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Religions
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Justice, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion
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Justice, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 October 2022) | Viewed by 30706

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Charles Taliaferro

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Philosophy Department, Sl. Olaf College, Northfield, MN 55057, USA
Interests: philosophy of religion; axiology; aesthetics, metaphysics; epistemology
Prof. Dr. Paul Reasoner

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Philosophy Department, Bethel University, St Paul, MN 55112, USA
Interests: Asian philosophy; aesthetics; philosophy of religion; epistemology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We have been invited to edit a Special Issue of Religions that will focus on Justice, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion. We believe that the field of philosophy of religion may be a natural site or (to shift metaphors) a launching pad for exchanges on ethics and justice insofar as philosophy of religion takes extant religious communities around the world seriously and, thus, has an interest in the welfare of such communities both in their relationships with one another and with secular culture. We think it is quite natural for a philosopher of religion to reflect on relevant notions of rights and duties, dignity and freedom, persecution and tolerance, animals and the environment, and the myriad issues that arise in applied ethics. Of course, much philosophy of religion in the past and today has been focused on abstract metaphysics, disputes about epistemology, and thought experiments that border on the fantastical, but because philosophy of religion  bears on the actual lives and beliefs of billions of people, there is reason to address matters of justice and ethics. While justice and ethics issues in society have been perennial issues in philosophy, we are especially looking for articles which address matters of justice, ethics, and their applications in society from the perspective of philosophy of religion.

Major themes and possible topics:

  • Philosophy of religion and theories of justice

How do religious traditions provide reasons/grounds for why notions of fairness, impartiality, and equity, should be valued?

How are these reasons for valuing fairness, impartiality, and equity similar or different from reasons given by secular naturalism for the same notions? Do one or more religious views of the cosmos provide richer or poorer foundations for justice and ethics than contemporary secular naturalism?

What is the relationship between justice and mercy and how should they be worked out in contemporary society?

  • Philosophy of religion and political philosophy and praxis:

What are the obligations of those holding political power vis-à-vis those under the government?

How does philosophy of religion help illuminate questions about the justification of resistance and revolution to that authority?

In the desire that some of the contributions engage non-Abrahamic traditions, we hope that an essay will be written on the relationship between a ruler and the people; for example, in the Confucian tradition, how has the moral integrity of a ruler been linked to the wellbeing of their people?

  • Philosophy of religion and its analysis of, and application to, contemporary social issues:

How might religious reasons (beliefs/practices) aid both religious and secular philosophers in reflecting on specific social issues? How can philosophy of religion be brought to bear on issues where religious precepts/practices conflict with secular culture? Sample topics include immigration, truth-telling, disabilities, property, racism, sexism, and medical treatment.

Prof. Dr. Charles Taliaferro
Prof. Dr. Paul Reasoner
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • justice
  • mercy
  • forgiveness
  • toleration
  • punishment
  • reparations
  • human rights
  • religion and society
  • nature of persons
  • truth-telling
  • poverty
  • moral luck

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Published Papers (12 papers)

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10 pages, 205 KiB  
Article
Philosophy of Religion in a Fragmented Age: Practice and Participatory Realism
by Jacob Holsinger Sherman
Religions 2023, 14(3), 424; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14030424 - 21 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1710
Abstract
What should the philosophical study of religion look like in an epoch of increasing political polarization, cultural ferment, and religious fragmentation? Drawing on the work of Amy Hollywood and others, I argue that philosophers seeking to understand what seem to be incommensurable moral [...] Read more.
What should the philosophical study of religion look like in an epoch of increasing political polarization, cultural ferment, and religious fragmentation? Drawing on the work of Amy Hollywood and others, I argue that philosophers seeking to understand what seem to be incommensurable moral and religious communities ought to attend more fully to the role of spiritual practice and moral formation as irreducible components of certain beliefs and ethical intuitions. However, while such an account might invite a reductive reading in which the object of religious belief is taken to be simply the practice, ritual, etc., I engage the thought of Michael Polanyi to argue that such irreducibly participatory truth claims can be understood to aim at a reality that exceeds the structures of formation and ways of life to which they are indexed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Justice, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion)
13 pages, 252 KiB  
Article
A Study in Evil: The Slave Trade in Africa
by Abdulai Iddrisu
Religions 2023, 14(1), 122; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14010122 - 16 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4327
Abstract
In this special issue on justice, ethics, and philosophy of religion, let us consider a historical case study. The trade of slaves across the Atlantic lasted 400 years and led to the forcible removal of about 12.5 million people from Africa, south of [...] Read more.
In this special issue on justice, ethics, and philosophy of religion, let us consider a historical case study. The trade of slaves across the Atlantic lasted 400 years and led to the forcible removal of about 12.5 million people from Africa, south of the Sahara. This paper examines the African slave trade in light of the notion that evil of whatever form is a menace to our very existence and a rupture of the very essence of hope. It will focus on the nature, development, and growth of the African/European Slave Trade, as it interrogates issues such as: if evil is coterminous with human cruelty, then the slave trade was the apogee of human evil and avarice; the notion of slavers saving the enslaved from themselves; and providing an avenue for conversion into Abrahamic religions. The essay will also be interested in how slavers—European and Africans alike—rationalized slavery and how the enslaved and onlookers responded to the spectacle of enslavement. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Justice, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion)
16 pages, 279 KiB  
Article
Immigration Ethics: Sacred and Secular
by David J. Clark and Thomas M. Crisp
Religions 2023, 14(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14010001 - 20 Dec 2022
Viewed by 2005
Abstract
The U.S. and other nation-states regularly impose horrific harm on immigrants, would-be immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers: ‘migrants’, for short. Migrants are regularly separated from their spouses and children, detained for long periods under brutal and dehumanizing conditions, forced to live in squalid [...] Read more.
The U.S. and other nation-states regularly impose horrific harm on immigrants, would-be immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers: ‘migrants’, for short. Migrants are regularly separated from their spouses and children, detained for long periods under brutal and dehumanizing conditions, forced to live in squalid camps, threatened with state-sanctioned violence, deported to foreign lands in which they have little social connection or means of support, forcibly prevented from fleeing violence and poverty, and more. The vast majority of migrants subject to such treatment are non-criminal people looking for honest work, hoping to make a better life for themselves and their children. In this paper, we will argue that the plausibility of the usual justifications for such harms to migrants depends importantly on the metaphysical framework from which one approaches the ethics of immigration. We will argue that, from within a secular framework, in which God plays no role in matters moral, there is at least a surface-level plausibility to some of the standard justifications for harms to migrants in service of border control, but that given a theistic framework of the sort at the heart of Judaism and Christianity, the usual justifications for such harms fall flat: none are even remotely plausible. The upshot of this, we shall urge, is that denizens of those religious traditions should support a policy of nearly open borders. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Justice, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion)
14 pages, 264 KiB  
Article
Ubuntu Philosophy and Mandatory Measles Vaccinations for Children
by Ruach Sarangarajan and Cornelius Ewuoso
Religions 2022, 13(12), 1184; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13121184 - 5 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2338
Abstract
This is a primarily normative paper that draws on the thinking about friendliness grounded in an Afro-communitarian (Ubuntu) philosophy to argue for measles vaccine mandates for children below 6 years old under the assumptions that measles vaccines are safe for children in this [...] Read more.
This is a primarily normative paper that draws on the thinking about friendliness grounded in an Afro-communitarian (Ubuntu) philosophy to argue for measles vaccine mandates for children below 6 years old under the assumptions that measles vaccines are safe for children in this age group, are widely available, and that children in this age-group experiences two-tiered vulnerability. Suppose the ethic of friendliness grounded in this Afro-communitarian philosophy requires us to be friendly to those who are friendly and unfriendly to a proportional degree to those who fail to be friendly. In that case, we are justified in mandating parents and guardians to vaccinate their children. Studies must research the concrete forms that measles vaccine mandates can take in African contexts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Justice, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion)
15 pages, 234 KiB  
Article
Can I Be Obliged to Believe?
by Sandra Menssen and Thomas D. Sullivan
Religions 2022, 13(12), 1159; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13121159 - 29 Nov 2022
Viewed by 1149
Abstract
We build an argument directed to agnostics who think there’s a realistic possibility some specific revelatory claim is true (for instance, the Christian, or Judaic, or Islamic claim) and who find that claim more plausible than its theistic competitors. Though such agnostics may [...] Read more.
We build an argument directed to agnostics who think there’s a realistic possibility some specific revelatory claim is true (for instance, the Christian, or Judaic, or Islamic claim) and who find that claim more plausible than its theistic competitors. Though such agnostics may have serious reservations about the claim, perhaps not even deeming the chance it’s true to be at least fifty-fifty, we contend that—surprisingly—it’s obligatory for them to assent to the claim if it provides a means for remediation of wrong-doing. Our focus is the Christian revelatory claim, but the argument’s template can be applied to other religions that, like Christianity, promise to fix the world’s ills in an afterlife. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Justice, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion)
13 pages, 225 KiB  
Article
How Do Theological and Secular Ethics Relate and Compare?
by Edward Langerak
Religions 2022, 13(10), 971; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13100971 - 14 Oct 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3592
Abstract
This article relates and compares some important features of Western religious and secular morality by way of surveying the debate over different answers to the question whether morality depends on religion in some significant way. The three main ways examined are whether morality [...] Read more.
This article relates and compares some important features of Western religious and secular morality by way of surveying the debate over different answers to the question whether morality depends on religion in some significant way. The three main ways examined are whether morality depends on religion for an objective foundation, whether morality depends on religion for its content, and whether morality depends on religion for motivation. What emerges is that while religion can provide an objective foundation, a worthy content, and an admirable motivation for those who accept its distinctive theological claims, secularists can provide plausible, if debatable, alternatives to a theological foundation, as well as a moral content and motivation that can have interesting overlaps with those of religious ethics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Justice, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion)
17 pages, 241 KiB  
Article
Grounding the Conscience
by Angus John Louis Menuge
Religions 2022, 13(10), 966; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13100966 - 12 Oct 2022
Viewed by 1754
Abstract
Most people rely on their conscience as a source of moral intuitions needed to test ethical proposals. Assume that the conscience can deliver knowledge of moral obligations under the right conditions. What ontological resources are needed to explain such a faculty? That depends [...] Read more.
Most people rely on their conscience as a source of moral intuitions needed to test ethical proposals. Assume that the conscience can deliver knowledge of moral obligations under the right conditions. What ontological resources are needed to explain such a faculty? That depends on (1) the nature of moral obligations, and (2) what it takes to be receptive to them. I argue that close attention to (1) and (2) shows that materialism cannot account for the conscience, but that Christian theism plausibly provides the requisite resources. This is because moral obligations are naturally received as commands, they are prescriptive, personal, and express a kind of universal normative necessity that cannot be grounded in the local contingencies of a materialist world. Moral obligations are expressed as commands of practical reason, and they are knowable only if the world is governed by a divine personal Logos, and there are “Logos beings”, beings like God in their receptivity to these commands. Moral obligations are themselves immaterial entities and only a being with an immaterial dimension of the right sort can be receptive to them. This argument parallels a version of the argument from reason that sees theism as the best explanation of our logical reasoning abilities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Justice, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion)
8 pages, 233 KiB  
Article
Pandemic and the Nature-Alienated Self
by Alexander J. B. Hampton
Religions 2022, 13(7), 575; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13070575 - 21 Jun 2022
Viewed by 1818
Abstract
This consideration of COVID-19 places the pandemic in the larger context of our present-day ontology and the environmentally destructive human–nature relationship that characterizes it, exploring it in three parts. First, it sets out the problematic conceptualization of nature in the modern social imaginary [...] Read more.
This consideration of COVID-19 places the pandemic in the larger context of our present-day ontology and the environmentally destructive human–nature relationship that characterizes it, exploring it in three parts. First, it sets out the problematic conceptualization of nature in the modern social imaginary by focusing upon the self in terms of its sense of identity, agency and authority. Second, it sets out how the pandemic fundamentally disrupts these three facets of the self in terms of the fragilization of economic values, the notion of unique human agency, and the limitation of the authority of discursive reason. Finally, it concludes by outlining the opportunity for a renewed relationship with nature by proposing the recovery of the premodern concepts of metaphysical participation, teleology, and rational intuition. In doing so, the pandemic crisis is considered in the wider context of the ecological crisis of the modern age, and as an opportunity for rethinking our collective concept of nature, and the place of our selves within it. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Justice, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion)
13 pages, 233 KiB  
Article
Religion and Its Public Critics
by Mikael Stenmark
Religions 2022, 13(7), 572; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13070572 - 21 Jun 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4618
Abstract
To have the right and possibility to criticize religions in public life is crucial for developing a healthy liberal democratic society. However, this criticism could take many different forms with respect to who offers the criticism, on what grounds it is based, its [...] Read more.
To have the right and possibility to criticize religions in public life is crucial for developing a healthy liberal democratic society. However, this criticism could take many different forms with respect to who offers the criticism, on what grounds it is based, its aim, what the target of the criticism is, and whom the critics try to convince. In this article, I develop a theoretical framework we can use to distinguish and assess different forms of criticism, focusing primarily on secular criticism of religion. Furthermore, I argue that in performing such a meta-study of criticism, it is vital that we reflect more carefully on how to develop plausible ethics of criticism. Finally, by comparing public criticism and academic criticism, I show that such ethics must be developed in a way that is sensitive to discourse. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Justice, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion)
13 pages, 250 KiB  
Article
Mary Astell on Neighborly Love
by Timothy Yenter
Religions 2022, 13(6), 475; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13060475 - 25 May 2022
Viewed by 1832
Abstract
In discussing the obligation to love everyone, Mary Astell (1666–1731) recognizes and responds to what I call the theocentric challenge: if humans are required to love God entirely, then they cannot fulfill the second requirement to love their neighbor. In exploring how Astell [...] Read more.
In discussing the obligation to love everyone, Mary Astell (1666–1731) recognizes and responds to what I call the theocentric challenge: if humans are required to love God entirely, then they cannot fulfill the second requirement to love their neighbor. In exploring how Astell responds to this challenge, I argue that Astell is an astute metaphysician who does not endorse the metaphysical views she praises. This viewpoint helps us to understand the complicated relationship between her views and those of Descartes, Malebranche, Henry More, and John Norris, as well as her sophisticated approach to biblical interpretation and theology. Attending to theocentrism opens up new avenues of research in the study of early modern philosophy. It also helps us to see connections between Astell and other theocentric philosophers such as Spinoza and Anne Conway. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Justice, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion)
10 pages, 214 KiB  
Article
The Place of Animals in Theodicy and in Justice
by Robin Attfield
Religions 2022, 13(5), 450; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13050450 - 17 May 2022
Viewed by 1875
Abstract
It is widely recognized that the animal suffering of the evolutionary past is a problem for believers in a good and just God. However, this problem is not insuperable if the intrinsic value of nonhuman flourishing is recognized as integral to the Creator’s [...] Read more.
It is widely recognized that the animal suffering of the evolutionary past is a problem for believers in a good and just God. However, this problem is not insuperable if the intrinsic value of nonhuman flourishing is recognized as integral to the Creator’s plan (including the sentience that makes this flourishing possible among most species of animals), and if this intrinsic value is recognized as comparable to the intrinsic value of human suffering. These considerations have a bearing on justice. Many philosophers, while granting the moral standing of nonhuman animals, assume that, where justice is concerned, human interests trump those of nonhumans. However, most people accept that the central interests of nonhumans, such as the avoidance of a painful death, are not trumped by trivial human interests. But the obligations to animals that are presupposed here are not ones that are liable to be superseded by each and every interhuman obligation. Hence, theories of justice need to recognize that the needs and interests of nonhuman animals generate obligations of justice, as well as of charity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Justice, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion)

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8 pages, 192 KiB  
Essay
A Prison Philosopher: A Personal Essay
by Alexander A. Brown
Religions 2023, 14(4), 492; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040492 - 4 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1653
Abstract
Prison is often thought of as hell behind barbed wire, housing the most nefarious of sorts who have thrown away any inkling of wisdom. Nevertheless, a number of reasons can make prison an ideal place to develop an appreciation for, and put into [...] Read more.
Prison is often thought of as hell behind barbed wire, housing the most nefarious of sorts who have thrown away any inkling of wisdom. Nevertheless, a number of reasons can make prison an ideal place to develop an appreciation for, and put into practice, philosophy, the love of wisdom. I offer a rough characterization of the practice of philosophy in the context of prison. The removal of persons from a world that is comparatively unfettered to a place of silence and solitude can lead to wonder and questioning. I then consider how I, as a prison philosopher, develop questions and reflection around various ideas from God, truth, beauty, and love, to death. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Justice, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion)
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