The Cognitivity of Religion: Three Perspectives

223 Pages·1985·22.744 MB·English

by  J. Kellenberger (auth.)

THE COGNITIVITY OF RELIGION
LIBRARY OF PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
General Editor: John Hick
Danforth Professor, Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California
This series of books explores contemporary religious understandings of man and the
universe. The books contribute to various aspects of the continuing dialogues between
religion and philosophy, between scepticism and faith, and between the different religions
and ideologies. The authors represent a correspondingly wide range ofv iewpoints. Some of
the books in the series are written for the general educated public and others for a more
specialised philosophical or theological readership.
Already published
Masao Abe ZEN AND WESTERN THOUGHT
William H. Austin THE RELEVANCE OF NATURAL SCIENCE
TO THEOLOGY
Paul Badham CHRISTIAN BELIEFS ABOUT LIFE AFTER
DEATH
Paul and Linda Badham IMMORTALITY OR EXTINCTION?
Patrick Burke THE FRAGILE UNIVERSE
Margaret Chatterjee GANDHI'S RELIGIOUS THOUGHT
William Lane Craig THE KALAM COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT FROM
PLATO TO LEIBNIZ
Stephen T. Davis LOGIC AND THE NATURE OF GOD
Lynn A. de Silva THE PROBLEM OF THE SELF IN
BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY
Padmasiri de Silva AN INTRODUCTION TO BUDDHIST
PSYCHOLOGY
Ramchandra Gandhi THE AVAILABILITY OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS
J. C. A. Gaskin HUME'S PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
H. A. Hodges GOD BEYOND KNOWLEDGE
J. Kellenberger THE COGNITIVITY OF RELIGION
Julius]. Lipner THE FACE OF TRUTH
Hywel D. Lewis PERSONS AND LIFE AFTER DEATH
Eric Lott VEDANTIC APPROACHES TO GOD
Geddes MacGregor REINCARNATION AS A CHRISTIAN HOPE
Hugo A. Meynell AN INTRODUCTION TO THE
PHILOSOPHY OF BERNARD LONERGAN
F. C. T. Moore THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASIS OF
MORALITY
Dennis Nineham THE USE AND ABUSE OF THE BIBLE
Martin Prozesky RELIGION AND ULTIMATE WELL-BEING
D. Z. Phillips BELIEF, CHANGE AND FORMS OF LIFE
Bernard M.G. Reardon HEGEL'S PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
.John]. Shepherd EXPERIENCE, INFERENCE AND GOD
Patrick Sherry RELIGION, TRUTH AND LANGUAGE
GAMES
SPIRIT, SAINTS AND IMMORTALITY
Ninian Smart CONCEPT AND EMPATHY
Wilfred Cantwell Smith TOWARDS A WORLD THEOLOGY
Shivesh Chandra Thakur RELIGION AND RATIONAL CHOICE
Robert Young FREEDOM, RESPONSIBILITY AND GOD
Further titles in preparation
THE COGNITIVITY OF
RELIGION
Three Perspectives
J.
Kellen berger
M
MACMILLAN
© J. Kellen berger 1985
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1985 978-0-333-38864-8
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended).
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
First published 1985
Published by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
Typeset by
Wessex Typesetters Ltd
Frome, Somerset
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Kellenberger, J.
The cognitivity of religion: three perspectives.
-(Library of philosophy and religion)
I. Religion-Philosophy 2. Rationalism
I. Title II. Series
200'.1 BL51
ISBN 978-1-349-07894-3 ISBN 978-1-349-07892-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-07892-9
To
Anne
Contents
Priface
IX
Introduction
THE TWO PERSPECTIVES ON THE MODERN
ISSUE OF COGNITIVITY 5
I Introduction 5
II The Two Perspectives on the Five Subissues 6
( 1) The rationality subissue 6
(2) The cognitivity-of-belief subissue 22
(3) The understanding subissue 36
(4) The evidence subissue 49
(5) The knowledge subissue 76
III Conclusion 89
2 THE THIRD PERSPECTIVE 91
I Introduction 91
II Rationality and Discovery 92
( 1) Some turns in the concept of rationality 92
(2) Realisation-discoveries 104
III Religious Discovery 112
(3) Settings for the religious realisation-discovery 112
(4) The issue of whether religious realisation-
discoveries have been made 117
IV Conclusion 131
3 THE FRAMEWORK OF THE THIRD
PERSPECTIVE 134
I Introduction 134
Vll
Vlll CONTENTS
II The Third Perspective on the Five Sub-issues 135
(1) The rationality subissue 135
(2) The cognitivity-of-belief subissue 140
(3) The understanding subissue 154
(4) The evidence subissue 162
(5) The knowledge subissue 169
III Final Comments 183
Notes 188
Bibliography 206
Index 212
Preface
To many it has seemed, and to many it seems today, that
knowledge of God is the crown offaith, or at least not at odds with
depth in religion, and that within limits we can approach such
knowledge using our reason. The existence of God can be proved
in five ways, St. Thomas Aquinas exultantly proclaims in the
Summa. But we are also told that those who believe without seeing
are blessed, and Kierkegaard, denying absolutely the intuitions of
St. Thomas Aquinas, is clear that knowledge of what we must
strive to believe destroys depth in religion. There are, it seems to
me, two very different religious intuitions about the place of
knowledge in religion, and these opposed intuitions extend as well
to the cognates of knowledge, including rationality. These
opposite intuitions have formed into two antithetical perspectives
on the cognitivity of religion. Both perspectives are identifiable as
tendencies in early religious reflection and as contenders in
contemporary religious thought. Each perspective has impressive
strengths, and each has a strong intuitive appeal. Yet they
systematically differ at the deepest level of their intuitions.
Though it is not the single locus of their opposition, a
crystallizing nub is their difference over the rationality of religion.
One champions the rationality of religion. The other denounces
the idea that religion should be subject to rationality. However
they are in essential agreement on the nature of rationality: for
both, as it may be put, rationality is an attribute of proper
enquiry. Such a view of rationality is not absurd. In fact it is this
concept of rationality that applies when we ask of any belief,
including religious belief, 'Is this true?' and 'What supports this?'
and proceed to investigate. Regarding religious belief, one
perspective welcomes such support and seeks it. The other rejects
it and seeking it.
Also, as I shall try to show, there is a third perspective, which,
in the West, is embodied in the Psalms. This third perspective
lX
X PREFACE
differs from the other two perhaps most radically in its tacit
rejection of enquiry-rationality as the kind or rationality that is at
significant issue for religion. Because it is informed by a very
different model of rationality, the third perspective cuts between
the other two (though it does not explicitly address them), or
better, provides a bridge between them. Moreover, when the
implicit self-understanding of this third perspective is formed into
a grammar of religious cognitivity, that grammar offers a middle
ground of accommodation for the strengths of the first two
perspectives. And so, as I hope to show, not only for rationality,
but for knowledge and the other cognates of knowledge, the third
perspective offers a kind of bridge between the other two.
Thanks are due to many who have helped me in one way or
another with this book. I wish to thank Dean Jerome Richfield
and the School of Humanities at California State Univesity,
Northridge for granting me research reassigned time when it was
needed and to thank Daniel Sedey, Chair of the Philosophy
Department, for consistently providing me with teaching
schedules that enabled me to devote a maximum of time to writing
this book. I also wish to thank Alice Ostrem for typing the
manuscript, and for her care and patience in dealing with
revisions. I owe special thanks to Professor John Hick, the editor
of this series, and to John Miles of the University of California
Press, both of whom suggested various ways that I might improve
the book. My happiest debt is to my wife Anne, in part for some
stylistic help, but mainly for her understanding and general
support during the months of writing and revision.
Some of the material in this book has appeared previously in
Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses, the International Journal for
Philosophy of Religion, and Philosophical Investigations. In the last two
cases, where permission was required, I would like to thank the
editors and copyright holders for granting their permission.