Wittgenstein within the Philosophy of Religion

The commonly held view that Wittgensteinian philosophy of religion entails an irrationalist defense of religion known as 'fideism' loses plausibility when contrasted with recent scholarship on Wittgenstein's corpus, biography, and other sources. This book reevaluates the place of Wittgenstein in the philosophy of religion and charts a path forward for the subfield by advancing three themes. The first is that philosophers of religion should question received interpretations of philosophers, such as Wittgenstein, as well as the meanings of key terms used in interpretations, such as 'fideism'. The second theme is that Wittgenstein's philosophy, across his corpus, pursues a particular end: a searching clarity or perspicuity. The third theme is that with the rise of various religious movements within societies and around the world in recent decades, philosophy of religion has important tasks in clarifying global conversations on living well amidst human diversities and contemplating philosophy as a vocation.

Thomas D. Carroll is Professor of Philosophy at Xing Wei College in Shanghai, China.

Acknowledgements
Introduction: Reading Wittgenstein on Religion
1. Problems of Interpretive Authority in Wittgenstein's Corpus
2. Wittgenstein, Biography, and Religious Identity
3. A History of Wittgenstein and the Philosophy of Religion
4. The Traditions of Fideism
5. On 'Fideism' as an Interpretive Category
6. Religions, Epistemic Isolation, and Social Trust
7. Wittgenstein's Ethic of Perspicuity and the Philosophy of Religion
Bibliography
Index