The British Wittgenstein Society (BWS) maintains a list of currently recognized Wittgenstein Scholars and their respective institutions. Not all scholars who have worked on Wittgenstein and religion are mentioned on their list however. Below is a list of scholars, whether in philosophy, religious studies, or theology, who have worked or are working on Wittgenstein and religion.
Most religions have a concept of an authoritative lineage. Christians have the concept of “apostolic succession,” Vajrayana Buddhists value “abisheka” empowerment, Shia Muslims revere the lineage of Imams. These family resemblances illustrate the importance of, well, family. Sometimes what various groups have in common, and the most important facts about them, is their common descent. It is this shared history, this shared story of development, that gives many religious (and patriotic) people their sense of shared identity.
Academia has something of a family resemblance to the transmission of religious authority. While it can be convenient to buy (often overpriced) books on Amazon, or use databases to track down articles based on keywords and tags, to actually become a successful academic yourself, you will need more than ideas in books, and long-dead heroes like Wittgenstein. Deceased mentors cannot (unfortunately) sign off on a dissertation or write you a letter of recommendation. Despite the careerism, elitism, and nepotism which often make academia a terrible place, strong interpersonal connections between mentors and mentees, senior and junior faculty, advisors, (post)graduates, and even undergrads are the socially constituted bedrock of academia, and when things work out as they should (as opposed to how they currently are and have been for a long time), can make participation in intellectual life enriching (intellectually, almost never financially), fulfilling, and even philanthropic.
In my experience, it can be hard to find and keep track of those in your academic field of interest, even if your field is relatively small. Sometimes you just want to Google, “Who thinks like me and shares my interests and values?” and alas, even Google, has no readily accessible answer. Here you can find of list Wittgenstein-influenced and “Wittgensteinian” scholars of philosophy, theology, and religion. Thinkers like Wittgenstein himself and the “Swansea School” (Rhees, Winch, and Phillips) are widely (if not well) known in academic circles. Others however, like Keightley and Moore are virtually unknown and sadly uncited. Some, usually religious, thinkers, are likely to be known only to those in their religious order, and rely on religious organizations or media to disseminate their thought. I hope that laying out these scholars and their work like this will help provide perspective on how Wittgenstein’s influence on philosophy of religion has developed over the years.
Cyril Barrett S.J. (1925-2003)
Wittgenstein on Ethics and Religious Belief (Blackwell, 1991)
Richard H. Bell
Ondřej Beran (Pardubice)
Living with Rules : Wittgensteinian Reflections on Normativity (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2018).
Oets Kolk Bouwsma (1898–1978)
Philosophical Essays. University of Nebraska Press, 1965.
Posthumous Works. Collected and edited by J.L. Craft and R.E. Hustwit Sr.
Toward a New Sensibility: Essays of O.K. Bouwsma. University of Nebraska Press, 1982.
Without Proof or Evidence: Essays of O.K. Bouwsma. University of Nebraska Press, 1984.
Wittgenstein Conversations, 1949-1951. Hackett Publishing, 1986.
The Flux: O.K. Bouwsma’s John Locke Lectures at Oxford University, 1951. The College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio, 1990.
Bouwsma’s Notes on Wittgenstein’s Philosophy, 1965-1975. Edwin Mellen Press, 1995.
O.K. Bouwsma’s Commonplace Book – Remarks on Philosophy and Education. Edwin Mellen Press, 1999.
Contemplating Religious Forms of Life: Wittgenstein and D.Z. Phillips (Continuum, 2012)
Thomas D Carroll
Wittgenstein within the Philosophy of Religion (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2014)
John Churchill
Wittgenstein, Frazer, and Religion (Macmillan, 1999);
An Introduction to Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Religion (University of Edinburgh Press, 1999)
İlham Dilman (1930-2003)
İlham Dilman was not strictly speaking a philosopher of religion. However, he was strongly influenced by Wittgenstein, was a member of the Swansea School, and his investigations in ethics, value theory, and epistemology potentially bear significantly on religious questions.
With D. Z. Phillips, Sense and Delusion, (Humanities Press, 1971);
Love and Human Separateness (Basil Blackwell, 1987);
Existential Critiques of Cartesianism (Wiley, 1993);
Free Will: An Historical and Philosophical Introduction (Routledge, 1999);
Richard Fleming
The State of Philosophy
First Word Philosophy
Evil and Silence
Earl Stanley B. Fronda
Wittgenstein’s (Misunderstood) Religious Thought (Brill, 2010)
“Faith – Themes in Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard”
Transcendence and Wittgenstein’s Tractatus (Philadelphia, Temple U Press, 1990)
Garth Hallett S. J.
Linguistic Philosophy: The Central Story;
Theology within the Bounds of Language: A Methodological Tour (SUNY Press, 2011);
Invisible Language: Its Incalculable Significance for Philosophy (Lexington Books, 2014).
William Donald Hudson
Wittgenstein and Religious Belief (Palgrave, 1977);
John Hyman (1960-)
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
Anthony Kenny (1931-)
The God of the Philosophers (Oxford UP, 1979);
A Path From Rome: An Autobiography (Oxford UP, 1986)
What is Faith? Essays in the Philosophy of Religion (Oxford UP, 1992);
The Unknown God: Agnostic Essays (Continuum, 2004);
What I Believe (Continuum, 2006)
Alan Keightley
Religion and the Great Fallacy (1983);
Wittgenstein, Grammar, and God (Epworth, 1976);
Into Every Life a Little Zen Must Fall (Wisdom, 1986)
Wittgenstein and Religion: A Bibliography of Articles, Books, and Theses in the Twentieth Century that Relate the Philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein to the Study of Religion and Theology. (Quezon City, Philippines: Office of Research and Publications Ateneo de Manila University, 2001).
Wittgenstein’s Religious Point of View (Continuum, 2006);
Wittgenstein and Theology (T&T Clark, 2009);
Science and Religion in Wittgenstein’s Fly-Bottle (Bloomsbury, 2017)
James Mark Lazenby
The Early Wittgenstein on Religion (Continuum, 2006)
Norman Malcolm (1911-1990)
Wittgenstein: A Religious Point of View? (1994)
Herbert McCabe O. P.
Religion within the Limits of Language Alone: Wittgenstein on Philosophy and Religion (Ashgate 2001)
Gareth Edward Moore O.P. (1948-2002)
Believing in God: A Philosophical Essay (T&T Clark, 1988);
The Body in Context: Sex and Catholicism (SCM Press, 1992);
A Question of Truth: Christianity and Homosexuality (Continuum, 2003)
Stephen Mulhall (1962-)
Wittgenstein’s Private Language;
Inheritance and Originality: Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Kierkegaard (Clarendon, 2001)
Kai Nielsen (1926-) (Calgary)
While not a “Wittgenstienian” (indeed, Nielsen is the author of the original caricature of “Wittgensteinian fideism”), his contribution to the field as an impetus to better articulation of Wittgensteinian methods and values merits him a place on this list
Maurice O’Connor Drury (1907-1976)
Drury was not a professional philosopher but a lapsed seminarian turned psychiatrist. Nevertheless, his Danger of Words has been praised by Wittgenstein biographer Ray Monk as “the most truly Wittgensteinian book published by any of Wittgenstein’s students.” For the purposes of philosophy of religion, a large portion of Wittgenstein’s recorded remarks on religious topics are from Drury’s notes on their conversations in Cambridge.
“Notes on Conversations with Wittgenstein” in Rhees Recollections of Wittgenstein (Oxford University Press, 1984)
The Danger of Words (Humanities Press, 1973)
Neil O’Hara
Philosophical Perspectives on Moral Certainty (forthcoming) (editor with Cecilie Eriksen, Julia Hermann, and Nigel Pleasants) (Routledge)
Hermann & Nigel Pleasants), Routledge
Moral Certainty and the Foundations of Morality (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2018)
“Man Cannot Serve Two Masters: The Characterisation of Gideon and Doublets in Judges 6” in The Scandinavian Journal for the Old Testament (forthcoming)
Wittgenstein: Ethics and Religion (Ed.) (Rawat, Publications, 2008).
Religious Beliefs, Superstitions, and Wittgenstein (Readworthy, 2009)
Dewi Zephaniah Phillips (1934-2006)
The Concept of Prayer (Shocken, 1966),
Religion and Understanding (Ed.) (Blackwell, 1967),
Death and Immortality (Macmillan 1970),
Religion Without Explanation (Blackwell, 1976),
Religion and Hume’s Legacy (Macmillan, 1999),
Recovering Religious Concepts (Macmillan, 2000),
Religion and Wittgenstein’s Legacy (Ed.) (Ashgate, 2005);
The Problem of Evil and the Problem of God (Fortress, 2005),
D.Z. Phillips’ Contemplative Philosophy of Religion: Questions and Responses (Ashgate, 2007)
Roger Pouviet (1958-)
Aprés Wittgenstein, Saint Thomas (Presses Universitaires de France, 1997) translated as After Wittgenstein, Saint Thomas, trans. Michael S. Sherwin O.P. (St. Augustine Press, 2008)
Rush Rhees (1905-1989)
Rush Rhees on Religion and Philosophy, ed. D.Z. Phillips (Cambridge, 1997)
Catherine Rowett (Osborne)
While not a straightforward “Wittgensteinian” or primarily a “philosopher of religion,” Rowett was on the faculty at Swansea, is in a very “Wittgensteinian” department now (UEA), and her work has affinities with Wittgenstienian values and methods.
Eros Unveiled: Plato and the God of Love (Clarendon, 1994);
Knowledge and Truth in Plato: Stepping Past the Shadow of Socrates (Oxford, 2018)
Spirit, Saints, Immortality (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1984)
Religion, Truth, and Language Games; Spirit, Saints, Immortality (SUNY Press, 1984);
Phillip Shields
Logic and Sin in the Writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein (University of Chicago Press, 1993)
Lauri Juhana Olavinpoika Snellman (Helsinki)
“Hamann’s Influence on Wittgenstein,” Nordic Wittgenstein Review 7(2018):59-82.
Frederick Sontag (1924-2009)
Wittgenstein and the Mystical: Philosophy as an Ascetic Practice (Oxford UP, 1995)
Ilham Dilman – Philosophy as Criticism. London and New York: Continuum.
“Transcending the World: Wittgenstein, God, and the Usayable”
“Christianity and the Errors of our Time: Simone Weil on Atheism and Idolatry”
“Lucky Pagans and Unfortunate Believers: Wittgensteinian Construals of Religious Faith”
“The Divided Self: Wittgenstein, Kafka, Kaufman and Human Nature”
Peter Winch (1926-1997)
The Idea of a Social Science (Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1958)
Talking about God: The Concept of Analogy and the Problem of Religious Language (Ashgate, 2010).