Jonathan Bennett has added three new translations to his Early Modern Texts website, at least two of them to some degree relevant to philosophy of religion. They are, as Bennett describes them:
1. Jonathan Edwards, The Freedom of the Will - the earliest masterpiece of American philosophy. Except for its last few sections (on the Christian problem of evil) this work is imaginatively worked-out, densely argued, continuously interesting and engaging.2. John Stuart Mill, Three Essays on Religion (Nature, Usefulness of Religion, Theism).
3. Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason up to the end of the Analytic. For the Preface and the Transcendental Deduction of the Categories, both A and B versions are included. Otherwise only (B) the second edition is followed....
I plan to work next on one or more of: Spinoza’s Treatise on Theology and Politics, the correspondence between Leibniz and Clarke, Hume’s second Enquiry
For those unfamiliar with Bennett's work, he has been producing translations of early modern philosophical texts that are intended to be suitable for undergraduates who would have trouble reading the standard editions of these texts. Older English works are translated into more contemporary English, and non-English works are either translated anew or updated from older translations. Explanatory notes, sometimes interpretive and sometimes providing background information, are inserted into the text in brackets. I've found them to be very useful in teaching students without a strong background in reading early modern philosophy, even if there might be some reasons to be hesitant about using them with students who will go on in philosophy.
Thanks for this link, Jeremy. I admit I was wondering how Mill could be translated into (what I assumed would be) English. But I see what he's doing and I think lots of students might benefit from this site.
I should say that I've used some of his translations myself, including all of Descartes' Meditations, parts of Locke's Essay, parts of Berkeley's Three Dialogues, parts of Hume's first Enquiry, two thirds of Kant's Groundwork, and all of Mill's Utilitarianism.
Except for Kant and Mill, it was entirely in 100-level courses, and it worked to great effect. I used Kant and Mill in a 300-level class that I was assigned the Friday before classes started, and I was scrambling to find online sources for as much as I could.
I don't think it was too problematic using Bennett's translations for a 300-level course, which was what he used to do when he taught at the very same institution, but I think if I had to do it over again I might have wanted to offer them the option of buying the books or reading his, depending on whether they were likely to go on in philosophy.
I'd wholeheartedly endorse using them at the introductory level, though. First-time philosophy students have a hard enough time just grasping what they are expected to do in doing philosophy. If they also have to figure out what people are saying in fairly obscure texts, it makes it that much more difficult.
Now what I'd love is if someone would do this with Aristotle and Aquinas. Some of their most insightful material is among the most difficult to read, and they're so often expected in introductory courses that I find myself teaching that I'd love to have an easier version for students to glean the thought process of the philosopher without having to wade through the difficult terminology and sentence structure of most translations. I'm not sure anyone working in those fields has captured Bennett's vision for this sort of thing, however.