Introduction to Special APRA Issue

Authors: Nick Trakakis Morgan Luck Sarah Bachelard

Publish Date: 2009/04/18

Volume: 48, Issue: 2, Pages: 103-104

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Abstract

Philosophy of religion across the major philosophical centers of the West and across both the AngloAmerican and Continental streams has been undergoing a significant revival over the last few decades This is evidenced by the many societies journals and monograph series that have recently been established as well as the various conferences and seminars that have been hosted with the aim of examining a range of topics within the philosophy of religion or even the nature and goals of the discipline itself This renewed academic interest in a subject that in the middle of the previous century was languishing as a philosophical relic of a bygone era has been supplemented by a renewed popular interest in religious matters with religion now very much in the public sphere from the ‘new atheist’ critiques to discussions of religious fundamentalism and the place of theology and religious institutions in a secular world To capture this interest and to offer a platform for Australasian philosophers and scholars to contribute to the conversation we decided to form the Australasian Philosophy of Religion Association APRA the first of its kind in Australia and New ZealandTo be sure there has always been at least some interest in religion and the philosophy of religion within pockets of the Australasian academy The fact that Sophia has its roots in the University of Melbourne to which it retains a close affiliation bears testimony to this But one can now clearly see a broader more reflective and more rigorous if not also more tolerant engagement with the philosophy of religion amongst many distinguished Australasian philosophers With the establishment of APRA we aim to build on this foundation strengthening it and widening it to include voices and insights from a range of philosophical traditions and neighboring disciplines such as religious studies and theologyThe primary aims of APRA are i to encourage publicize and circulate work on philosophy of religion especially work undertaken by Australasian philosophers and scholars and ii to promote and facilitate constructive dialogue between differing schools of thought and traditions especially the analytic and Continental traditions as these bear on the philosophical study of religion APRA then is not intended as a partisan organization and does not wish to promote any particular religious or philosophical orientation but is rather intended as a forum for friendly and philosophically informed discussions of religion that bring together a diversity of scholars and a plurality of ideas and viewpointsThe eight papers in the present issue were drawn from the inaugural APRA conference held at St Mark’s National Theological Centre in Canberra on September 27–28 2008 We were honored to have Peter Forrest and Max Charlesworth deliver the keynote addresses and their papers slightly modified are published here The remaining papers deal with a variety of issues including the notorious problem of evil Daniel Cohen and its relationship to miracles Morgan Luck the influence of Rousseau on Kant’s critique of philosophical theology Philip Quadrio naturalism and its presumed incompatibility with an ontology of supernatural entities Steve Clarke Plantinga’s epistemology of religious belief as compared to the Christian spiritual tradition on ‘unknowing’ Sarah Bachelard and the reasoning processes at work in design and finetuning arguments Graham Wood We would like to thank the many institutions whose generous support made the conference possible—specifically St Mark’s National Theological Centre Charles Sturt University the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics CAPPE the Public and Contextual Theology Strategic Research Centre PaCT of Charles Sturt University and the Australasian Association of Philosophy—and we are particularly grateful to Sophia both for its financial support and its invitation to publish a select group of papers from the conference We hope to continue running the APRA conference as an annual event taking the conference to a different city in Australasia each year We also hope to foster links with other likeminded philosophy of religion associations across the world and steps are already in place for establishing an International Philosophy of Religion Association Philosophy of religion in Australasia and globally has a bright future indeed

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