HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Richard Granville Swinburne (
IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners A ...
) (born December 26, 1934) is an English
philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
. He is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
. Over the last 50 years Swinburne has been a proponent of philosophical arguments for the existence of God. His
philosophical Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
contributions are primarily in the
philosophy of religion Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning p ...
and
philosophy of science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultim ...
. He aroused much discussion with his early work in the philosophy of religion, a trilogy of books consisting of ''The Coherence of Theism'', '' The Existence of God'', and ''Faith and Reason''.


Early life

Swinburne was born in
Smethwick Smethwick () is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire. In 2019, the ward of Smethwick had an estimated population of 15,246, while the wider b ...
,
Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands C ...
, England, on 26 December 1934. His father was a school music teacher, who was himself the son of an off-licence owner in
Shoreditch Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area. In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an imp ...
. His mother was a secretary, the daughter of an optician. He is an only child. Swinburne attended a preparatory school and then
Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...
.


Academic career

Swinburne received an open scholarship to study
classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
at
Exeter College, Oxford (Let Exeter Flourish) , old_names = ''Stapeldon Hall'' , named_for = Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter , established = , sister_college = Emmanuel College, Cambridge , rector = Sir Richard Trainor ...
, but in fact graduated with a first-class
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
degree in philosophy, politics, and economics. Swinburne has held various professorships through his career in academia. From 1972 to 1985 he taught at
Keele University Keele University, officially known as the University of Keele, is a public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, Keele ...
. During part of this time, he gave the Gifford lectures at
Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...
from 1982 to 1984, resulting in the book ''The Evolution of the Soul''. From 1985 until his retirement in 2002 he was
Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion The Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion is a chair at the University of Oxford, associated with Oriel College. The chair was established in 1920 by an endowment from Charles Frederick Nolloth, on the basis of lectures d ...
at the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
(his successor to this chair was
Brian Leftow Brian Leftow (born 1956) is an American philosopher specializing in philosophy of religion, medieval philosophy, and metaphysics. He is the William P. Alston Professor for the Philosophy of Religion at Rutgers University. Previously, he held the ...
). He has continued to publish regularly since his retirement. Swinburne has been an active author throughout his career, producing a major book every two to three years. He has played a role in recent debate over the
mind–body problem The mind–body problem is a philosophical debate concerning the relationship between thought and consciousness in the human mind, and the brain as part of the physical body. The debate goes beyond addressing the mere question of how mind and bo ...
, defending a substance dualism that recalls the work of
René Descartes René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Ma ...
in important respects (see ''The Evolution of the Soul'', 1997). His books are primarily very technical works of academic philosophy, but he has written at the popular level as well. Of the non-technical works, his '' Is There a God?'' (1996), summarising for a non-specialist audience many of his arguments for the existence of God and plausibility in the belief of that existence, is probably the most popular, and is available in 22 languages.


Christian apologetics

A member of the
Orthodox Church Orthodox Church may refer to: * Eastern Orthodox Church * Oriental Orthodox Churches * Orthodox Presbyterian Church * Orthodox Presbyterian Church of New Zealand * State church of the Roman Empire * True Orthodox church See also * Orthodox (d ...
, he is noted as one of the foremost Christian apologists, arguing in his many articles and books that faith in Christianity is rational and coherent in a rigorous philosophical sense.
William Hasker R. William Hasker (; born 1935) is an American philosopher and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Huntington University. For many years he was editor of the prestigious journal '' Faith and Philosophy''. He has published many journ ...
writes that his "tetralogy on Christian doctrine, together with his earlier trilogy on the philosophy of theism, is one of the most important apologetic projects of recent times." While Swinburne presents many arguments to advance the belief that God exists, he argues that God is a being whose existence is not logically necessary (see
modal logic Modal logic is a collection of formal systems developed to represent statements about necessity and possibility. It plays a major role in philosophy of language, epistemology, metaphysics, and natural language semantics. Modal logics extend ot ...
), but metaphysically necessary in a way he defines in his ''The Christian God''. Other subjects on which Swinburne writes include personal identity (in which he espouses a view based on the concept of a
soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest att ...
), and epistemic justification. He has written in defence of
Cartesian dualism Cartesian means of or relating to the French philosopher René Descartes—from his Latinized name ''Cartesius''. It may refer to: Mathematics * Cartesian closed category, a closed category in category theory *Cartesian coordinate system, moder ...
and libertarian free will. Although he is best known for his vigorous defence of Christian intellectual commitments, he also has a theory of the nature of passionate faith which is developed in his book ''Faith and Reason''. According to an interview Swinburne did with ''Foma'' magazine, he converted from
Anglicanism Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...
(
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...
) to
Eastern Orthodoxy Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonic ...
around 1996:
I don't think I changed my beliefs in any significant way. I always believed in the
Apostolic succession Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is held to be derived from the apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been associated with a claim that the succession is through a series of bisho ...
: that the Church has to have its authority dating back to the Apostles, and the general teaching of the Orthodox Church on the saints and the prayers for the departed and so on, these things I have always believed.
Swinburne's philosophical method reflects the influence of
Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Order, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino, Italy, Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest who was an influential List of Catholic philo ...
. He admits that he draws from Aquinas a systematic approach to philosophical theology. Swinburne, like Aquinas, moves from basic philosophical issues (for example, the question of the possibility that God may exist in Swinburne's ''The Coherence of Theism''), to more specific Christian beliefs (for example, the claim in Swinburne's ''Revelation'' that God has communicated to human beings propositionally in Jesus Christ). Swinburne moves in his writing program from the philosophical to the theological, building his case and relying on his previous arguments as he defends particular Christian beliefs. He has attempted to reassert classical Christian beliefs with an apologetic method that he believes is compatible with contemporary science. That method relies heavily on
inductive logic Inductive reasoning is a method of reasoning in which a general principle is derived from a body of observations. It consists of making broad generalizations based on specific observations. Inductive reasoning is distinct from ''deductive'' rea ...
, seeking to show that his Christian beliefs fit best with the evidence.
National Life Stories National Life Stories is an independent charitable trust and limited company (registered as the ‘National Life Story Collection’) based within the British Library Oral History section, whose key focus and expertise is oral history fieldwork. S ...
conducted an oral history interview (C1672/15) with Richard Swinburne in 2015–2016 for its Science and Religion collection held by the
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...
.


Major books

* ''Space and Time'', 1968 * ''The Concept of Miracle'', 1970, * ''The Coherence of Theism'', 1977 (new edition 2016) (part 1 of his trilogy on Theism) * ''The Existence of God'', 1979 (new edition 2004, ) (part 2 of his trilogy on Theism) * ''Faith and Reason'', 1981 (new edition 2005). (part 3 of his trilogy on Theism) * ''The Evolution of the Soul'', 1986, .
1997 edition online
* ''Miracles'', 1989 * ''Responsibility and Atonement'', 1989 (part 1 of his
tetralogy A tetralogy (from Greek τετρα- ''tetra-'', "four" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. The name comes from the Attic theater, in which a tetralogy was a group of three tragedies f ...
on Christian Doctrines) * ''Revelation'', 1991 (part 2 of his
tetralogy A tetralogy (from Greek τετρα- ''tetra-'', "four" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. The name comes from the Attic theater, in which a tetralogy was a group of three tragedies f ...
on Christian Doctrines) * ''The Christian God'', 1994 (part 3 of his
tetralogy A tetralogy (from Greek τετρα- ''tetra-'', "four" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. The name comes from the Attic theater, in which a tetralogy was a group of three tragedies f ...
on Christian Doctrines) * '' Is There a God?'', 1996, ; revised edition, 2010, * ''Simplicity as Evidence of Truth'', The Aquinas Lecture, 1997 * ''Providence and the Problem of Evil'', 1998 (part 4 of his
tetralogy A tetralogy (from Greek τετρα- ''tetra-'', "four" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. The name comes from the Attic theater, in which a tetralogy was a group of three tragedies f ...
on Christian Doctrines) * ''Epistemic Justification'', 2001 * ''The Resurrection of God Incarnate'', 2003 * ''Was Jesus God?'', 2008 * ''Free Will and Modern Science'', Ed. 2011, * ''Mind, Brain, and Free Will'', 2013 * ''Are We Bodies or Souls?'', 2019,


Spiritual autobiography

* Richard Swinburne, "Natural Theology and Orthodoxy," in ''Turning East: Contemporary Philosophers and the Ancient Christian Faith'', Rico Vitz, ed. (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2012), pp. 47–78. * Richard Swinburne, "The Vocation of a Natural Theologian," in ''Philosophers Who Believe'', Kelly James Clark, ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993), pp. 179–202.


See also

*
James Joyce Award The James Joyce Award, also known as the Honorary Fellowship of the Society, is an award given by the Literary and Historical Society (L&H) of University College Dublin (UCD) for those who have achieved outstanding success in their given field; r ...
*
List of scholars on the relationship between religion and science This is a list of notable individuals who have focused on studying the intersection of religion and science. A * S. Alexander * Gordon W. Allport: noted Behavioural Psychologist & author of ''The Individual and his Religion'' (1951). * Nathan ...
*
Theodicy Theodicy () means vindication of God. It is to answer the question of why a good God permits the manifestation of evil, thus resolving the issue of the problem of evil. Some theodicies also address the problem of evil "to make the existence o ...


References


Footnotes


Works cited

* * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * * * * * *


External links

* * – Includes a curriculum vitae and more complete list of publications
Presentation at Gifford lecturesRichard Swinburne, Faith and Reason
review fro
DiapsalmataMoscow Center for Consciousness Studies'' video interview with Richard Swinburne
31 May 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Swinburne, Richard 1934 births Living people 20th-century English philosophers 20th-century English theologians 21st-century English philosophers 21st-century English theologians Academics of Keele University Academics of the University of Hull Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford Analytic philosophers Christian apologists Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Anglicanism Critics of atheism Eastern Orthodox philosophers English Eastern Orthodox Christians Fellows of Oriel College, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy Nolloth Professors of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion Philosophers of religion Philosophers of science Philosophical cosmologists Writers about religion and science People educated at Charterhouse School