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The power of humility in sceptical religion: why Ietsism is preferable to J. L. Schellenberg's Ultimism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2015

JAMES ELLIOTT*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Purdue University, 100 N. University St., West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA

Abstract

J. L. Schellenberg's Philosophy of Religion argues for a specific brand of sceptical religion that takes ‘Ultimism’ – the proposition that there is a metaphysically, axiologically, and soteriologically ultimate reality – to be the object to which the sceptical religionist should assent. In this article I shall argue that Ietsism – the proposition that there is merely something transcendental worth committing ourselves to religiously – is a preferable object of assent. This is for two primary reasons. First, Ietsism is far more modest than Ultimism; Ietsism, in fact, is open to the truth of Ultimism, while the converse does not hold. Second, Ietsism can fulfil the same criteria that compel Schellenberg to argue for Ultimism.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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