A Critical Examination of the Relationship between Reason and the Emotional Aspect of Faith from John Cottingham's Point of View

Document Type : Original Research

Author
Mahdi Khayatzadeh
Assistant Professor, Department of Practical Wisdom, Iranian Institute of Philosophy, Qom, Iran
10.30497/prr.2024.244044.1813
Abstract
John Cottingham, a contemporary English philosopher, believes that it is necessary to pay attention to the emotional aspect of faith in two ways: (1) the impact of the emotional aspect in human conversion and explanation of the problem of evil, and (2) attention to the language of religion and its function in philosophical issues. From his point of view, conversion is not a forced process but achieved through internal acceptance. This acceptance is not realized just by listening to rational arguments, but it is a response from all the intellectual, emotional, moral, and spiritual aspects of a person. In Cottingham’s view, the problem of evil needs an emotional explanation that considers the world based on Divine providence and God’s love. He also believes that although religious beliefs have propositional and cognitive content, such content is expressed in layers of figurative and literary metaphors in the form of symbolic language. The discovery and extraction of content from these layers need a unique method, so, the literal analysis of these phrases results in misunderstanding. Paying attention to the emotional aspect of human conversion is a valuable point, but weakening the rational aspect in this field is not in favor of religion, and this is one of the important weaknesses of Cottingham's thought. Regarding the emotional explanation of the problem of evil, generalizing it to all human beings -especially the prophets- is not true. Also, not all religious content can be understood by symbolic language, rather, religion consists of different propositions, many of which have a literal meaning.
Keywords
John Cottingham
reason
emotional aspect of faith
human conversion
faith-based belief
symbolic language of religion
Subjects
Holy Quran.
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