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Institute for Philosophy of Religion (IRF)

The Institute for Philosophy of Religion (IRF) is a research facility pooling the resources of the Departments of Philosophy, Catholic Theology and Protestant Theology. It is currently pursuing three long-term research projects closely related to Religion in Dialogue. These are:

1. The dialogue of religions and its philosophical groundings. This project inquires as to the appropriate grounding of a theory of religions in dialogue, pursuing both historical and systematic trajectories. These inquiries embrace issues such as the contribution made by late classical, patristic, medieval and modern authors to the philosophical interpretation of the distinctions and commonalities between the teachings of different religious faiths. They also address the philosophical issue of the critique of religion, and inquire as to the appropriate interpretation of religious beliefs in light of the notion of religion developed by modern philosophy.
2. The philosophy of religion and its grounding within modern philosophy. It would be fair to say that modern philosophy's programme of epistemological critique - and not least the critique of truth claims raised by religious beliefs - eventually left most modern religious believers in a difficult philosophical predicament. Yet the epistemological crisis of post-modernity has now marooned the critic of religious beliefs on equally shaky philosophical ground. Thus, religious beliefs re-emerge as no less epistemologically legitimate than any others with which they compete in a pluralistic setting. This leads us into the third segment.
3. Religion in a pluralistic public. This project encompasses issues of political philosophy, philosophy of law and the sociology of religion, engaging with philosophical theories of the truth of religious propositions, and the justification of religious beliefs. Precisely what role might religious beliefs legitimately play in pluralistic publics, and more particularly in political and lawmaking contexts? And which policymaking and lawgiving frameworks may properly be upheld in the name of shared, normative values that pay due regard to the fact of pluralism? IRF seeks to philosophically underpin reasoned responses to these burning issues of our times.

IRF maintains ongoing faculty and graduate exchange arrangements with the Philosophy Department of Saint Louis University (St. Louis, Missouri, USA). It also maintains close contacts with the Department of Religion and the School of Theology of Boston University (Boston, USA), and with the Islamic Studies and German Departments of Al-Azhar University (Cairo, Egypt).