
Explore tens of thousands of sets crafted by our community.
Philosophers on Religion
15
Flashcards
0/15




David Hume




Hume was skeptical about religion, arguing against the rationality of belief in miracles and the traditional arguments for the existence of God.




Aristotle




Aristotle's theology posited an unmoved mover, a perfect being responsible for the motion and order of the cosmos.




Immanuel Kant




Kant believed that God's existence cannot be proven, but is a necessary postulate of practical reason for moral law and justice.




Ludwig Feuerbach




Feuerbach saw God as a projection of human nature, asserting that theology really reflects anthropology and that humans should reclaim their projected qualities.




Søren Kierkegaard




Kierkegaard emphasized the subjective nature of truth and faith, focusing on the individual's personal relationship with God.




William James




James held that religious experiences are subjective but no less real, emphasizing pragmatism and the practical effects of belief on the believer.




St. Augustine




St. Augustine combined Christian doctrine with Neoplatonic thought, emphasizing the doctrine of original sin and the need for divine grace for salvation.




St. Thomas Aquinas




Aquinas harmonized Christian theology with Aristotelian philosophy, advocating for natural theology and the existence of God as a necessary being.




Socrates




His views on theology are not directly recorded, but he's known for questioning the nature of the gods and piety in Plato's dialogues.




Friedrich Nietzsche




Nietzsche famously declared 'God is dead,' suggesting that belief in the Christian God had become unbelievable or obsolete.




Baruch Spinoza




Spinoza equated God with nature, believing in a pantheistic or panentheistic deity without personality, distinct from traditional theistic concepts.




Jean-Paul Sartre




Sartre, an atheist existentialist, believed that humans are condemned to be free and bear the responsibility of giving their life meaning without God.




Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel




Hegel viewed the development of religion as part of the absolute spirit's unfolding, leading to a rational understanding of God in the form of absolute idealism.




Karl Barth




Barth advocated for a theocentric approach to theology and emphasized the complete 'otherness' of God, rejecting natural theology and liberal Christianity.




Plato




Plato believed in a realm of Forms or Ideas, where the Form of the Good is the ultimate principle; gods are subordinate to this realm.
© Hypatia.Tech. 2024 All rights reserved.