Dr T. J. Mawson
Biography:
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.
Research Area/s:
Philosophy of Religion, Philosophical Theology, Value Theory
Research Interests:
I have quite broad interests within Philosophy and Philosophical Theology – I have written five books and about fifty papers covering a wide range of topics, though most fall within the general area of the Philosophy of Religion. At time of writing, my most recent work has been on the question, “What is the meaning of life?” This is arguably the question that most lay-people would think must form a chief focus of the work of all of those who style themselves professional philosophers. But, until relatively recently, hardly anybody who called themselves a professional philosopher had worked on the question “What is the meaning of life?” at all. I am interested in exploring what difference God might make to answers (for I have argued there are more than one) to these questions (for I’ve argued that the question ‘What is the meaning of life?’ is really many questions).
Links:
https://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/people/t-j-mawson#tab-267286
Select Publications
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Why heaven doesn't make earth absolutely meaningless, just relatively
MAWSON, TJanuary 2020|Journal article|Religious Studies: an international journal for the philosophy of religion and theology -
Monotheism and the Meaning of Life
Mawson, TJAugust 2019|BookMonotheism and the Meaning of Life explores the role of God, and the relationship to the question 'What is the meaning of life?' for adherents of the main monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Exploring the various senses of 'meaning' and 'life', Mawson argues that there are various questions implicit in the notion of the meaning of life and that the God of monotheistic religion is central to the correct answers to all of them.Religion -
Does Anything We Do Matter Forever?
Mawson, TMarch 2019|Journal article|Religious Studies -
The Divine Attributes
Mawson, TDecember 2018|Book -
God'S possible roles in the meanings of life. Reply to metz
Mawson, TJJanuary 2018|Journal article|European Journal for Philosophy of Religion -
The Meaning of Life
Mawson, TJJanuary 2018|Chapter|The Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion -
An agreeable answer to a pro-theism/anti-theism question
Mawson, TJDecember 2017|Chapter|Does God Matter?: Essays on the Axiological Consequences of Theism -
Doing natural theology consistently with theism and why one might stop trying
MAWSON, TJSeptember 2017|Journal article|Religious Studies -
Divine Free Will
Mawson, TJEdited by:Timpe, K, Levy, N, Griffith, MNovember 2016|Chapter|The Routledge Companion to Free Will -
God and the Meanings of Life
Mawson, TJOctober 2016|Book