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Is sceptical religion adequate as a religion?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2013

ANDREW DOLE*
Affiliation:
Department of Religion, Amherst College, AC # 2252, Amherst, MA 01002, USA e-mail: adole@amherst.edu

Abstract

I argue that J. L. Schellenberg's sceptical religion faces two problems of religious adequacy. The first has to do with its relationship to the goal of bringing persons into proper alignment with an ultimate good; the second, with the desideratum of sceptical religion's becoming sufficiently well-established as to be a vehicle for the accomplishment of great things on the stage of history. I argue that actual sceptical religion would need to accommodate itself to the requirements of historical existence, and that such accommodation might well lead to a blurring of the distinctions Schellenberg draws between ‘sectarian’ and sceptical religion.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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