The SCP is right in the midst of an exciting fundraising initiative with the goal of keeping our journal,
Faith and Philosophy, online and open access in perpetuity.
Faith and Philosophy (first published in 1983) is a top journal for work in the philosophy of religion and on philosophical reflections informed by and about religious matters. It has published important and influential work by Marilyn McCord Adams, Robert Adams, John Earman, Daniel Howard-Snyder, Brian Leftow, Paul Moser, Alvin Plantinga, Hilary Putnam, Michael Rea, J.L. Schellenberg, Elliott Sober, Eleonore Stump, Richard Swinburne, Nicholas Wolterstorff and many others. Plantinga's "Advice to Christian Philosophers" inspired generations of philosophers and continues to generate commentary. Two articles from the journal have been honored as one of the ten best articles of the year in the
Philosopher's Annual: Christopher Menzel's "Theism, Platonism, and the Metaphysics of Mathematics," and Keith Yandell's "God and Other Agents in Hindu Monotheism."
For many years, access to the journal was available only through subscription (personal or library) or via membership in the SCP. However, starting in 2019, we began offering open access to the journal online. That transition has been transformational. The map below illustrates the number of paper downloads in the journal’s first two years of being online:
Readers have access to a wide range of excellent work in philosophy of religion and theology from over 820 different authors in thousands of different papers. In case you’re curious about which papers are getting the most hits, here’s a list of the top ten downloads over the first two years:
So encouraging! Though it’s cheaper to produce an open-access journal, there are still ongoing expenses for typesetting, software, copyediting, and editorial expertise. Right now, these are borne entirely by the SCP.
Given these expenses, the SCP leadership has launched a fundraising initiative to support the continued operations of
Faith and Philosophy. The goal is to raise $230,000 that can be used to fund the short-term operations of the journal or be invested in a long-term endowment. To date, we are
70% of the way towards our goal! This is great progress, but we still have a way to go.
From now until the end of December, the Issachar Foundation matching all donations up to $25,000 towards the fundraising campaign.
We still need around $13,000 in donations to take full advantage of these matching funds.
If you have benefitted from the work published in
Faith and Philosophy, or if you see value in supporting a journal the enables excellent philosophical work to be freely shared with the world, please consider donating. Right now, your donation will be matched. If you donate $1,000, Issachar matches with $1,000. If you donate $100, Issachar matches will $100. If you donate $10, Issachar matches with $10.
In addition, all gifts of at least $1,000 will be honored by recognition on the website as a Patron of the Journal. You can see the current patron list
here.
To support this initiative electronically, you can donate on the
SCP website. Alternatively, you can support
Faith and Philosophy with a check (made out to the Society of Christian Philosophers) mailed to the following address:
Caleb Cohoe, SCP Treasurer
3048 W 23rd Ave.
Denver, CO 80211