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T. J. Mawson

T. J. Mawson

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College St Peter's College

Area of Specialisation Ethics Meta-Ethics Philosophy of Religion

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Professor of the Philosophy of Religion, Dean, Edgar Jones Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy

St Peter's College

tim.mawson@philosophy.ox.ac.uk

Tim Mawson was educated at St Peter's College and then The Queen's College in Oxford. He held a number of temporary lectureships at other Oxford colleges before returning to St Peter's in 1998, where he is now one of two Philosophy Fellows.

You can listen to an interview with him here. If you want to hear his series of lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, click here.

Books

1. T.J. Mawson, Belief in God, An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, Oxford University Press, 2005

2. T. J. Mawson, Free Will: A Guide for the Perplexed, Continuum, 2011

3. T. J. Mawson, God and the Meanings of Life, Bloomsbury, 2016

4. T. J. Mawson, The Divine Attributes, Cambridge University Press, 2018

5. T. J. Mawson, Monotheism and the Meaning of Life, Cambridge University Press, 2019

Papers and Book Chapters

1. T. J. Mawson, ‘The Problem of Evil and Moral Indifference', Religious Studies, 35 (1999)

2. T. J. Mawson, ‘Eternal Truths and Cartesian Circularity', British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 9 (2001)

3. T. J. Mawson, ‘Miracles and laws of nature', Religious Studies, 37 (2001)

4. T. J. Mawson, ‘God's Creation of Morality', Religious Studies, 38 (2002)

5. T. J. Mawson, ‘Omnipotence and necessary moral perfection are compatible: a reply to Morriston', Religious Studies, 38 (2002)

6. T. J. Mawson, ‘Mill's Proof', Philosophy, 77 (2002)

7. T. J. Mawson, ‘How a single personal revelation might not be a source of knowledge', Religious Studies, 39 (2003)

8. T. J. Mawson, ‘The Possibility of a Free Will Defence for the Problem of Natural Evil', Religious Studies, 40 (2004)

9. T. J. Mawson, ‘Religions, truth, and the pursuit of truth: a reply to Zamulinski', Religious Studies, 40 (2004)

10. T. J. Mawson, ‘How can I know I've perceived God?', International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 57 (2005)

11. T. J. Mawson, ‘Freedom, human and divine', Religious Studies, 41 (2005)

12. T. J. Mawson, ‘Byrne's' Religious Pluralism', International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 58 (2005)

13. T. J. Mawson, ‘Morpheus and Berkeley on Reality', in C. Grau (ed.), Philosophers Explore the Matrix (OUP, 2005)

14. T. J. Mawson, ‘God's Body', The Heythrop Journal, 47 (2006)

15. T. J. Mawson, ‘Praying for Known Outcomes', Religious Studies, 43 (2007)

16. T. J. Mawson, 'Divine Eternity', International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 64 (2008)

17. T. J. Mawson, 'The Rational Inescapability of Value Objectivism', Think, 17/18 (2008)

18. T. J. Mawson, 'The Euthyphro Dilemma', Think, 20 (2008)

19. T. J. Mawson, 'Why is there anything at all?', in Y. Nagasawa and E. Wielenberg (eds), New Waves in Philosophy of Religion (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)

20. T. J. Mawson, 'Mill's Argument Against Religious Knowledge', Religious Studies, 45 (2009)

21. T. J. Mawson, 'Morality and Religion', Philosophy Compass, 6 (2009)

22. T. J. Mawson, 'The Ethics of Believing in God', Think, 25 (2010)

23. T. J. Mawson, 'Praying to Stop Being an Atheist', International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 67 (2010)

24. T. J. Mawson, 'Sources of Dissatisfaction with Answers to the Question of the Meaning of Life', European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 2 (2010)

25. T. J. Mawson, 'Substance Dualism', in James Garvey (ed.), Companion to Philosophy of Mind (Continuum, 2011)

26. T. J. Mawson, 'Theodical Individualism', European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 3 (2011)

27. T. J. Mawson, 'Explaining the Fine Tuning of the Universe to Us and the Fine Tuning of Us to the Universe' (Royal Institute of Philosophy Lecture, 10th October 2008), Philosophy, Suppl. 68 (2011)

28. T. J. Mawson, ‘Theological Determinism', Dialogue, 38 (2012)

29. T. J. Mawson, ‘The Rationality of Classical Theism and Its Demographics, in N. Nagasawa (ed.), Scientific Approaches to the Philosophy of Religion (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)

30. T. J. Mawson, ‘On Determining How Important it is whether or not there's a God', European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 4 (2012)

31. T. J. Mawson, ‘Praying for Outcomes One Knows Would be Bad', Religious Studies, 49 (2013)

32. T. J. Mawson, 'The Case Against Atheism', in S. Bullivant and M. Ruse (eds) The Oxford Handbook to Atheism (OUP, 2013)

33. T. J. Mawson, 'Recent Work on the Meaning of Life and the Philosophy of Religion', Philosophy Compass (2013)

34. T. J. Mawson, 'Is Whether or Not There's a God Worth Thinking About?', in D. Bradshaw (ed.) Ethics and the Challenge of Secularism (The Council for Research and Values in Philosophy, 2013)

35. T. J. Mawson, 'Safety and Knowledge of God', European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 6 (2014)

36. T. J. Mawson, 'Cognitive Science of Religion and the Rationality of Classical Theism', in R. Trigg and J. Barrett (eds) The Roots of Religion (Ashgate, 2014)

37. T. J. Mawson, 'What is This Thing Called The Philosophy of Religion?', in D. Pritchard (ed.) What is This Thing Called Philosophy? (Routledge, 2015)

38. T. J. Mawson, 'The Meaning of Life and God's Purpose for Us', Dialogue, 44 (2015)

39. T. J. Mawson, 'Freedom and the Causal Order' in N. Cartwright and K Ward (eds.), Re-thinking Order After the Laws of Nature (Bloomsbury, 2016)

40. T. J. Mawson, 'What God Could (and Couldn't) do to Make Life Meaningful', in J. Seachris and S. Goetz (eds), Theism and the Meaning of Life: New Essays (Bloomsbury, 2017)

41. T. J. Mawson, 'Divine Free Will', in Meghan Griffith, Neil Levy, & Kevin Timpe (eds), The Routledge Companion to Free Will (Routledge, 2017)

42. T. J. Mawson, 'Classical Theism has no implications for the Debate between Libertarianism and Compatibilism', in K. Timpe and D. Speak (eds.) Free Will and Theism (OUP, 2017)

43. T. J. Mawson, 'An Agreeable Answer to a Pro-Theism/Anti-Theism Question', in Klaas J. Kraay (editor), Does God Matter? (Routledge, 2017)

44. T. J. Mawson, 'Doing Natural Theology Consistently with Theism and Why One Might Stop Trying', Religious Studies, 53 (2017)

45. T. J. Mawson, ‘God's Possible Roles in the Meanings of Life. Reply to Metz', European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 10 (2018)

46. T. J. Mawson, ‘Does Anything We Do Matter Forever?', Religious Studies, 57 (2019)

47. T. J. Mawson, ‘Why heaven doesn't make earth absolutely meaningless, just relatively', Religious Studies 57 (2020)

48. T. J. Mawson, 'The Meaning of Life' in S. Goetz and C. Taliaferro (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion (Blackwell, 2021)

49. T. J. Mawson, 'What has God to do with meaning?', Logoi (2022)

50. T. J. Mawson, ‘Am I here by accident?', in L. Vicens and P. Furlong (eds.) Theological Determinism: New Perspectives (CUP, 2022)

51. T. J. Mawson, ‘Why are we here?, Religious Studies, 58 (2022)

52. T. J. Mawson, ‘Why might God create?', Religious Studies, 59 (2022)

53. T. J. Mawson, ‘Theism and Meaning in Life', in I. Landau (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Meaning in Life (OUP, 2022)

54. T. J. Mawson, ‘Richard Swinburne', in R. D. Geivett (ed.) Dictionary of Christian Apologists and Their Critics (Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming)

55. T. J. Mawson, ‘If any one of Judaism, Christianity, or Islam is true, a lot more people worship God than religious diversity might seem to suggest', in. J. Salamon (ed.) Arguing about Diversity: Philosophy of Religion in the Global Age, Religious Studies 60 (2023)

56. T. J. Mawson, ' Worshipping the Same God', Agatheos - European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 1 (2024)

57. T.J. Mawson, ‘Choosing to Pray for the Past', Agatheos: European Journal for Philosophy of Religion (2024)

58. T. J. Mawson, 'Omnisubjectivity and some of its Implications', in M.Iwanicki (ed.), Roczniki Filozoficzne ‘LXXIII, 1 (2025)'

59. T. J. Mawson, ‘Theistic Practice and God's Personhood', International Journal of Philosophy and Theology, 1-19 (2025)'

60. T. J. Mawson, ‘Swinburne's A Priori Argument for Social Trinitarianism', Journal of Analytic Theology (Forthcoming)

Book Reviews

1. T. J. Mawson, Review of Jamie Mayerfield's ‘Suffering and Moral Responsibility' (OUP, 2002), Religious Studies, 39 (2003)

2. T. J. Mawson, Review of Paul Copan and William Lane Craig's ‘Creation out of Nothing' (Baker Academic, 2004), Philosophy, 80 (2005)

3. T. J. Mawson, Review of Harriet A. Harris and Christopher J. Insole (eds.) ‘Faith and Philosophical Analysis: The Impact of Analytical Philosophy on the Philosophy of Religion' (Ashgate, 2005), Religious Studies, 42 (2006)

4. T. J. Mawson, Review of Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski, ‘Divine Motivation Theory' (CUP, 2004), Ars Disputandi, 6 (2006)

5. T. J. Mawson, Review of W. P. Alston, ‘Beyond “Justification”: Dimensions of Epistemic Evaluation' (Cornell, 2005), Philosophy, 81 (2006)

6. T. J. Mawson, Review of C. Stephen Layman, 'Letters to Doubting Thomas: A Case for the Existence of God', Ars Disputandi (2007)

7. T. J. Mawson, Review of J. Cottingham (ed.), ‘The Meaning of Theism', Faith and Philosophy, 26 (2009)

8. T. J. Mawson, Review of D. Bartholomew, 'God, Chance and Purpose', Philosophy, 84 (2009)

9. T. J. Mawson, Review of David O'Connor, 'God, Evil, and Design, An Introduction to the Philosophical Issues', Hume Review, Forthcoming

10. T. J. Mawson, Review of Yujin Nagasawa, 'God and Phenomenal Consciousness', Faith and Philosophy, 26 (2009)

11. T. J. Mawson, Review of M. Murray, 'Nature Red in Tooth and Claw', Mind, 118 (2009)

12. T. J. Mawson, Review of T. O'Connor, 'Theism and Ultimate Explanation', Religious Studies, 45 (2009)

13. T. J. Mawson, Review of A. Plantinga and M. Tooley, 'Knowledge of God', Analysis Reviews, 69 (2009)

14. T. J. Mawson, Review of C. Taliaferro and C. Meister (eds.) 'The Cambridge Companion to Christian Philosophical Theology' (CUP, 2010), Religious Studies 47 (2010)

15. T. J. Mawson, Review of J. Angelo Corlett, 'The Errors of Atheism', Journal of Theological Studies (2011)

16. T. J. Mawson, Review of Derek Parfit ‘On What Matters' (OUP, 2011), Faith and Philosophy, 30.2 (2013)

17. T. J. Mawson, Review of H. Philipse, 'God in the Age of Science?', Mind, 123 (2014)

18. T. J. Mawson, Review of R. Lovering, 'God and Evidence', The Journal of Theological Studies (2014)

19. T. J. Mawson, Review of B. Jantzen, 'An Introduction to Design Arguments', Religious Studies (2014)