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Philosophy of Religions - PHI00128I

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  • Department: Philosophy
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: I
  • Academic year of delivery: 2026-27

Module summary

This module uses the concepts, views, and arguments in analytic philosophy to clarify philosophical problems common to different world religions, to offer a range of solutions to those problems, and to evaluate those solutions.

Professional requirements

N/A

Related modules

N/A

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 2 2026-27

Module aims

Subject Content

  • To explore some key philosophical issues that face different world religions, with a particular focus on the major Abrahamic faiths (Islam, Judaism, Christianity);

  • To provide a research-led approach to understanding and participating in contemporary debates in philosophy of religion.

Academic and Graduate Skills

  • To develop students' abilities to apply philosophical concepts, views, and arguments, in order to advance the understanding of intellectual problems. 

Module learning outcomes

By the end of this module, students should be able

  • understand and explain a range of key problems, issues, and debates in comparative philosophy of religion and express this understanding in clear, precise, and accessible terms;

  • develop and articulate ranges of alternative solutions to problems and issues in comparative philosophy of religion in an open-minded way, drawing on module materials;

  • develop and articulate arguments for the alternative solutions considered in relation to problems and issues comparative philosophy of religion, drawing on module materials, identifying some points of weakness and some potential points for development;

  • make a judgement about their preferred view on a particular problem in comparative philosophy of religion and argue in defence of this judgement;

  • identify some of their strengths and weaknesses by evaluating their own work in relation to departmental marking criteria;

  • apply strategies for improving their work based on critical reflection, advice, and feedback.

Module content

Our module starts by comparing philosophical perspectives on faith and love and what it is to be a person as developed across different world religions. We move from human experience to God’s experience, and to different ways divine knowledge and its (possible) limits have been understood. In the second half of the module, we compare and contrast distinct Islamic and Christian philosophical arguments concerning divine simplicity, divine speech, and divine creation.

Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

N/A

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100.0

Module feedback

All formative and summative feedback will be returned in accordance with University and Departmental policy.

Indicative reading

Burley, Mikel. “Comparative Philosophy of Religion.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2025 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.).

Nagasawa, Yujin & Zarepour, Mohammad Saleh. Global Dialogues in the Philosophy of Religion (Oxford University Press, 2024).

Tweedt, Christopher. “The perspectival account of faith.” In Religious Studies. 59:4 (2024): 635-650.

Vahid, Hamid. “Faith, Knowledge, and Certainty: An Islamic Philosophy Perspective.” In Mohammed Zarepour (ed.) Islamic Philosophy of Religion. (Routledge, 2023): 165-180.

Averroes. Faith and Reason in Islam: Averroes' Exposition of Religious Arguments. Trans. Ibrahim Najjar (Oneworld Publications, 2014).

Zagzebski, Linda. “The Dignity of Persons and the Value of Uniqueness.” Presidential Address delivered at the 113th Central Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association (2016).

Williams, Scott M. “Persons in Patristic and Medieval Christian Theology.” In Antonia LoLordo (ed.), Persons: A History. (Oxford University Press, 2019): 52-84.

Shaker, Anthony F. “Persons in Islamicate Philosophy from Ibn Sina to Sabzavari.” In Antonia LoLordo (ed.), Persons: A History. (Oxford University Press, 2019): 87-122.

Stump, Eleonore. “Love, By All Accounts.” Proceedings and Addresses of The American Philosophical Association 80:2 (2006): 25-43.

Murtha, Colin Fitzpatrick. “Divine Love in Medieval Islamic Philosophy.” In Mansooreh Khalilizand ed. The Attributes of God in Islamic Thought. (Routledge, 2024): 46-66.

McGinnis, Jon. “The Hiddenness of “Divine Hiddenness”: Divine Love in Medieval Islamic Lands.” In Adam Green & Eleonore Stump (eds.) Hidden Divinity and Religious Belief: New Perspectives. (Cambridge University Press, 2016): 157-174.

Inman, Ross D., “Omnipresence and the Location of the Immaterial.” In Jonathan L. Kvanvig (ed.), Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion Volume 8. (Oxford University Press, 2017): 168–206.

Zagzebski, Linda. Omnisubjectivity: An Essay on God and Subjectivity. (Oxford University Press, 2023).

Adamson, Peter. “On Knowledge of Particulars.” In Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 105 (2005): 257-278.

Stump, Eleonore. “God’s Knowledge.” In Aquinas. (Routledge, 2003): 159-188.

Lebens, Samuel. The Principles of Judaism. (Oxford University Press, 2020).

Hazony, Yoram & Johnson, Dru eds. The Question of God’s Perfection: Jewish and Christian Essays on the God of the Bible and Talmud. (Brill, 2018).

Stump, Eleonore. Grains of Wheat: Suffering and Biblical Narratives (Oxford University Press, 2025).

Stump, Eleonore. “Simplicity and Aquinas’s Quantum Metaphysics.” In Gerhard Krieger (ed.), Die "Metaphysik" des Aristoteles Im Mittelalter. (De Gruyter, 2016): 191-210.

Plantinga, Alvin. Does God have a nature? (Marquette University Press, 1980).

McGinnis, Jon. “Simple Is As Simple Does: Plantinga and Ghazali on Divine Simplicity.” Religious Studies. 2022;58(S1): 97-109.

Al-Ghazali. Moderation in Belief. Trans. Aladdin M. Yaqub (Chicago University Press, 2017).

Rizvi, Sajjad. “Divine Simplicity, the Deus Revelatus, and the Divine Names in the Philosophical Theology of Mulla ¿adra Shirazi (1571–1636).” In Mansooreh Khalilizand ed. The Attributes of God in Islamic Thought. (Routledge, 2024): 67-90.

Doolan, Gregory T. “Divine Ideas and Divine Simplicity.” In Jonathan Fuqua and Robert C. Koons (eds.) Classical Theism: New Essays on the Metaphysics of God. (Routledge, 2023): 211-232.

Harvey, Ramon. “Divine Speech and the Qur’an.” In Transcendent God, Rational World: A Maturidi Theology. (Edinburgh University Press, 2023): 191-221.

Lumbard, Joseph. “What of the Word is Common?” In El-Ansary, W., Linnan, D.K. (eds.) Muslim and Christian Understanding. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010): 93-109.

Kurt, Erkan M. Creation: The Principle of Nature in Islamic Metaphysics. (Blue Dome, 2012).

Burrell, David M. “Creation.” In Timothy Winter (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology. (Cambridge University Press; 2008): 141-160.

Fakhry, Majid. Islamic Occasionalism and its critique by Averroes and Aquinas. (Routledge, 2024).

Saemi, Amir. Morality and Revelation in Islamic Thought and Beyond: A New Problem of Evil. (Oxford University Press, 2024).


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University constantly explores ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary. In some instances it may be appropriate for the University to notify and consult with affected students about module changes in accordance with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.