in clear, common language anyone can read. It is clear from reading Davies' book that he has been in dialogue with philosophers who come at these subjects from many contrasting perspectives. He presents the varying arguments, demonstrates their strengths and weeknesses and, in the end, leaves it up to the reader to decide whether or not to support the arguments presented. Great reference book for anyone engaged in the philosophy of religion or in metaphysics.

Philosophy of Religion Made Easy
This book was my "textbook" when I took Philosohy of Religion back in 1985. Compared to most philosphy of religion books, Brian Davies does an excellent job in reviewing, describing, explaining, and showing the strengths and weakness of each metaphysical idea without showing too much of a bias one way or the other.

This text is small, yet, thorough. He deals masterfully with some of the biggest arguments for God: Ontological, cosmological, and teleogical as well as others. His chapter on miracles is easy to understand and well written. The book doesn't try to sway the student in any direction, but instead, shows that it is reasonable to believe or not to believe in God.

Well balanced.

Excellent work
I used this book to teach Theology in seminary and found it always successful at engaging the students and generating real discussions. The biggest difficulty for students is to see the point of the issues that Theologians wrestle with and Davies does an excellent job with that. I would recommend this for those reading alone as well as for groups of adults or teachers of introductory courses. Individual chapters could also be very useful for more focused discussions or for parts of courses.