“on Love of all subjects, writing can carry conviction only if it is born of everything that a man has in him to say about it.” John Cottingham’s Philosophy of Religion made me think often of this remark by Bernard Williams. Writing in his characteristically clear, thoughtful and gently passionate style, Cottingham carries conviction precisely because he exercises this kind of generosity. And there is implicit in the book a modest exhortation to the reader to do likewise. By the end, even the most sceptical would have to acknowledge that to think seriously about the philosophy of religion requires not less than everything a person has in them.The book’s subtitle, “towards a more humane approach”, can perhaps best be understood as a combination of openne
12 March 2015, The Tablet
Philosophy of Religion: towards a more humane approach
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User Comments (1)
We cannot distinguish an apophatic from a sceptic-atheist: by what apophatics do, or by the shape they give their lives, or what they make themselves sensitive to, or by what they allow themselves to be sensible of, if we have no positive knowledge of God to judge these approaches to life by. Without that positive knowledge, how can we know whether lifestyles reflect belief in God rather than disbelief in Him, or whether demonstration of sensibilities is spiritually orientated towards eternity, or only dramatically orientated towards literary appreciation?