Religion and philosophy -by R. G. Collingwood (PDF)

Religion and Philosophy

Collingwood’s Religion and Philosophy is a bridge between theology and philosophy, written with honesty and clarity.

It challenges the reduction of religion to psychology or ritual, insisting instead that religion is a rational, intellectual pursuit. For students of philosophy, it provides a window into how one of the 20th century’s great thinkers began to shape his ideas.

It was my intention to write this book as an essay on philosophy, addressed in the first instance to philosophers. But the force of circumstances has to some extent modified that plan. To make of it an academic treatise, armed at all points against the criticism of the professed specialist, would require time far beyond the few years I have spent on it.

The claims of a " temporary " occupation, very different from that in which I began to write, leave no opportunity for the rewriting and careful revision that such a work demands and I had set it aside to await a period of greater leisure.

But the last year has seen a considerable output of books treating religion from a philosophic or intellectual rather than either a dogmatic or a devotional point of view, and I believe that this activity corresponds to a widespread reawakening of interest in that aspect of religion among persons not specially trained in technical philosophy or theology.

In the hope of making some small contribution to this movement, I venture to publish this book as it stands. No one can be more conscious than me of its shortcomings; that they are not far greater is largely due to the patience with which certain friends, especially E. F. Carritt, F. A. Cockin and S. G. Scott have read and criticised in detail successive versions of the manuscript. It must not be supposed, however, that they are in agreement with all my views.

Highlights of the table of contents.

Religion and Philosophy

- Intellectual element in Religion (creed)

- Anti-intellectual theories: Ritual, Conduct, Feeling

- Identity of creed with Theology

- Identity of creed with Philosophy

- Negation of a special Philosophy of Religion

- Identity of Religion and Philosophy

- Supposed irreligious elements in Science

Religion and Morality

- Practical content in Religion

- Contradictory views: Historical, Anthropologically, Determinism, Antinomianism, Quietism

Mutual Dependence of Thought and Action

- Action presupposes thought

- Thought presupposes will

Identity of Thought and Action

- Religious expression: Love

- Criticism of distinctions

- Identity with differences

-Religion and History

- One-sided historical views

- Psychology & Comparative Religion

- History of Dogma/Church

- Anti-historical views

- Scepticism

- Dualism of History & Philosophy

- Mutual dependence of Philosophy and History

- History depends on Philosophy

- Philosophy depends on History

- Identity of Philosophy and History

- Application to Religion: doctrine tied to historical setting

---Religion and Philosophy