Traditionally, Demea is considered to be the weakest character in Hume’s famous Dialogues concerning Natural Religion; the stage is completely dominated by Cleanthes’ optimistic theism and by Philo’s skeptical critical manoeuvres against that. Contrary to this traditional approach, however, the ‘orthodox’ Demea will be defended here by maintaining that Demea contributes—though neither consciously intended nor recognized by Hume—the most interesting observations concerning religious belief. He points to a position lying beyond the metaphysical fantasies of theism (in league with its successors, the “friends of Cleanthes”) on the one hand and Philo’s destructiveness, which seems to amount to a moralized minimal version of faith on the other. It will be clear that this defense is not exegetically orientated, but rather reacts to a constellation personalized in Hume’s ‘casting’ that lets us see on which topics we shall continue to work theologically as well as philosophically today. Accordingly, a conceptual critique of Cleanthes and Philo will be elaborated, using three concrete examples to show what religious belief lying beyond metaphysical hopes that explain God as a (quasi)person, as well as reductionist concessions that regard ‘God’ merely as an expression of a moral attitude, could look like. Thus Demea represents a ‘postmetaphysical’ image of religious belief—and, eventually, we are invited to belong to the “friends of Demea”.

中文翻译：

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超越休谟：Demea 具有系统意图的康复

传统上，德米亚被认为是休谟关于自然宗教的著名对话中最弱的角色；舞台上完全被克林西斯的乐观有神论和菲洛对它持怀疑态度的批判策略所支配。然而，与这种传统方法相反，“正统的”德米亚将在这里得到捍卫，即德米亚贡献了——尽管既不是休谟有意识地也没有被休谟承认——关于宗教信仰的最有趣的观察。一方面，他指出了一个超越有神论形而上学幻想的立场（与其继任者“清洁之友”结盟）和菲洛的破坏性，另一方面，这似乎相当于道德化的最小信仰版本。很明显，这种辩护不是以释经为导向的，而是对休谟“铸造”中个性化的星座做出反应，让我们看到今天我们将继续在神学和哲学上工作的主题。因此，将详细阐述对 Cleanthes 和 Philo 的概念批判，使用三个具体的例子来展示超越形而上学希望的宗教信仰，将上帝解释为（准）人，以及将“上帝”仅仅视为一种表达的还原论让步一种道德态度，可能看起来像。因此，德米亚代表了一种“后形而上学”的宗教信仰形象——最终，我们被邀请成为“德米亚之友”的一员。用三个具体的例子来展示超越形而上学希望的宗教信仰，将上帝解释为（准）人，以及将“上帝”仅仅视为道德态度表达的还原论让步，可能会是什么样子。因此，德米亚代表了一种“后形而上学”的宗教信仰形象——最终，我们被邀请成为“德米亚之友”的一员。用三个具体的例子来展示超越形而上学希望的宗教信仰，将上帝解释为（准）人，以及将“上帝”仅仅视为道德态度表达的还原论让步，可能会是什么样子。因此，德米亚代表了一种“后形而上学”的宗教信仰形象——最终，我们被邀请成为“德米亚之友”的一员。