Image in Mind

Charles Taliaferro is Professor of Philosophy at St. Olaf College, USA, and is the author of Consciousness and the Mind of God, Evidence and Faith: Philosophy and religion since the seventeenth century, Contemporary Philosophy of Religion, Dialogues About God, Philosophy of Religion: A Beginners Guide and the co-author of Naturalism. He is the co-editor of A Companion to Philosophy of Religion, Cambridge Platonist Spirituality, and the Cambridge Companion to Christian Philosophical Theology. He was the philosophy of religion area editor of the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, second edition and is on the editorial board of Religious Studies, Sophia, Blackwell's Philosophy Compass, American Philosophical Quarterly, and Ars Disputandi. Taliaferro has lectured at Oxford, Cambridge, NYU, Columbia, Princeton, and St. Andrews University. Jil Evans (MFA Stanford University) has exhibited her paintings and prints in Minnesota, Chicago, New York City, Michigan, Memphis, Washington D.C., California, Paris, and Rome. Her work is in many private and public collections including the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Halle Ford Museum of Art, Stanford University, Valparaiso University Museum of Art, Steensland Art Museum, Harry and Margaret Anderson Collection of Art, Healthmarc, Inc., Minnetonka Corporation, Piper Jaffray and Hopwood, Central Lakes Colleges, Winthrop and Weinstein, and Coca Cola, Inc. She has received two grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, in addition a Pew Grant to study and paint in Italy, and residencies at the American Academy in Rome and Atlantic Center for the Arts. Finally, the Jerome Foundation and Arts Midwest/ National Endowment for the Arts have extended support for her work. Since 1985 she has taught regularly in the Art Department at St. Olaf College.

"Were it not for the inflationary use of the word, I would describe this contribution as 'inspirational'; but inspirational in more than the usual sense. The authors liberate the reader's imagination by arguing for its centrality. They present the aesthetic realm as one in which life's more authentic moments are lived. Due respect is paid to science but sustained criticism is directed toward those who would render it the last word on matters of consequence to creatures such as ourselves. The balance in these pages between poetry and philosophy, art and science, faith and reason is exemplary." -- Daniel N. Robinson, Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford, UK, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Georgetown University, USA.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. The Turning Image2. The Aesthetics of Inquiry3. The Cosmic Question and the Emergence: The Trick4. Seeing Into Other Minds5. The Problem of Theism: Evil6. The Fitting ImaginationBibliography