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Kelly James Clark, PhD

From 9/11 to Israel-Palestine to ISIS, the fear of the religious stranger is palpable. Conservative talk show hosts and liberal public intellectuals are united in blaming religion, usually Islam, for the world’s instability. If religion is part of the problem, it can and should be part of the solution. Strangers, Neighbors, Friends—co-authored by a Muslim, a Christian, and a Jew—aims to inform and inspire Abraham’s children that God calls us to extend our love beyond family and fellow believer to the stranger.

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Recovers the lost messages of Mark, Matthew, Luke-Acts, and John for people today. The words of the gospels were meant to be heard. While we can still appreciate the construction and grasp some understanding when we read, we miss much of the message because we’re working in the wrong medium. In Written to Be Heard Paul Borgman and Kelly James Clark offer the keys to recovering the radical, relevant messages of each gospel as they were first heard. With careful analysis of the gospel writers’ particular voices within their own ancient literary context, Borgman and Clark equip readers to read as if hearing, focusing on overlapping patterns of hearing cues that shape each text and embed theological perspective.

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Does cognitive science show that religious belief is irrational? Kelly James Clark brings together science & philosophy to examine some of humanity’s more pressing questions. Is belief in God, as Richard Dawkins claims, a delusion? Are atheists smarter or more rational than religious believers? Do our genes determine who we are & what we believe?Can our very creaturely cognitive equipment help us discover truth & meaning in life? Are atheists any different from Mother Teresa? Clark’s surprising answers both defend the rationality of religious belief & contribute to the study of cognitive science. God & the Brain provides an accessible overview of some new cognitive scientific approaches to the study of religion & evaluates their implications for both theistic & atheistic belief.

This concise introduction to science and religion focuses on Christianity and modern Western science (the epicenter of issues in science and religion in the West) with a concluding chapter on Muslim and Jewish approaches to science and religion. This book also invites the reader into the relevant literature with ample quotations from original texts.

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Fifteen influential practitioners of the Abrahamic religions address religious liberty & tolerance from the perspectives of their own faith traditions. Former president Jimmy Carter, Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid, and the other writers draw on their personal experiences and sacred writings to celebrate religious traditions and find within them a way toward mutual peace, liberty, and principled tolerance. Offering a counterbalance to incendiary religious leaders who cite Holy Writ to justify intolerance and violence, the contributors reveal how tolerance for believers in other faiths is central to the Abrahamic traditions.

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Doubt and death, God and self, happiness or insignificance, guilt or grace? These fundamental human concerns are deeply intertwined and connect with our heart's deepest longings. They are difficult to understand, yet deeply felt. When Faith Is Not Enough is a creative, honest, and original discussion of faith and doubt and the search for human significance. Drawing upon personal experience, literature, psychology, philosophy, and Scripture, philosopher Kelly James Clark tackles the difficult question of how we can live with doubt and how we can nurture a faith and develop a self of enduring value.

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A penetrating critique of the Enlightenment assumption of evidentialism -- that belief in God requires the support of evidence or arguments to be rational. Garnering arguments from C. S. Lewis, Alvin Plantinga, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Thomas Reid, William James, and John Calvin, Clark asserts that this Enlightenment demand for evidence is itself both irrelevant and irrational.

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This book provides an excellent introduction to the history of ethics. The authors examine the ethical philosophies of prominent Western thinkers within the context of their views of human nature and human fulfillment. They do so in a way that is both accessible and engaging without sacrificing the profundity of the issues raised. A five-part organization covers everything from the Homeric tradition,to modern day philosophers with a conclusion about human nature, morality & fulfillment. For individuals who want to better formulate their own answers and frame their own decisions within the all important context of what it means to flourish as a human being.

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The Blackwell Companion to Naturalism provides a systematic introduction to philosophical naturalism and its relation to other schools of thought.

- Features contributions from an international array of established and emerging scholars from across the humanities

- Explores the historical development of naturalism and its ascension to the dominant orthodoxy in the Western academy

- Juxtaposes theoretical criticisms with impassioned defenses, encapsulating contemporary debates on naturalism

- Includes discussions of metaphysics, realism, feminism, science, knowledge, truth, mathematics, free will, and ethics viewed through a naturalist lens

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Alvin Plantinga is widely recognized as one of the world's leading figures in metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of religion. Plantinga has earned particular respect within the community of Christian philosophers for the pivotal role that he played in the recent renewal and development of philosophy of religion and philosophical theology. Each of the essays engages with some particular aspect of Plantinga's views on metaphysics, epistemology, or philosophy of religion. Contributors include Michael Bergman, Ernest Sosa, Trenton Merricks, Richard Otte, Peter VanInwagen, Thomas P. Flint, Eleonore Stump, Dean Zimmerman and Nicholas Wolterstorff.

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One of Christianity Today's 1995 Books of the Year! Time magazine reports on a remarkable renaissance of religious belief among philosophers: "In a quiet revolution in thought that hardly anyone could have foreseen, God is making a comeback. Now it is more respectable among philosophers than it has been for a generation to talk about the possibility of God's existence. "The movers and shakers of this "quiet revolution" have developed their theories against the rising tide of strict empiricism. Who are these tough-minded intellectuals, and why have they embraced Christian belief? In Philosophers Who Believe several key thinkers answer this question with unusual candor, warmth and brilliance.

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A fundamental question in philosophy of religion is whether religious belief must be based on evidence in order to be properly held. In recent years two prominent positions on this issue have been staked out: evidentialism, which claims that proper religious belief requires evidence; and Reformed epistemology, which claims that it does not. Evidence and Religious Belief contains eleven chapters by prominent philosophers which push the discussion in new directions. The volume has three parts. The first part explores the demand for evidence. The second part explores ways in which beliefs are related to evidence and the third part contains chapters that discuss actual evidence for and against religious belief.

Academic Papers

This anthology contains the best of both classical and contemporary sources, offering a balanced historical approach to the philosophy of religion while reflecting the latest developments in the field. The included readings grapple with issues that are existentially compelling and provocative regardless of one’s religious leanings. Topics are covered in a point–counterpoint manner designed to foster deep reflection. This third edition contains an entirely new section on early Chinese religion as well as new essays on religious language, feminism, and the cognitive science of religion.

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