Michael J. Murray

Michael J. Murray is an American analytic philosopher of religion, long associated with Franklin & Marshall College, where he served as Arthur and Katherine Shadek Professor of Humanities and Philosophy, and later as senior executive at the John Templeton Foundation. Trained at Notre Dame under Alvin Plantinga and others, he works within the broader project of Christian analytic philosophy of religion. His monograph Nature Red in Tooth and Claw (2008) addresses the problem of animal suffering and surveys major theodicies in light of evolutionary biology. With Michael Rea, he co-authored An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion (2008), a standard analytic textbook covering arguments for and against theism, divine attributes, and religious epistemology. He edited Reason for the Hope Within (1999), a volume of analytic Christian apologetics, and co-edited Divine Evil? (with Bergmann and Howard-Snyder), engaging Paul Draper, Louise Antony, and other critics on Old Testament moral problems. Murray has also written on cognitive science of religion, arguing that naturalistic explanations of religious belief do not by themselves debunk theism. Critics including Paul Draper and J. L. Schellenberg have engaged his treatments of evil and hiddenness, while his work in cognitive-science-of-religion debunking debates has drawn responses from naturalists such as Matthew Braddock and Jonathan Jong. His positions exemplify mainstream Reformed-leaning analytic theism.