Richard Granville Swinburne (IPA )  (born 26 December 1934) is an English philosopher. He is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. Over the last 50 years, Swinburne has been a proponent of philosophical arguments for the existence of God. His philosophical contributions are primarily in the philosophy of religion and philosophy of science. He aroused much discussion with his early work in the philosophy of religion, a trilogy of books consisting of The Coherence of Theism, The Existence of God, and Faith and Reason.

Early life 
Swinburne was born in Smethwick, Staffordshire, England, on 26 December 1934. His father was a school music teacher, who was himself the son of an off-licence owner in Shoreditch. His mother was a secretary, the daughter of an optician. He is an only child. Swinburne attended a preparatory school and then Charterhouse School.

Academic career
Swinburne received an open scholarship to study classics at Exeter College, Oxford, but in fact graduated with a first-class Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy, politics, and economics. Swinburne has held various professorships through his career in academia. From 1972 to 1985, he taught at Keele University. During part of this time, he gave the Gifford lectures at Aberdeen from 1982 to 1984, resulting in the book The Evolution of the Soul. From 1985 until his retirement in 2002, he was Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion at the University of Oxford (his successor to this chair was Brian Leftow). He has continued to publish regularly since his retirement.

Swinburne has been an active author throughout his career, producing a major book every two to three years. He has played a role in recent debate over the mind–body problem, defending a substance dualism that recalls the work of René Descartes in important respects (see The Evolution of the Soul, 1997).

His books are primarily very technical works of academic philosophy, but he has written at the popular level as well. Of the non-technical works, his Is There a God? (1996), summarising for a non-specialist audience many of his arguments for the existence of God and plausibility in the belief of that existence, is probably the most popular and is available in 22 languages.

Christian apologetics

A member of the Orthodox Church, Swinburne is noted as one of the foremost Christian apologists, arguing in his many articles and books that faith in Christianity is rational and coherent in a rigorous philosophical sense. William Hasker writes that his "tetralogy on Christian doctrine, together with his earlier trilogy on the philosophy of theism, is one of the most important apologetic projects of recent times." While Swinburne presents many arguments to advance the belief that God exists, he argues that God is a being whose existence is not logically necessary (see modal logic) but metaphysically necessary in a way he defines in his The Christian God. Other subjects on which Swinburne writes include personal identity (in which he espouses a view based on the concept of a soul), and epistemic justification. He has written in defence of Cartesian dualism and libertarian free will.

Although he is best known for his vigorous defence of Christian intellectual commitments, he also has a theory of the nature of passionate faith which is developed in his book Faith and Reason.

According to an interview Swinburne did with Foma magazine, he converted from Anglicanism (Church of England) to Eastern Orthodoxy around 1996:
I don't think I changed my beliefs in any significant way. I always believed in the Apostolic succession: that the Church has to have its authority dating back to the Apostles, and the general teaching of the Orthodox Church on the saints and the prayers for the departed and so on, these things I have always believed.

Swinburne's philosophical method reflects the influence of Thomas Aquinas. He admits that he draws from Aquinas a systematic approach to philosophical theology. Swinburne, like Aquinas, moves from basic philosophical issues (for example, the question of the possibility that God may exist in Swinburne's The Coherence of Theism), to more specific Christian beliefs (for example, the claim in Swinburne's Revelation that God has communicated to human beings propositionally in Jesus Christ).

Swinburne moves in his writing program from the philosophical to the theological, building his case and relying on his previous arguments as he defends particular Christian beliefs. He has attempted to reassert classical Christian beliefs with an apologetic method that he believes is compatible with contemporary science. That method relies heavily on inductive logic, seeking to show that his Christian beliefs fit best with the evidence.

National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview (C1672/15) with Richard Swinburne in 2015–2016 for its Science and Religion collection held by the British Library.

Major books 
 Space and Time, 1968
 The Concept of Miracle, 1970, 
 The Coherence of Theism, 1977 (new edition 2016) (part 1 of his trilogy on Theism)
 The Existence of God, 1979 (new edition 2004, ) (part 2 of his trilogy on Theism)
 Faith and Reason, 1981 (new edition 2005). (part 3 of his trilogy on Theism)
 The Evolution of the Soul, 1986, . (1997 edition online)
 Miracles, 1989
 Responsibility and Atonement, 1989 (part 1 of his tetralogy on Christian Doctrines)
 Revelation, 1991 (part 2 of his tetralogy on Christian Doctrines)
 The Christian God, 1994 (part 3 of his tetralogy on Christian Doctrines)
 Is There a God?, 1996, ; revised edition, 2010, 
 Simplicity as Evidence of Truth, The Aquinas Lecture, 1997
 Providence and the Problem of Evil, 1998 (part 4 of his tetralogy on Christian Doctrines)
 Epistemic Justification, 2001
 The Resurrection of God Incarnate, 2003
 Was Jesus God?, 2008
 Free Will and Modern Science, Ed. 2011, 
 Mind, Brain, and Free Will, 2013
 Are We Bodies or Souls?, 2019,

Spiritual autobiography 
 Richard Swinburne, "Natural Theology and Orthodoxy," in Turning East: Contemporary Philosophers and the Ancient Christian Faith, Rico Vitz, ed. (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2012), pp. 47–78.
 Richard Swinburne, "The Vocation of a Natural Theologian," in Philosophers Who Believe, Kelly James Clark, ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993), pp. 179–202.

See also 
 James Joyce Award
 List of scholars on the relationship between religion and science
 Theodicy

References

Footnotes

Works cited

Further reading

External links

 – Includes a curriculum vitae and more complete list of publications
Presentation at Gifford lectures
Richard Swinburne, Faith and Reason review from Diapsalmata
The Moscow Center for Consciousness Studies video interview with Richard Swinburne 31 May 2010.

1934 births
Living people
20th-century English philosophers
20th-century English theologians
21st-century English philosophers
21st-century English theologians
Academics of Keele University
Academics of the University of Hull
Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford
Analytic philosophers
Analytic theologians
Christian apologists
Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Anglicanism
Critics of atheism
Eastern Orthodox philosophers
English Eastern Orthodox Christians
Fellows of Oriel College, Oxford
Fellows of the British Academy
Nolloth Professors of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion
Philosophers of religion
Philosophers of science
Writers about religion and science
People educated at Charterhouse School
리처드 그랜빌 스윈번 (Richard Granville Swinburne, 1934년 12월 26일 ~ )은 영국의 철학가이다. 그는 옥스퍼드 대학교의 명예 철학교수이다. 50년 동안 스윈번은 신의 존재에 대한 철학적 논증에 영향력있는 주장자이다. 그의 철학적 공헌들은 종교 철학과 과학철학에 있다.  그의 유명한 3권의 책 The Coherence of Theism, The Existence of God, 그리고 Faith and Reason에서 많은 논쟁을 불러일으켰다. 1982년 에버딘 대학교에서 1982년부터 1984년까지 기포드 강연을 하였다. 이 강의가 <영혼의 진화>라는 그의 작품이다.</span>

신 존재 증명 
스윈번은 신 존재를 부인하는 자들에게 전혀 인정되지 않는 전제들을 지닌 것들이라는 사실을 지적한다. 스윈번은 신 존재 증명에 관한 그의 논의에 앞서 먼저 우리가 지닌 설명을 두가지로 구분한다. 그 한 가지는 우리에게 가장 친숙한 '무생적 설명'인데 그의 정의에 의하면 과학적 설명이 여기에 속한다. 그리고 다른 하나는 소위 '인격적 설명'인데 유신론적 설명이 여기에 속한다. 이런 구분을 정의하는 그의 이유는 전자는 우리의 우주 안에서 일어나는 현상들에 대한 자세한 설명을 해주지만 그 현상들이 '왜' 일어나는가를 설명하는 데에는 무용지물에 가까운 반면, 후자는 어떤 인격체가 지닌 의도라는 견지에서 그 '왜'를 설명해 줄 수 있다는 믿음 때문이다. 또 그는 하나의 설명이 진리인가의 여부에 가장 큰 영향을 미치는 것은 그 설명이 지닌 단순성임을 강조하며 유신론은 매우 (존재하는 설명 중 가장) 단순한 설명인데 반해 유물론은 매우 복잡할 뿐 아니라 설명할 수 없는 영역을 갖고 있음을 지적한다. 그에게 있어서 신의 존재는 모든 설명이 멈추는 일종의 궁극적 설명이 된다.
우주론적 논증을 통해 스윈번은 우주 안에 있는 물체들이 지닌 규칙성으로부터 신 존재를 논증하며 그 물체들이 지닌 고도의 규칙적인 행동양식은 신 존재의 증거가 될 수 있음을 주장한다. 그리고 신의 존재가 인간의 존재를 설명할 수 있으며, 진화의 과정 중 어느 시점에서 동물의 육체에 영혼이 연결되었다는 가설을 제시하며 이 현상은 결코 과학적으로는 설명될 수 없으며 오히려 유신론이 그것을 설명할 수 있다고 주장한다. 스윈번은 그의 종교적 경험으로부터의 논증을 통해 '경신의 원칙'을 제시하면서 그런 경험을 해 본적이 있는 사람들이 그렇지 못한 사람들보다 영적으로 더 유리한 위치에 있으며 그런 경험의 실제성에 대한 입증의 책임은 전자보다는 후자 쪽에 있음을 역설한다.
특히 인간의 기본적 인식능력을 전제할 때 무언가에 관한 경험은 그 무언가가 실제로 존재할 때 더 가능성이 높은 것처럼 종교적 경험도 그 대상이 존재할 때 경험될 가능성이 더 높다는 점을 강조한다.

주요 도서  
 Space and Time, 1968
 The Concept of Miracle, 1970,
 The Coherence of Theism, 1977 (new edition 2016) (part 1 of his trilogy on Theism)
 The Existence of God, 1979 (new edition 2004). (part 2 of his trilogy on Theism)
 Faith and Reason, 1981 (new edition 2005). (part 3 of his trilogy on Theism)
 The Evolution of the Soul, 1986, 0-19-823698-0. (1997 edition online)
 Miracles, 1989
 Responsibility and Atonement, 1989 (part 1 of his tetralogy on Christian Doctrines)
 Revelation, 1991 (part 2 of his tetralogy on Christian Doctrines)
 The Christian God, 1994 (part 3 of his tetralogy on Christian Doctrines)
 Is There a God?, 1996, 0-19-823545-3
 Simplicity as Evidence of Truth, The Aquinas Lecture, 1997
 Providence and the Problem of Evil, 1998 (part 4 of his tetralogy on Christian Doctrines)
 Epistemic Justification, 2001
 The Resurrection of God Incarnate, 2003
 Was Jesus God?, 2008
 Free Will and Modern Science, Ed. 2011, 978-0197264898
 Mind, Brain, and Free Will, 2013

영성관련 작품들 
 Richard Swinburne, "The Vocation of a Natural Theologian," in Philosophers Who Believe, Kelly James Clark, ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993), pp. 179–202.

같이 보기 
 신정론
 Brown, Colin. Miracles and the Critical Mind. Exeter: Paternoster; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 1984. 180-4.
 Chartier, Gary. "Richard Swinburne." Blackwell Companion to the Theologians. 2 vols. Ed. Ian Markham. Oxford: Blackwell 2009. 2: 467–74.
 Hick, John. "The religious ambiguity of the universe" (part 2 of) An Interpretation of Religion: Human Responses to the Transcendent (New Haven: Yale University Press 1989). This section offers a critique of Swinburne's probability theorem regarding the existence of God.
 Hick, John. "Salvation Through the Blood of Jesus" (a chapter in) The Metaphor of God Incarnate, (London: SCM 1993). This chapter includes a revised version of an academic article response to and critique of Swinburne's defence of the atonement in his book of that name.
 Parks, D. Mark. "Expecting the Christian Revelation: An Analysis and Critique of Richard Swinburne's Philosophical Defense of Propositional Revelation." PhD dissertation, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary 1995.
 Parsons, Keith M. God and the Burden of Proof: Plantinga, Swinburne, and the Analytic Defense of Theism. Buffalo: Prometheus 1989.
 Wolterstorff, Nicholas. Divine Discourse: Philosophical Reflections on the Claim that God Speaks. Cambridge: CUP 1995.

각주

출처

외부 링크 
 Personal Homepage at Oxford University - Includes a curriculum vitae and more complete list of publications
 Presentation at Gifford lectures 
 Richard Swinburne, Faith and Reason review from Diapsalmata 
 The Moscow Center for Consciousness Studies video interview with Richard Swinburne 31 May 2010.]

1934년 출생
살아있는 사람
분석철학자
기독교 철학자
무신론 비판자
잉글랜드의 철학자
잉글랜드의 신학자
종교철학자
과학철학자
옥스퍼드 대학교 오리엘 칼리지 교수
개신교로부터 동방 정교회로 개종한 자
기독교 변증학자