The main and original contribution of this volume is to offer a discussion of teleology through the prism of religion, philosophy and history. The goal is to incorporate teleology within discussions across these three disciplines rather than restrict it to one as is customarily the case.

William Gibson is Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Director of the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History at Oxford Brookes University.

Dan O'Brien is Reader in Philosophy and Subject Co-ordinator for Philosophy at Oxford Brookes University

Marius Turda is Professor in 20th Century Central and Eastern European Biomedicine at Oxford Brookes University.

List of contributors

Introduction

by Dan O'Brien, Marius Turda and William Gibson

Section I: Religion

Chapter 1: 'We Apply these Tools to our Morals': Eighteenth-century Freemasonry, A Case Study in Teleology

by Richard Berrman

Chapter 2: Teleologies and Religion in the Eighteenth Century

by William Gibson

Chapter 3: John Wesley and the Teleology of Education

by Linda A. Ryan

Section II: History

Chapter 4: Teleology and Race

by Marius Turda

Chapter 5: Charles Darwin and the Argument for Design

by David Redvaldsen

Chapter 6: Teleology and Jewish Heretical Religiosity: Nietzsche and Rosenzweig

by David Ohana

Section III: Philosophy

Chapter 7: Can the Sciences Do without Final Causes?

by Stephen Boulter

Chapter 8: Hume, Teleology and the 'Science of Man'

by Lorenzo Greco and Dan O'Brien

Chapter 9: What is the Function of Morality?

by Mark Cain

Chapter 10: Is Intuitive Teleological Reasoning Promiscuous?

by Johan de Smedt and Helen de Cruz

Index