Mikael Stenmark
Biographic Data
| ID | 1130184 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mikael Stenmark |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mikael |
| FAMILY NAME | Stenmark |
| SIGNATURE | STENMARK M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Uppsala University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2453-187X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Contemporary Worldviews
In this book, Mikael Stenmark identifies and explores several prominent religious and secular worldviews that people in contemporary society hold. Three nonreligious worldviews are highlighted: scientism, secular humanism, and transhumanism. These are contrasted with four religious worldviews: Abrahamic theism, Buddhism, the new spirituality (the so-called 'spiritual but not religious' individuals, SBNR), and religious naturalism. Some challenges…
Teaching about secular worldviews
In several European countries, teaching nonreligious or secular worldviews in religious education (RE) in public schools is either mandatory or recommended. I maintain that there are several challenges that such education must address for educators to teach about secular worldviews as adequately as they teach about religions. To overcome these, I argue we need to develop a symmetrical conceptual framework that identifies what secular worldviews a…
A model of worldview formation
Worldviews can serve as a resource or an obstacle when navigating intellectual and existential challenges encountered in life. My objective in this article is to identify and analyse the various ways in which people’s worldviews can shift, break down, evolve, or be strengthened by their life experiences. The proposed model of worldview formation identifies five outcomes that an encounter with what I refer to as existentially significant life even…
Worldview studies
I argue that philosophers of religion should not merely focus on religions but should pay much more attention to the secular outlooks on life emerging in contemporary society. To compare these outlooks, I suggest that we use the notion of worldview, and contrast religious worldviews with secular worldviews − rather than contrasting religions with nonreligions, which scholars of religion have recently tended to do. Accordingly, religious people sh…
Religion and Its Public Critics
To have the right and possibility to criticize religions in public life is crucial for developing a healthy liberal democratic society. However, this criticism could take many different forms with respect to who offers the criticism, on what grounds it is based, its aim, what the target of the criticism is, and whom the critics try to convince. In this article, I develop a theoretical framework we can use to distinguish and assess different forms…
How to Relate Theology and Science Today
La ciencia y la teología compiten aparentemente en el mismo terreno. Más allá de esta opinión ampliamente compartida, es conveniente analizar el tipo de “trabajo” que, cada una de ellas, asume. La ciencia persigue objetivos “epistémicos”, mientras que la religión los persigue “soteriológicos” y “morales”. Esta distinción permite una mejor comprensión de las posibles formas de relacionarse una con otra: la competencia, la independencia y el contac…
A Constructive Critique of Religion
Why do some strategies for critique of religion seem to be more beneficial for constructive engagement, whereas others increase intolerance, polarization, and conflict? Through an analysis of the reasons underpinning a critique of religion in institutional contexts of secular democratic societies, A Constructive Critique of Religion explores how constructive interaction and critique can be developed across diverse interests. It shows how social a…
Relativism and Post-Truth in Contemporary Society
Is Belief in God a (Scientific) Hypothesis
Beliefs are acquired, revised or rejected in both science and religion. In science this primarily occurs when scientists propose hypotheses, test them against available evidence, and then come to a verdict about which one among the rival hypotheses is best justified. The question I want to address in this essay is whether we should proceed in the same way in religion ”“ either because this is actually the way things are done already, or because i…
Competing conceptions of God
Among philosophers and theologians today, one of the most important dividing lines is the one separating those who advocate a personal conception of God (personal theism) from those who embrace the idea of a God beyond or without being (alterity theism). There is not much dialogue between these groups of scholars; rather the two groups ignore each other, and each party typically believes that there is a fairly straightforward knockdown argument a…
The Customization of Science
This collection explores whether and how religious and secular worldviews and political ideologies held by scientists, citizens, decision-makers and politicians influence science as practiced and unde
Religious naturalism and its rivals
The aim of this article is to explore where and why religious naturalism differs from its rivals, and also to consider some of the challenges religious naturalism faces. I argue that religious naturalism is best conceived as a reaction against both theists who are religious and naturalists who are atheists: the best option is taken to be a naturalist who is religious. Nevertheless, it is quite difficult to say more exactly what claims the view co…
Theories of Human Nature
Issues about human nature are at the core of philosophy, but theories of human nature can be found in many academic disciplines and all humans have opinions and sometimes fairly strong opinions about who we are. We sometimes talk more specifically about, for instance, a Christian view of human nature and distinguish it from say the Blank Slate theory or a Darwinian understanding of human nature. But what is more exactly a theory of human nature? …
Exclusivism, Tolerance and Interreligious Dialogue
The exclusivist stance towards other religions (or worldviews) endorsed by many religious activists is one of the main factors which cause the religious violence and conflicts we can see in the wor
Science and a Personal Conception of God
1Uppsala University
The Relevance of Environmental Ethical Theories for Policy Making
The issue addressed is whether differences in environmental ethical theory have any relevance for the practical issues of environmental management and policy-making. Norton’s answer, expressed as a convergence hypothesis, is that environmentalists are ev
The End of the Theism–Atheism Debate? A Response to Vincent Brümmer
Vincent Brümmer has recently, by taking his starting-point in the writings of Wittgenstein, defended the idea that the debate about the truth or falsehood of the claim that God exists has no future. I suggest that the arguments Brümmer develops to support this claim fail. This is so because he does not show why any attempt to prove or disprove the truth or falsehood of the belief in the existence of God is circular or how the purported non-provab…
What Is Scientism
Our Western society has been much shaped by scientific thought and discoveries. We not only depend practically on science in our ways of living. Our thinking and attitudes are also shaped by the theories and methods of science. The overwhelming intellectual and practical successes of science that lie behind this impact of science on our culture have led some people to think that there are no real limits to the competence of science, no limits to …
Religion and Its Public Critics
To have the right and possibility to criticize religions in public life is crucial for developing a healthy liberal democratic society. However, this criticism could take many different forms with respect to who offers the criticism, on what grounds it is based, its aim, what the target of the criticism is, and whom the critics try to convince. In this article, I develop a theoretical framework we can use to distinguish and assess different forms…
The Relevance of Environmental Ethical Theories for Policy Making
The issue addressed is whether differences in environmental ethical theory have any relevance for the practical issues of environmental management and policy-making. Norton’s answer, expressed as a convergence hypothesis, is that environmentalists are ev
What Is Scientism
Our Western society has been much shaped by scientific thought and discoveries. We not only depend practically on science in our ways of living. Our thinking and attitudes are also shaped by the theories and methods of science. The overwhelming intellectual and practical successes of science that lie behind this impact of science on our culture have led some people to think that there are no real limits to the competence of science, no limits to …
The End of the Theism–Atheism Debate? A Response to Vincent Brümmer
Vincent Brümmer has recently, by taking his starting-point in the writings of Wittgenstein, defended the idea that the debate about the truth or falsehood of the claim that God exists has no future. I suggest that the arguments Brümmer develops to support this claim fail. This is so because he does not show why any attempt to prove or disprove the truth or falsehood of the belief in the existence of God is circular or how the purported non-provab…
The Relevance of Environmental Ethical Theories for Policy Making
The issue addressed is whether differences in environmental ethical theory have any relevance for the practical issues of environmental management and policy-making. Norton’s answer, expressed as a convergence hypothesis, is that environmentalists are ev
Science and a Personal Conception of God
1Uppsala University
Exclusivism, Tolerance and Interreligious Dialogue
The exclusivist stance towards other religions (or worldviews) endorsed by many religious activists is one of the main factors which cause the religious violence and conflicts we can see in the wor
Theories of Human Nature
Issues about human nature are at the core of philosophy, but theories of human nature can be found in many academic disciplines and all humans have opinions and sometimes fairly strong opinions about who we are. We sometimes talk more specifically about, for instance, a Christian view of human nature and distinguish it from say the Blank Slate theory or a Darwinian understanding of human nature. But what is more exactly a theory of human nature? …
Religious naturalism and its rivals
The aim of this article is to explore where and why religious naturalism differs from its rivals, and also to consider some of the challenges religious naturalism faces. I argue that religious naturalism is best conceived as a reaction against both theists who are religious and naturalists who are atheists: the best option is taken to be a naturalist who is religious. Nevertheless, it is quite difficult to say more exactly what claims the view co…
The Customization of Science
This collection explores whether and how religious and secular worldviews and political ideologies held by scientists, citizens, decision-makers and politicians influence science as practiced and unde
Competing conceptions of God
Among philosophers and theologians today, one of the most important dividing lines is the one separating those who advocate a personal conception of God (personal theism) from those who embrace the idea of a God beyond or without being (alterity theism). There is not much dialogue between these groups of scholars; rather the two groups ignore each other, and each party typically believes that there is a fairly straightforward knockdown argument a…
Relativism and Post-Truth in Contemporary Society
Is Belief in God a (Scientific) Hypothesis
Beliefs are acquired, revised or rejected in both science and religion. In science this primarily occurs when scientists propose hypotheses, test them against available evidence, and then come to a verdict about which one among the rival hypotheses is best justified. The question I want to address in this essay is whether we should proceed in the same way in religion ”“ either because this is actually the way things are done already, or because i…
A Constructive Critique of Religion
Why do some strategies for critique of religion seem to be more beneficial for constructive engagement, whereas others increase intolerance, polarization, and conflict? Through an analysis of the reasons underpinning a critique of religion in institutional contexts of secular democratic societies, A Constructive Critique of Religion explores how constructive interaction and critique can be developed across diverse interests. It shows how social a…
How to Relate Theology and Science Today
La ciencia y la teología compiten aparentemente en el mismo terreno. Más allá de esta opinión ampliamente compartida, es conveniente analizar el tipo de “trabajo” que, cada una de ellas, asume. La ciencia persigue objetivos “epistémicos”, mientras que la religión los persigue “soteriológicos” y “morales”. Esta distinción permite una mejor comprensión de las posibles formas de relacionarse una con otra: la competencia, la independencia y el contac…
Worldview studies
I argue that philosophers of religion should not merely focus on religions but should pay much more attention to the secular outlooks on life emerging in contemporary society. To compare these outlooks, I suggest that we use the notion of worldview, and contrast religious worldviews with secular worldviews − rather than contrasting religions with nonreligions, which scholars of religion have recently tended to do. Accordingly, religious people sh…
Religion and Its Public Critics
To have the right and possibility to criticize religions in public life is crucial for developing a healthy liberal democratic society. However, this criticism could take many different forms with respect to who offers the criticism, on what grounds it is based, its aim, what the target of the criticism is, and whom the critics try to convince. In this article, I develop a theoretical framework we can use to distinguish and assess different forms…
Contemporary Worldviews
In this book, Mikael Stenmark identifies and explores several prominent religious and secular worldviews that people in contemporary society hold. Three nonreligious worldviews are highlighted: scientism, secular humanism, and transhumanism. These are contrasted with four religious worldviews: Abrahamic theism, Buddhism, the new spirituality (the so-called 'spiritual but not religious' individuals, SBNR), and religious naturalism. Some challenges…
Teaching about secular worldviews
In several European countries, teaching nonreligious or secular worldviews in religious education (RE) in public schools is either mandatory or recommended. I maintain that there are several challenges that such education must address for educators to teach about secular worldviews as adequately as they teach about religions. To overcome these, I argue we need to develop a symmetrical conceptual framework that identifies what secular worldviews a…
A model of worldview formation
Worldviews can serve as a resource or an obstacle when navigating intellectual and existential challenges encountered in life. My objective in this article is to identify and analyse the various ways in which people’s worldviews can shift, break down, evolve, or be strengthened by their life experiences. The proposed model of worldview formation identifies five outcomes that an encounter with what I refer to as existentially significant life even…
Philosophy (14 works) · Epistemology (13 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Theology and Philosophy of Evil (6 works) · Evolution and Science Education (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (4 works) · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics (4 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (4 works)