Since 2002, Dr. Brian Leftow has been the Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion at Oriel College, Oxford University. He taught for many years at Fordham University in New York City before moving to Oxford. Dr. Leftow has written over 90 professional articles and book chapters on metaphysics, medieval philosophy, and philosophical theology.
In this wide-ranging interview, we discuss
- his Jewish upbringing in Brooklyn
- his conversion
- his views on the roles that reason can play in the spiritual lives of Christians
- why he believes in God
- what would make him quit believing in Christianity
- whether he would still believe in God were he to cease believing in Christianity
- why he is drawn to medieval philosophy
- how recent militant secularized philosophy is untraditional
- whether medieval philosophy is fundamentally “backward-looking.”
- the odd estrangement between most recent academic theology from analytic philosophy, and what this has to do with the work of the famous early modern philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804).
We end with his metaphor of humans as mirrors of God, how even a philosophy professor can reflect the character of God, and how philosophers are like friendly piranhas or maggots. (To clarify these two analogies, the flesh or dead and rotting flesh would be our false beliefs.)
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Links for this episode:
- Dr. Leftow’s home page
- Dr. Leftow’s books
- Time and Eternity
- God and Necessity
- Aquinas on Metaphysics: Matter, Parts, and Number (forthcoming)
- Anselm on God (forthcoming)
- Dr. Leftow on the life and work of St. Anselm of Canterbury, a video by St. John’s Nottingham
- Dr. Leftow’s papers @ PhilPapers
![God and the Philosophers]()
- Dr. Leftow’s brief 2012 sermon in the chapel of Oriel College, Oxford.
- Dr. Leftow’s autobiographical essay “From Jerusalem to Athens” is found in God and the Philosophers
- Dr. Leftow’s argument for God’s existence from possibility
- an introductory lecture by Dale on Anselm’s modal ontological argument for God’s existence
- “Immanuel Kant” @ The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- what Kant allegedly ended: “Natural Theology and Natural Religion” by Dr. Andrew Chignell @ The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- “Saint Augustine” by Michael Mendelson @ The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- This week’s thinking music is “The Narrative Changes” by Revolution Void.
- Thanks to Keiko Ikeuchi Photography and Design for the use of her portrait of Dr. Leftow.
