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Published Work

Here's an up-to-date list of my published work along with links to the journals in which they were published. If you do not have access to a university library and would like a copy of one of my articles or book reviews please send me an email at joshuamatthanbrown@gmail.com. I will happily send you a copy! 

Published Articles

“An epistemological challenge to ontological bruteness” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion. 

Abstract 

It is often assumed that the first stage of many classical arguments for theism depends upon some version of the Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR) being true. Unfortunately for classical theists, PSR is a controversial thesis that has come under rather severe criticism in the contemporary literature. In this article I grant, for the sake of argument, that every version of PSR is false. Thus, I concede with the critics of PSR, that it is possible that there is, at least, one fact that is ontologically brute. I then proffer an epistemological challenge to ontological bruteness. Specifically, I argue that whenever a knowledge seeker, S, perceives some unexplained fact, F, it is never reasonable for S to believe F is ontologically brute. I conclude that, even if PSR is false, it is more reasonable to believe that the key premise in the first stage of classical arguments for theism is true.  



“An apophatic response to the evidential argument from evil”, International Journal of Philosophy & Theology 78:4-5, 485-497 (2017). 

Abstract

I argue that Christian apophaticism provides the most powerful and economical response to the evidential argument from evil for the non-existence of God. I also reply to the objection that Christian apophaticism is incoherent, because it appears to entail the truth of the following contradiction: it is both possible and impossible to know God’s essential properties. To meet this objection, I outline a coherent account of the divine attributes inspired by the theology of the Greek Father’s and St Gregory Palamas.

Publisher's Website

Book Reviews


 “Review of Paul Copan with William Lane Craig (eds.) The Kalam Cosmological Arguments Vol. 1: Philosophical Arguments for the Finitude of the Past (New York: Bloomsbury, 2018),” in Religious Studies.  

Publisher's Website

Forthcoming









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