Linguistique de l’écrit

Revue internationale en libre accès

Livre | Chapitre

187023

The reformulation of the question as to the existence of God

Harold Durfee

pp. 31-42

Résumé

This essay attempts to indicate the current status, within one frame of reference, of the question as to the existence of God. It is undertaken because the current reformulation of this question seems quite neglected in philosophical discussion, yet would change radically the nature of the issues to be discussed. The central theme of the paper is that Professor Paul Tillich reformulated this problem so as to transform the entire discussion as to the existence of God. But more importantly, it is argued that his reformulation itself has been challeged so as to throw in doubt God's existence in the only significant sense that Tillich would allow. It is the contention of the paper that this challenge establishes the most recent locus of the discussion between contemporary philosophical naturalism and modern theism, has received little elaboration, and poses a new set of problems to which philosophy of religion must speak to be relevant on the contemporary philosophic scene. Traditional philosophy of religion usually dealt with the problem of the existence of God by discussing the possibility of the existence of some Being which was not reducible to the finite subject or to the natural world. Arguments for and against such a reality were continually offered. This tradition in philosophy of religion continues even in recent analytic philosophy with discussions of verifiability and falsifiability.

Détails de la publication

Publié dans:

Durfee Harold (1987) Foundational reflections: studies in contemporary philosophy. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 31-42

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-3593-8_2

Citation complète:

Durfee Harold, 1987, The reformulation of the question as to the existence of God. In H. Durfee Foundational reflections (31-42). Dordrecht, Springer.