Pragmatic Realism, Religious Truth, and Antitheodicy

On Viewing the World by Acknowledging the Other

Sami Pihlström

• Publisher: Helsinki University Press
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN:
  9789523690066
• Print ISBN:
  9789523690042

As a traditional theological issue and in its broader secular varieties, theodicy remains a problem in the philosophy of religion. In this remarkable book, Sami Pihlström provides a novel critical reassessment of the theodicy discourse addressing the problem of evil and suffering. He develops and defends an antitheodicist view, arguing that theodicies seeking to render apparently meaningless suffering meaningful or justified from a 'God's-Eye-View' ultimately rely on metaphysical realism failing to recognize the individual perspective of the sufferer. Pihlström thus shows that a pragmatist approach to the realism issue in the philosophy of religion is a vital starting point for a re-evaluation of the problem of theodicy. With its strong positions and precise arguments, the volume provides a new approach which is likely to stimulate discussion in the wider academic world of philosophy of religion.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: The Promise of Pragmatist Philosophy of Religion
• Chapter 1: A Pragmatist Approach to Religious Realism, Objectivity, and Recognition
• Chapter 2: The Pragmatic Contextuality of Scheme (In)Dependence
• Chapter 3: Pragmatism and Critical Philosophy
• Chapter 4: Religious Truth, Acknowledgment, and Diversity
• Chapter 5: The Limits of Language and Harmony
• Chapter 6: Beyond the Theory-Practice Dichotomy
• Conclusion: Meaningful and Meaningless Suffering
• Notes
• References
• A Note on the Sources of the Chapters
• Index