Richard Swinburne’s short intellectual works
I began my academic career at Oxford University, graduating (1954-7) and graduating in philosophy (1957-9) and then a diploma in theology (1959-60). During my time as an undergraduate, I developed an abiding interest in all the central issues of philosophy and in particular the issue of whether there is sufficient justification for belief in God, and especially in the doctrines of the Christian religion. (I have been a Christian all my life, and a member of the Orthodox Church since 1995.)
I saw the achievements of science as central to the modern worldview. And so (with financial capital from two research fellowships – a Friar Fellowship at Sand John’s College, Oxford, and a Leverlome Fellowship in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds) I devoted the next three years to learning much about the history of physical And the beginnings of the biological sciences and the beginnings of philosophies about them.
In 1998 I became a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Hull. For about nine years all my work was related to the philosophy of science. My first book, Space and Time, was published in 1968 and attempted to give an account of the nature of space and time in the light of the detailed achievements of the theory of relativity and cosmology. My next large-scale book was an introduction to proof-of-concept related to the formal ordering of probabilistic calculus, which is proof of that.
In 1972 my friendship changed to an academic focus on the philosophy of religion, on which I had published only one small book, The Lover of Knowledge (1971), to become professor of philosophy at the University of Keele in 1972. The next twelve years saw the publication of my treatise on the philosophy of Sufism. Theism of Theism (1997, revised ed., 1993), The Existence of God (1979, 2nd edition 2004), and Faith & Reason (1981, 2nd edition 2005).
The central work, The Existence of God, attempted to reconstruct naturalism by providing a probable argument for God’s existence from the general properties of the world; And it is this achievement that I am best known for: my work on the relationship between my body and the body in the early 1980s, published in the form of First Personal Identity (co-authored with Sidney Schumacher, 1984) and more fully in The Evolution of the Spirit (1986, rev. ed., 1997).
In 1985, he became the Nulth Professor of the Philosophy of Christianity at the University of Oxford. For the next eight years my work focused on the meaning and justification of the beliefs that distinguish Christianity from other religions, and this work saw publication in four books – Responsibility and Sponsorship (1989), Results (1992; 2nd ed, 2007). ), The Christian God (1994), and The Problem of Prejudice and Evil (1998). Epistemological justification, a test that establishes the justification of a belief (and which is made up of knowledge), was published in 2001.
The establishment of the praise of God was a test with the help of all my past work, the evidence of which is the testimony. For the Incarnation of Jesus, was published in 2003. As the resurrection of Jesus provides an important ground for belief in many of the elaborate prayers of Christian theology, this was the necessary final part of my apologetics program.
Since retiring from the Nalot Professorship in 2002, much of my work has been devoted to second editions (mostly rewrites and updates) of previous works – The Existence of God (2004), Faith and Reason (2005), Rishi (2007). , and The Coherence of Theism (2016).. I have also written two short ‘popular’ books summarizing my work on the philosophy of religion. (1996) And Was Jesus God? (2008). For the next five years I worked again on the problem of the mind-body relationship, and I also worked on the related problem of whether humans have free will and how it relates to recent neuroscience.
This work resulted in the new book Mind, Brain, and Free Will, 2013 published in , in which I argue that all human beings are composed of two parts – the soul (the essential part) and the body (the normative part), and that we may have freedom (of a neutral kind).
During the next two years I worked primarily on the second edition (significantly rewritten and updated) of Theherence of Theism, which was published in 2016. This book attempts to produce a comprehensive account of what ‘God is’ means (and therefore examines what) it means to be omnipotent, omniscient, omnipotent, etc., which This is a prelude to my argument for the existence of God.
Since then I have written articles on various philosophical topics, and I have written a more “popular” book, entitled Are We Body or Spirit? , The Origin and Development of His Thoughts on the Nature of the Soul and Its Relationship to the Body, which was published in 2019. I was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1993.
Over the years I have held visiting professorships in American and other foreign universities and lectured for short periods in many different countries.I have been awarded an honorary doctorate by the Catholic University of Lublin. (2015), Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University, Bucharest (2016), and by the International Academy of Philosophy, Liechtenstein (2017). Visiting professors and designated special lectures
- 1975-78 Wilde Lecturer in Natural and Comparative Religion, University of Oxford.
- 1977 Forwood Lecturer in the History and Philosophy of Religion, University of Liverpool.
- 1980 Marrett Memorial Lecturer, Exeter College, Oxford.
- 1981 Special Lecturer (in Theology), University of London.
- 1982 Distinguished Visiting Scholar, University of Adelaide.
- 1983 Theology ‘Faculty’ Lecturer, University College, Cardiff.
- 1982-84 Gifford Lecturer, University of Aberdeen.
- 1987 Visiting Professor of Philosophy, Syracuse University, Spring Semester.
- 1987 Edward Cadbury Lecturer, University of Birmingham
- 1990 Wade Memorial Lecturer, St Louis University.
- 1992 Indian Council for Philosophical Research, visiting Lecturer.
- 1992 Dotterer Lecturer, Penn State University.
- 1997 Aquinas Lecturer, Marquette University.
- 2002 (March )Visiting Professor of Philosophy, University of Rome (La Sapienza).
- 2002 (November) Visiting Professor of Philosophy (Kaminsky Lecturer), Catholic University of Lublin.
- 2003 (Spring Semester) Visiting Professor, Divinity School, Yale University.
- 2003(Fall Semester) Visiting (Collins) Professor of Philosophy, St Louis University.
- 2006 Paul Holmer Lecturer, University of Minnesota
- 2008 Lawson Lecturer, Stetson University
- 2009 Forwood Lecturer , University of Liverpool
- 2013 Sophia /Forum Lecturer,, Azusa Paciific Uniiverslty,
- 2014 Gilbert Ryle Lecturer,, Trent University (Ontario)
- 2015 Gunning Lecturer, University of Edinburgh
- 2016 Edith Stein Lecturer, Franciscan University, Ohio
- 2016 Converse Yates Cate Lecturer, Oklahoma State University .
