The Moral Argument: A History

281 Pages·2020·10.497 MB·English

by  David Baggett, Jerry Walls

The Moral Argument

The Moral Argument
A History
DAVID BAGGETT AND JERRY L. WALLS
1
3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Baggett, David, author.
Title: The moral argument : a history / David Baggett and Jerry L. Walls.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019009506 | ISBN 9780190246365 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190246372 (pbk.) |
ISBN 9780190246389 (updf) | ISBN 9780190246396 (online) |
ISBN 9780190068646 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: God—Proof—History.
Classification: LCC BL473 .B25 2019 | DDC 212/.1—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019009506
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Paperback printed by Marquis, Canada
Hardback printed by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc., United States of America
For J. P. Moreland
To Madelyn Rose, Mackenzie Grace, and Abigail Joy: I hope you will always
love and respect the beauty and goodness of moral truth, and even more the
awesome reality that lies behind it.

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Precursors to Kant 8
2. The Sage of Königsberg: Immanuel Kant 19
3. A Contentious, Contemplative Cardinal: John Henry Newman 34
4. An Agnostic Moralist: Henry Sidgwick 49
5. That Adorable Genius and a Prime Minister: William James and
Arthur Balfour 62
6. A Knightbridge Professor: William Sorley 72
7. An Edinburgher: Andrew Seth Pringle-P attison 88
8. The Theo- Philosopher of Carlisle: Hastings Rashdall 97
9. An Oxford Nolloth Professor: Clement Webb 114
10. The Gregarious Aristocrat: W. G. de Burgh 130
11. An Eminent and Erudite Platonist: A. E. Taylor 139
12. Dean of St. Paul’s: W. R. Matthews 155
13. A Dinosaur: C. S. Lewis 162
14. A Reverend Don: H. P. Owen 181
15. Contemporary Moral Apologists 198
Conclusion 210
Notes 219
Index 253

Acknowledgments
It is our delight to thank some of the many people whose assistance proved
invaluable as we worked on this book. Cynthia Read and the team at Oxford
University Press were, as always, eminently supportive, patient, and encour-
aging. Many thanks to Assistant Editor Drew Anderla, and warm thanks
to the production team at Newgen; copyeditor Gretchen Gordon, indexer
Cynthia Landeen, Vani Vidhya, and project manager Richa Jobin. We greatly
appreciate you all.
Thanks to the administrations of our schools, Houston Baptist and Liberty
Universities, for steps they took to enable us to have the time to complete this
project.
Dave taught three doctoral level courses (and a few masters level courses)
on this material in the Rawlings School of Divinity while work on the book
was underway. All the students in each class made important contributions
to the discussion, but for now we especially want to mention Brett Seybold,
T. J. Gentry, Peter Van Kleeck, John Fraser, James Morris, Dale Kratt, Isaac
Seo, Michael Obanla, Zach Breitenbach, Steve Jordan, Peter Morgan, Lori
Peters, Daphne Edmondston, Heather Bradley, Will Honeycutt, Chris
Berg, Nehemiah Hanson, Shane O’Neill, Roy Mattson, John McCard, Delia
Ursulescu, Doug Geivett, and Elton Higgs.
Thanks to friends and colleagues with whom we’ve discussed these issues
for many years, a few of whom include Mike Jones, Mark Foreman, Kegan
Shaw, Sloan Lee, Tyler McNabb, and Ronnie Campbell. Jonathan Pruitt,
managing editor extraordinaire at MoralApologetics.com, deserves spe-
cial mention. Thanks to Dave Beck, whose forthcoming book came into our
hands too late to make its presence felt in this volume. It’s called The Reality of
God: A Narrated History of the Case (IVP Academic, 2019). He includes in his
sketch of the history of the moral argument a few thinkers we don’t cover, in-
cluding ancient figures like Zeno, Chrysippus, Cleanthes, Epictetus, Marcus
Aurelius, and Marcus Minucius Felix.
We each have some individual thanks to offer as well. From Dave: I am
thankful for my talented and endlessly patient wife, Marybeth Baggett,
who read and edited the whole manuscript, which was a wonderful gift.