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John Cottingham has done as much as anyone, and more than many, to champion what he has called "humane philosophy": a method of philosophising that resists the cool, detached style of much contemporary analytic philosophy, and which instead draws on the rich resources of the humanities and arts, including poetry, fiction, and music. Theism, then, can explain the existence of objective value, and can make sense of the lifeworld of consciousness through which we access that value. But rather than treat it as an illusion (as Daniel Dennett among others has done), or as a mysterious intrinsic property of matter (as we find in panpsychism), Cottingham suggests that theism can make sense of consciousness by positing "a source...of all being that is somehow I mind-like i " (p. 83, original emphasis). The sections on Descartes are especially instructive; here Cottingham's expertise comes into its own, revealing Descartes to be much more nuanced than the "Cartesian dualism" caricature suggests. [Extracted from the article]

'Interested non-belief' in God is now a common attitude, and one religious outlook such non-believers should take seriously is the Christian contemplative tradition. Drawing on C. S. Lewis, I identify the familiar phenomenon of 'worldly union desire': elicited by worldly things, and aimed at union with some beauty or goodness therein. I examine specifically Thomas Merton's contemplative outlook, arguing that by his lights worldly union desires manifest a desire for God and aid spiritual openness. Merton's picture extends any purely secular value in worldly union desire-experiences, giving union with God – and the spirituality aimed at this goal – a deep existential appeal for non-believers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]