The Stanford Online Encyclopedia of Philosophy has up a new entry on prophecy. While obviously not considering Mormon conceptions, it seems very significantly related to Mormon theology. Most of the discussion focuses in on issues of free will and foreknowledge, quite relevant to various discussions here the past few months.
In the usual sense, prophecy involves disclosing some important information that could not have been known to the prophet in any ordinary way. Prophecy is interesting from a philosophical point of view because it introduces interesting questions about divine knowledge, time, and human freedom. Unlike historians or theologians, philosophers rarely argue about what kinds of things have actually been prophesied, or whether or not a given prophecy came true. Instead, they prefer to argue about ideal cases, where the theoretical issues become much more sharp. In this article, we will follow their lead by sidestepping completely the question of whether or not any apparent prophecies are actual ones. We will also avoid the question of the existence of God, which is addressed by a number of other entries in this encyclopedia (see the entries listed in the Related Entries section).
I've closed comments in order to avoid spam since I don't check this older blog as much anymore.
and Theology
Number of unique visitors:
Blogged by Clark Goble