Self and Other: Essays in Continental Philosophy of Religion

It is well known that the philosophy of religion has flourished in recent decades in Anglo-American philosophy, where philosophers are bringing new techniques to the study of many of the traditional problems. Although there is more diversity in Anglo-American philosophy of religion than is sometimes recognized, it nevertheless provides a body of literature with a recent history that is sufficiently coherent to enable commentators to identify the movement with some clarity. The story is somewhat different with the emerging field of continental philosophy of religion, where many of the leading contributors are not generally known as philosophers of religion and where many of the approaches are based upon a critique of traditional western theories of rationality, experience and theism and an extension of the more traditional boundaries of philosophical reflection on religion.

The essays in this volume focus on some of the topics that are shaping recent continental philosophy of religion, including self and other, evil and suffering, religion and society and the relation between philosophy and theology. Contributors are Pamela Sue Anderson, Maeve Cooke, Richard A. Cohen, Fred Dallmayr, Hent de Vries, William Franke, Anselm K. Min, Michael Purcell, Calvin O. Schrag, Merold Westphal, Edith Wyschogrod and the editor Eugene Thomas Long.

Reprinted from The International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 60:1-3 (2006).