This first volume should be of particular interest to persons working in the fields of philosophy of religion and theology and to persons more generally interested in the variety and scope of philosophical reflection on religion in the 20th-century. The text provides in one volume a map of one hundred years of 20th-century western philosophy of religion. Divided into four divisions approximating four chronological periods, the book begins at the turn of the 20th-century with absolute idealism, personal idealism, neo-Kantianism, positivism and the science of religion. The period between the two world wars includes discussions of neo-realism, phenomenology, American pragmatism, personalism and the philosophy of history. The primary strands of philosophy of religion after mid-century are philosophical analysis, existential philosophy, neo-Thomism and process Philosophy. The final division, which leads to the turn of the 21st century, includes discussions of analytic philosophy, hermeneutics and deconstruction, critical theory, comparative philosophy and feminist philosophy. The primary task of the book is interpretative.
However, brief remarks intended to highlight central issues and raise critical questions are included at the end of each chapter and in the concluding chapter of the book.