Sophia was founded in 1962 by Max Charlesworth, a faculty member in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne (Australia), and served as its editor until his retirement in 1992. The journal for several of its bi-annual issues over the next decade was produced in the departmental gestetner mimeograph, rather like lecture note handouts. It is characteristic that Charlesworth, a much secularized and critical Catholic philosopher, chose the title ‘Sophia’ for the journal with the modest subtitle of A Journal for Discussion in Philosophical Theology. Despite its humble appearance, the editor secured in the inaugural issue articles by such eminent philosophers as Peter Geach, A. Boyce Gibson, Dom Illtyd Trethowan, G.E. de Graaff and Ninian Smart. In the next few issues contributions arrived from others philosophers of note of the period, such as J L Mackie, Anthony Kenny, Basil Mitchell, Barry Miller, and again, Peter Geach. This list grew.
Charlesworth was aware that he was going against the tide in some ways in founding a forum for discussion of issues in the interstices of philosophy and theology, thereby opening up a dialogue between philosophy and religious studies (a discipline that few philosophers would have cared about, or were even aware of its birth in Western universities). This was a rather radical move coming as it was from within a philosophy department that enjoyed the reputation of being the Oxford of the South, and amidst the exponential burgeoning of analytic philosophy in the antipodes inspired largely by the work of J J C Smart, David Armstrong and John Anderson. The discipline of philosophy conceived itself as excluding interest in any kind of defensive engagement with theodicy, revelation, spiritual hermeneutics, esoteric practice or ritual.
Doubtless there was a surfeit of articles on topics that would seem to be standard discussion-points in philosophy (ical) theology simply because there was a dearth of scholars who could write on existential, Continental, feminist or subaltern critiques during the formative years of the journal. So the journal did not stray any further than arguments for and against the existence (or non-existence) of God, the nature of God, the problem of evil and theodicy, free-will and predestination, and the after-life. Nevertheless, in intent the journal was not committed to remaining forever confined to just such these concerns. For there was a further ramification in this heroic move; as Jay Garfield (a latter-day editor of Sophia) in an editorial to a special issue of the journal dedicated to Charlesworth (December 2012), adroitly reflected: “[t]he decision to bring Philosophy and Religious Studies together as partners in Sophia was radical in another way, perhaps not in the forefront of the consciousness of the editors at its founding, but certainly distinctive of Sophia as it has evolved. For Anglophone western philosophy defined itself self-deceptively not only in contrast to religion, but also in contrast to Asia, Africa and the world’s indigenous peoples. To practice philosophy was—and still often is—not only to disavow the roots of one’s practice within the tradition one acknowledges as one’s own, but also to disavow any interest in the texts, insights or arguments of anyone writing outside of Europe. Philosophy, as it was then conceived in the Euro-American-Australasian world, and as it is still often conceived, is Western philosophy.” Garfield sums up the motivation behind Sophia’s opening up gradually to the philosophies of other traditions recognizing well their origins in ancient religious insights and modes of argumentation. “Given that the majority of the world’s philosophical speculation and writing is non-European, and given that the ground most often given for ignoring non-Western philosophy is the uniquely rational and non-religious character of Western philosophy as opposed to the irrational and religious character of non-Western philosophy, this willingness to renounce interest in so many traditions without bothering to inquire into their contents is ironic…”. The fair ship of Sophia was not willing to leave the rest of the world behind. Charlesworth in his other life was also actively involved as a public intellectual in opposing the rising tide of xenophobia, right-wing politics and both anti-labor union and anti-Asiatic movements in Australia and New Zealand, abetted by both the general apathy and open sympathy of the philosophers.
A new turn occurred after Charlesworth stepped down as editor and handed the reins of the journal to two of his colleagues, Purushottama Bilimoria and Patrick Hutchings, who boldly continued and consciously broadened the profile of the journal to become inclusive of cross-cultural, Continental or European, feminist and indigenous critiques within the discourse of philosophy of religion, ethics and metaphysics, but also drawing on methodological and social-theoretic developments in the Humanities, Law and Social Sciences . The journal also found a new commercial publisher in Ashgate (in 2000) who welcomed the practice of diversifying the contents to embrace cross-cultural and inter-philosophical interests. After five years shifted to a contractual arrangement with Springer, who approached the journal precisely because they had perceived that Sophia was breaking new grounds in the contemporary practice of philosophy nand more superficially philosophy of religion (even the Springer was already publishing the International Journal of Philosophy of Religion); Springer remains its current and proactive publisher. The journal moved from two issues to four issues a year, and instituted the ambitious practice of carrying special guest edited issues topics for every other volume, on topics ranging from The Philosophy of the Smart Brothers (dedicated to J J C and Ninan Smart); Postcolonial Critique; Feminist Philosophy of Religion; Buddhist Philosophy of Religion; (posthumously) Charlesworth as the Philosopher and Public Intellectual; Logic and Philosophy of Religion, Kevin Hart and the Kingdoms of God; Philosophy, Violence and Metaphor; Animals and Philosophy (via Peter Singer), Bimal Matilal (Indian Philosopher; 25th anniversary), Women and Faith: Third World Contexts, and Continental Philosophy of Religion. A number of forthcoming special issues have been slated on topics along similar lines in the interest of diversification and keeping the conversation of humankind flourishing.
A robust editorial board was expanded to include women philosophers from across the continents; the position of Editorial Manager was initiated which has always been filled by a female graduate student. Invited contributors and guest editors have included women philosophers and comparative scholars; the journal is committed to fostering and edging towards a balance in gender and cross-cultural voices within its purview.
The success of Sophia in taking this bold direction and blazing a trail is testified by the dramatic growth-rate of submissions, concomitant with the high rejection rate, the exponential increase of global readership and calibrated matrix (e.g. 12,500 articles are downloaded in this year to-date alone, which is a sharp contrast to the 400 annual subscription it remained steadily anchored in for quite many years). While Sophia enjoys an unstinted reputation of being perhaps the leading international journal in philosophy of religion, it also sees itself moving towards engagement with issues in ‘mainstream’ Anglo-American philosophy, albeit from the critical perspectives of Cross-cultural, Continental, Feminist, Post-secular Political, Postcolonial and Indigenous traditions of thinking. There is no looking back. This modest-sized journal that began Downunder in a cyclostyle format as a discussion point for small group of philosophers interested in the dialogue between philosophy and religion/theology, has become a prominent and poignant platform for philosophers and budding scholars, graduates, and students to engage more intensely in sophisticated areas of the discipline that cross a few borders and boundaries which are of relevance in the current critical age.
As to the future or where we go from here, Sophia would like to see similar sensitivity to global and regional diversity in philosophical trends espoused in philosophy journals and in the discipline as a whole across the board. Towards the latter end Sophia has been working closely with the journal, Philosophy East-West, and two related organizations: Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, and the Australasian Society for Asian and Cross-cultural Philosophy, co-sponsoring conferences and carrying guest edited issues from select conference panels that specifically invite papers in diverse areas of philosophy as per the by-laws of the respective associations. The Australasian association is particularly sensitive to the location of Australia-New Zealand and Singapore in the larger region, geographically but also intellectually and culturally, of Asia (South, South-East, East Asia) and the Pacific, not to mention its own pre-colonail First Nation Indigenous context; as well, there are positive steps taken to include indigenous and marginal philosophical voices in the proceedings of the journals, which in turn may be considered seriously for the pages of Sophia.
Secondly, while continuing with the established tradition of anonymous peer-review process, some concern has been expressed by members of the editorial board that anonymity may also hide the identity of those marginal voices we just might wish to be a little more generously disposed towards in the same spirit as that of ‘affirmative action’, and therefore anonymity to some extent though perhaps not irreparably goes against the grain of inclusiveness. The editors who are privy to the identity and regional location of the authors have borne this in mind when reviewing reports on the submittals; and in one instance reprimanded a reviewer who exceeded in commenting on the author’s poor ability in the English language when the paper was on an aspect of ‘Rainbow’ philosophy and land rights justice from a women’s perspective. The following are some further ideals we would like to see encouraged.
(1) We would like to see more exchange of data and profiles towards inclusive referee pools. And there needs to be a listing of bridge-building scholars trained in at least two if not a diverse range of philosophical traditions who can provide guidance to Western journal to become more inclusive of non-western material. That might entail broadening the editorial board of the hitherto closed or one-tradition-trek journals.
(2) Through our efforts with Sophia and cognate journal we would like to draw attention to the work being done in non-Western philosophy that aims both at history and contemporary work, just as we can find in Western philosophy contributions and divisions between good history and contemporary work. E.g. Sophia cooperated (two of the Sophia editor served as General Editor) with the production of the recently published Routledge History of Indian Philosophy (a handbook in the World Philosophies series), that by all accounts amply fits the stated profile of ‘good history and contemporary work’. Clearly, from the experience at the journal base, Sophia is able to extend its learning and wisdom to related research and publishing projects as well.
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3) Through our work on Sophia we would like to demonstrate that so-called non-Western philosophy (a misnomer as bad as casting Western philosophy as ‘Non-Asian/Pacific’), should not be split down the Analytic/Continental divide or read through those lens, but rather it has a unique voice that crosses past these parochial apertures at least in certain junctures and temporal spaces.
La Vive Sophia! (find it on Facebook here)
Anand Vaidya (Center for Comparative Philosophy, San Jose State University) is to be thanked for his comments on an earlier draft).
Purushottama Bilimoria
Purushottama Bilimoria, PhD works in Indian & Cross-Cultural philosophy, Philosophy of Religion and Critical Thinking, and lectures at State University of San Francisco as well as Cal State Long Beach. Named as Lead Scientist of Purushottama Centre for Study of Indian Philosophy and Culture at Peoples' Friendship University (RUDN) of Russia, he is Principal Fellow at University of Melbourne, where he serves also as an Editor-in-Chief of Sophia, Journal of Dharma Studies, Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy & Traditions (all with Springer). Recent publications include: History of Indian Philosophy (with A. Rayner, 2019), Religion and Sustainability (with R. D. Sherma, 2021), Contemplative Studies and Hinduism (with R. D. Sherma, 2021); Indian Ethics Vol. 2 (with A. Rayner & R. Sharma, 2022).
