George I. Mavrodes: Philosopher, Theologian, and Distance Learner

So my Amazon.com order came in today, and I grazed over one of my more interesting acquisitions, God and the Philosophers, tonight.

Folks who have taken philosophy of religion classes within the last 20 years have probably heard of George Mavrodes, whose work focuses mainly on religious experience. I know him mainly for his essays on the concept of omnipotence (essays I studied in HUX 505), and was pleasantly surprised to see his name in this collection. Then something else, relatively minor but interesting, pleasantly surprised me: in his contribution, "There Was a Wind Blowing," he writes:


. . . I took some undergraduate courses in philosophy to prepare for admission to graduate school. Some of that work I did in night classes at Portland State University, and the rest was by correspondence from various American universities. (I don't think I've ever known of another academic philosopher who did a substantial part of his or her undergraduate work by correspondence. Are there any?)" (213)


How delightful. By the way, God and the Philosophers is a wonderful little book; it's basically a collection of generally warm and personal essays from folks who don't ordinarily write warm and personal material. But for those of you who want something cerebral to chew on (no Hannibal Lecter references, please), Peter van Inwagen's essay "Quam Dilecta" is worth the cover price on its own.


Peace,

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Tom Head
co-author, Get Your IT Degree and Get Ahead (Osborne/McGraw-Hill)

 

There also is another book called Philosophers Who Believe, Kelly Clark ed... Intervarsity Press

 

Ah, yes! I'll have to get my hands on that one. Thanks.

Favorite quote from God and the Philosophers so far:

"The first philosophy course I took was an anachronism even by the mid-1960s. It was in all essentials an immersion in logical positivism . . . At the time it seemed like a breath of fresh Ayer." (p. 229, from Spencer Carr's "When the Time Had Fully Come")


Peace,

------------------

Tom Head
co-author, Get Your IT Degree and Get Ahead (Osborne/McGraw-Hill)