The Contemplative Spirit

To understand reality in terms of what is possible has methodological implications which a contemplative philosophy makes explicit. The goal is no longer to determine how things are or must be but rather to provide an overview of how they could be and the diversity with which they already appear. The function of philosophy is not the discovery of a single answer but rather a careful description of the diversity and the heterogeneity of possible answers in different contexts and practices. This approach, inspired by Wittgenstein, was applied to the philosophy of religion by Dewi Z. Phillips (1934-2006) in particular. This volume explores his contemplative philosophy of religion in an intense and lively discussion, showing how the description of religious faith and the access to its practice and language change unexpectedly and provocatively in this way of thinking.Ingolf U. Dalferth: Introduction: The Contemplative Use of Reason

I. Contemplation in Debate
Eberhard Herrmann: How is a Contemplative Philosophy of Religion Possible? - Hugo Strandberg: Is it Possible to Trust Anything? Phillips and the Idea of a Contemplative Philosophy - Patrick Horn: In Defense of Philosophical Contemplation - Hartmut von Sass: Broken Mirrors - Contemplative Nowheres. Rorty and Phillips on Description, Imagination, and Literature

II. Beyond Fideism
Thomas D. Carroll: The Debate over 'Wittgensteinian Fideism' and Phillips' Contemplative Philosophy of Religion - Klaus von Stosch: Wittgensteinian Fideism? - Michael Rodgers: Is D.Z. Phillips a Realist?

III. Contemplating Religious Belief
Anders Kraal: The Phillips-Swinburne Debate on Religious Language: Toward a Via Media - Randy Ramal: The Fallacy of Logical Inversion. On Avoiding Discourse in the Hermeneutics of Religion - Hans-Peter Grosshans: Vere tu es Deus absconditus. The Contemplation of Religious Mysteries in the Philosophy of Religion - Peter F. Bloemendaal: Contemplating Possibilities of Religious Sense. True Belief and Superstition - Ray Paul Bitar: Contemplating Death and Evil: D.Z. Phillips and the Tragic Sense of Christian Faith - Richard Amesbury: Changing the Subject: Atheism, 'Friendly Fire', and Contemplative Philosophy