ABSTRACT
In the past few decades philosophy of religion has suffered decline as a discipline. This chapter sketches a brief account of this decline and, more important, suggests a new conception of philosophy of religion which warrants serious attention. This new conception promotes a historicist turn in philosophy of religion which remains within yet deepens the American grain—empirical, pluralist, pragmatic and activist. The advent of logical positivism—with its diverse versions of atomism, reductionism and narrow empiricism—put an end to the Golden Age of philosophy of religion. The major tragedy of contemporary philosophy of religion is that the resurgence of American philosophy occurred at the time when most American theologians were being seduced either by the antiphilosophical stance of Karl Barth or by the then fashionable logical positivism and linguistic analysis. American philosophy at its best has taken the form of philosophy of religion.
