Richard Granville Swinburne (; born 26 December 1934) is an English

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. He is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. Over the last 50 years, Swinburne has been a proponent of philosophical

arguments for the existence of God The existence of God is a subject of debate in the philosophy of religion and theology. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God (with the same or similar arguments also generally being used when talking about the exis ...

. His

philosophical Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

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 Text (literary theo ...

and

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. Amongst its central questions are the difference between science and non-science, the reliability of scientific theories, ...

. 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''. He has been influential in reviving

substance dualism Substance may refer to: * Matter, anything that has mass and takes up space Chemistry * Chemical substance, a material with a definite chemical composition * Drug, a chemical agent affecting an organism Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ' ...

as an option in

philosophy of mind Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of the mind and its relation to the Body (biology), body and the Reality, external world. The mind–body problem is a paradigmatic issue in philosophy of mind, although a ...

Early life

Swinburne was born in

Smethwick Smethwick () is an industrial town in the Sandwell district, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire and then Worcestershire before bei ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

, 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 an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Hackney alongside neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets, which are also perceived as part of the area due to historic ecclesiastical links. Shoreditch lies just north ...

. His mother was a secretary, the daughter of an optician. He is an only child. Swinburne attended a preparatory school and then

Charterhouse School Charterhouse is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Godalming, Surrey, England. Founded by Thomas Sutton in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian monastery in Charter ...

Academic career

Swinburne received an open scholarship to study

classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

Exeter College, Oxford Exeter College (in full: The Rector and Scholars of Exeter College in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and the fourth-oldest college of the university. The college was founde ...

, but in fact graduated with a first-class

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in

philosophy, politics, and economics Philosophy, politics and economics, or politics, philosophy and economics (PPE), is an interdisciplinary undergraduate or postgraduate degree which combines study from three disciplines. The first institution to offer degrees in PPE was the Unive ...

. Swinburne has held various professorships throughout his career in academia. From 1972 to 1985, he taught at

Keele University Keele University is a Public university#United Kingdom, public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, it was granted uni ...

. During part of this time, he gave the

Gifford lectures The Gifford Lectures () are an annual series of lectures which were established in 1887 by the will of Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford at the four ancient universities of Scotland: St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Their purpose is to "pro ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

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, Oxford, Oriel College. The chair was established in 1920 by an endowment from Charles Frederick Nolloth, on ...

at the

(his successor to this chair was Brian Leftow). 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 the recent debate over the

mind–body problem The mind–body problem is a List_of_philosophical_problems#Mind–body_problem, philosophical problem concerning the relationship between thought and consciousness in the human mind and Human body, body. It addresses the nature of consciousness ...

, defending a

that recalls the work of

René Descartes René Descartes ( , ; ; 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 Modern science, science. Mathematics was paramou ...

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

and plausibility in the belief of that existence, is probably the most popular and is available in 22 languages. In 1992 he was elected a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

. He is a recipient of

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. ...

from the Literary and Historical Society of University College Dublin. Also, he was awarded honorary doctorates by the

Catholic University of Lublin John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (, , abbreviation KUL) is a university established in 1918. History Father Idzi Benedykt Radziszewski founded the university in 1918. Lenin allowed the priest to take the library and equipment of ...

(2015),

Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University () is a private university in Bucharest. The university was founded in 1990 by Momcilo Luburici and Corina-Adriana Dumitrescu as the Dimitrie Cantemir Independent University, which has since developed 17 fac ...

in Bucharest (2016), the International Academy of Philosophy in Liechtenstein (2017), and New Georgian University in Poti (2023).

Christian apologetics

A member of the

Orthodox Church Orthodox Church may refer to: * Eastern Orthodox Church, the second-largest Christian church in the world * Oriental Orthodox Churches, a branch of Eastern Christianity * Orthodox Presbyterian Church, a confessional Presbyterian denomination loc ...

, Swinburne is noted as one of the foremost

Christian apologist Christian apologetics (, "verbal defense, speech in defense") is a branch of Christian theology that defends Christianity. Christian apologetics have taken many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul the Apostle in the early church and Pa ...

s, 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 jour ...

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 kind of logic used to represent statements about Modality (natural language), necessity and possibility. In philosophy and related fields it is used as a tool for understanding concepts such as knowledge, obligation, and causality ...

) but

metaphysic Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of h ...

ally necessary in a way he defines in his ''The Christian God''. Other subjects on which Swinburne writes include

personal identity Personal identity is the unique numerical identity of a person over time. Discussions regarding personal identity typically aim to determine the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a person at one time and a person at another time ...

(in which he espouses a view based on the concept of a

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

), and

epistemic justification Justification (also called epistemic justification) is a property of beliefs that fulfill certain norms about what a person should believe. Epistemologists often identify justification as a component of knowledge distinguishing it from mere true ...

. 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, modern ...

and

libertarian free will Libertarianism is one of the main philosophical positions related to the problems of free will and determinism which are part of the larger domain of metaphysics. In particular, libertarianism is an incompatibilist position which argues that fre ...

. 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, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

(

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

) to

Eastern Orthodoxy Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

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 Christian ministry, ministry of the Christian Church is considered by some Christian denominations to be derived from the Twelve Apostles, apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been ...
: 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 ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...

. 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 Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

). In an interview with ''Veery'' journal, Swinburne summed up his place in philosophy: "I'm very much in the modern Anglo-American tradition of philosophy which I believe is basically the tradition of philosophy since Plato." 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 refers to a variety of methods of reasoning in which the conclusion of an argument is supported not with deductive certainty, but with some degree of probability. Unlike ''deductive'' reasoning (such as mathematical inducti ...

, seeking to show that his Christian beliefs fit best with the evidence.Schellenberg, J. L. (2016). "Working with Swinburne: Belief, Value, and Religious Life". In Bergmann, Michael; Brower, Jeffrey E. (eds.). Reason and Faith: Themes from Richard Swinburne. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 26–45. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198732648.003.0002. ISBN 978-0-19-873264-8.

National Life Stories National Life Stories (NLS) 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. ...

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. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

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 ...

on Christian Doctrines) * ''Revelation'', 1991 (part 2 of his

on Christian Doctrines) * ''The Christian God'', 1994 (part 3 of his

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

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 autobiographies

* 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.

References

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 Analytic theologians Christian apologists Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Anglicanism British critics of atheism Dualists 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 English philosophers of religion English philosophers of science People educated at Charterhouse School British philosophers of mind Writers about religion and science