The End of Philosophy of Religion

The End of Philosophy of Religion explores the hitherto unchartered waters of the ’meta-philosophy of religion’, that is, the methods and assumptions underlying the divergent ways of writing and studying the philosophy of religion that have emerged over the last century. It is also a first-class study of the weaknesses of the analytic approach in philosophy, particularly when it is applied to religious and aesthetic experience. Nick Trakakis’ main line of argument is twofold. Firstly, the Anglo-American analytic tradition of philosophy, by virtue of its attachment to scientific norms of rationality and truth, inevitably struggles to come to terms with the mysterious and transcendent reality that is disclosed in religious practice. Secondly, and more positively, alternatives to analytic philosophy of religion are available, not only within the various schools of so-called Continental philosophy, but also in explicitly narrative and literary approaches.

Nick Trakakis is Research Fellow in Philosophy at Australian Catholic University, Victoria, Australia. He is co-founder of the Australasian Philosophy of Religion Association and editor, with Graham Oppy, of A History of Western Philosophy of Religion, volumes 1-5, published by Oxford University Press USA/Acumen in 2009.