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The power of humility in sceptical religion: why Ietsism is preferable to J. L. Schellenberg's Ultimism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2015

JAMES ELLIOTT
JAMES ELLIOTT*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Purdue University, 100 N. University St., West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
*
e-mail: elliotj@purdue.edu
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Abstract

J. L. Schellenberg's Philosophy of Religion argues for a specific brand of sceptical religion that takes ‘Ultimism’ – the proposition that there is a metaphysically, axiologically, and soteriologically ultimate reality – to be the object to which the sceptical religionist should assent. In this article I shall argue that Ietsism – the proposition that there is merely something transcendental worth committing ourselves to religiously – is a preferable object of assent. This is for two primary reasons. First, Ietsism is far more modest than Ultimism; Ietsism, in fact, is open to the truth of Ultimism, while the converse does not hold. Second, Ietsism can fulfil the same criteria that compel Schellenberg to argue for Ultimism.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , March 2017 , pp. 97 - 116
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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