The Rationality of Theism

272 Pages·1999·5.44 MB·English

by  Wolfhart Pannenberg (auth.), Godehard Brüntrup, Ronald K. Tacelli (eds.)

THE RATIONALITY OF THEISM
STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
Volume 19
THE RATIONALITY OF THEISM
Edited by
GODEHARDBRUNTRUP
Munich School of Philosophy,
Munich, Germany
and
RONALD K. TACELLI
Boston College,
Boston, U.S.A.
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA. B.V.
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-90-481-5268-1 ISBN 978-94-015-9289-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-9289-5
Printed on acid-free paper
Printed with support by Boebringer lngelheim Foundation
for the Humanities, Germany
AII Rights Reserved
© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Origina11y published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1999
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover Ist edition 1999
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
lItilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
incIuding photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
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CONTENTS
PREFACE . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . • 7-10
Wolfhart Pannenberg
THE RATIONALITY OF CHRISTIAN THEISM ..•.•••• 11-19
Richard Swinburne
MANY KINDS OF RATIONAL THEISTIC BELIEF ..•.•• 21-38
Lorenz B. Puntel
THE RATIONALITY OF THEISTIC BELIEF
AND THE CONCEPT OF TRUTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39-60
Philip Clayton and Steven Knapp
BELIEF AND THE LOGIC OF
RELIGIOUS COMMITMENT •..•.•......•... 61-83
Richard M. Gale
A NEW ARGUMENT FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD:
ONE THAT WORKS, WELL, SORT OF • • . . . • . . • . • 85-103
Gerard]. Hughes
TOWARDS A REHABILITATION OF
AQUINAS'S "THIRD WAY" . . . . . . . • . . . . • . • • 105-123
Alvin Plantinga
WARRANTED CHRISTIAN BELIEF:
THE AQUINAS/CALVIN MODEL ............. 125-143
6 CONTENTS
Peter van Inwagen
CHRISTIAN BELIEF AND PLATONIC RATIONALITY . . . 145-159
Friedo Rieken
"PERSPICUOUS REPRESENTATION" AND
THE ANALOGY OF EXPERIENCE ....•.....•. 161-175
Linda Zagzebski
PHRONESIS AND CHRISTIAN BELIEF . . • . • . • • • . 177-194
Reiner Wimmer
THE NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE TASK OF REASON
IN RELATION TO RELIGIOUS ATTITUDES . . . . . . . . 195-213
Michael Czapkay Sudduth
PROPER BASICALITY AND THE EVIDENTIAL SIGNIFICANCE
OF INTERNALIST DEFEAT: A PROPOSAL FOR REVISING
CLASSICAL EVIDENTIALISM ••..••......•• 215-236
William P. Alston
THE DISTINCTIVENESS OF THE
EPISTEMOLOGY OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF .•...... 237-254
Franz von Kutschera
RATIONALITY AND REASON. • . . . • . • • . . . • • • 255-269
SPEAKERS AND EDITORS . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . 271-272
INDEX. • . . . • • . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273-280
PREFACE
The papers comprising this book were read at an international confer
ence held over four days in Munich - May 27-30, 1998. Organization was
arranged through the Institute for the Philosophy of Religion at Munich's
Hochschule fiir Philosophie, which served as host.
Simply as such the conference made an important contribution to philo
sophical discourse. Recent years have witnessed little (if any) dialogue be
tween philosophers of religion in the Anglo-Saxon and Continental tradi
tions. There are many reasons why. For one thing, continental philosophy
is still very much carried on under the imposing shadow of Kant, and so it
is rare to find any serious grappling with traditional metaphysical ques
tions such as the existence and nature of God; one finds instead a properly
post-Kantian emphasis on the epistemology and phenomenology of reli
gious experience. The renewed interest in classical philosophical theo
logy in America and the U.K. is thus understandably viewed by many Eu
ropean philosophers as a return to pre-critical dogmatism.
But any form of philosophical apartheid, however understandable, de
serves to be opposed, and ultimately overcome. This conference -the first
such gathering of German-and English-speaking philosophers of religion
-was a step in that direction. Since epistemology is of special interest both
in Europe and in the Anglo-Saxon world, it seemed most promising to take
an epistemological topic as a starting point for dialogue. The notion of "ra
tionality" seemed an ideal bridge-concept.
As a further step toward unifying these two philosophical communi
ties, we had originally thought to have the participants focus exclusively
on the rationality of Christian theism. But it seemed unfair to limit ab in
itio those who might wish to cast their vision beyond the boundaries of
Christianity, and so the organizing topic became simply the rationality of
theism. Most of the speakers did, however, focus on Christian theistic be
lief.
Prof. Wolfhart Pannenberg opened the conference with a stirring ad
dress delivered in German to about 400 people, including a number of po
litical dignitaries, in the elegant surroundings of Kardinal Wendel Haus.
8 PREFACE
'The Rationality of Christian Theism', traces the complex relationship be
tween philosophy and Christian faith. Pannenberg arguers that the con
cept of God in Christianity should not be seen as a mere developmental ap
pendage to a more (religiously or intellectually) fundamental monotheism,
but as having foundational integrity of its own, rooted in the revelation of
the Triune God in history.
The other papers followed over the next three days.
Prof. Richard Swinburne's 'Many Kinds of Rational Theistic Belief' fo
cuses on the epistemology of justified belief, where justification in some
way indicates truth. He concludes that there are many diverse ways in
which a belief can be justified, and goes on to ask about their respective
value - especially as this applies to the case of theistic belief.
Prof. Lorenz B. Puntel's paper, 'The Rationality of Theistic Belief and
the Concept of Truth,' claims that the notion of truth is of central impor
tance in determining the rationality of religious belief. Punt el argues that a
coherentist-holistic conception oftruth is most congruent with the nature
of Christian religious claims.
Prof. Philip Clayton spoke on 'Belief and the Logic of Religious Com
mittment', and explored a "possibilist" strategy for reconciling doubt
about the truth of Christian claims within one who is nonetheless strongly
committed to them. This paper, co-authored by Steven Knapp, seeks also
to delineate an epistemology of Christian acceptance.
Prof. Richard Gale's 'A New Argument for the Existence of God: One
That Works, Well, Sort of' is precisely that. It is not an argument for the
"super-deluxe" God of traditional theism, but a modal proof for a limited
God - one who nevertheless, according to Gale, is worthy of worship.
Prof. Gerard J. Hughes argued that there is much life yet in Aquinas's
philosophical theology. 'Toward a Rehabilitation of Aquinas's "Third Way"'
attempts to show the irrelevance or misguidedness of several classical ob
jections; it also seeks to locate precisely the most promising lines of future
philosophical exploration.
Prof. Alvin Plantinga's 'Warranted Christian Belief' argues that the
atheist cannot hold Christian faith to be irrational in abstraction from the
question whether or not God exists. For if the God of revelation does exist,
then Christian faith is true. If true, then the cognitive processes producing
such beliefs will be functioning according to God's plan, and will therefore
be warranted.
Prof. Peter van Inwagen spoke on the theme of 'Christian Belief and
Platonic Rationality.' He maintains that critics of Christian belief regularly
assume a conception of rationality which, if applied less selectively, would
call into question more - much, much more -than religious faith.
PREFACE 9
Prof. Friedo Rieken's '"Perspicuous Representation" and the Analogy
of Experience' turns to Wittgenstein for a key to illuminating the peculiar
rationality of theism. He also sketches a way of mediating the concepts of
religious language through experiences and emotions familiar to us all.
Prof. Linda Zagzebski, in her 'Phronesis and Christian Belief,' attempts
to develop a concept of religious rationality which, though necessarily em
bedded in a cultural and linguistic setting, has general application nonethe
less. To this end, she argues, the notion of phronesis can be exploited to
great advantage.
Prof. Reiner Wimmer's 'The Negative and Positive Task of Reason in
Relation to Religious Attitudes' pours cold water on what it takes to be the
overreaching pretensions of much classical and contemporary philosophy
of religion. This fulfills, in Wimmer's eyes, the chief negative task of rea
son. The positive task he sees as protecting the integrity of genuine reli
gious faith from the boundary-encroachments of various secular hostili
ties.
Prof. Michael Czapkay Sudduth spoke on 'Proper Basicality and the Ev
idential Significance of Internalist Defeat: A Proposal for Reviving Classi
cal Evidentialism.' His paper attempts to steer a middle course between
evidentialist and Reformed epistemologies. It proposes a defeater-based
evidentialism as doing full justice to the legitimate claims of each tradition.
Prof. William Alston, in 'The Distinctiveness of the Epistemology of
Religious Belief,' brings out both the diversity and complexity of epi
stemic factors involved in religious (and specifically Christian) faith. Along
the way, he gently chides both religious and non-religious epistemologists
for not always facing the full range and depth of this diversity; since with
out it they can never d'o justice to the thing they seek to study. His pro
grammatic conclusion: Let a thousand flowers bloom!
Prof. Franz von Kutschera 's 'Rationality and Reason' was the final paper
of the conference. Like the first, it was delivered in German before a large
public audience (though this time in the great aula of Munich's Hoch
schule fiir Philosophie). Given a contemporary understanding of rational
ity, von Kutschera argues, religious faith cannot be considered "rational.''
But if our religious beliefs are true, then in some sense they must be rea
sonable. He therefore sees a need for faith to recover a view of reason, fa
miliar to the ancients, as essentially open to the Absolute.
Even this bare listing of papers and participants can give readers some
idea of the difficulties that might stand in the way of fruitful dialogue. Only
with effort could such a linguistically and philosophically diverse group
talk with each other to any real purpose. But that effort was made, and the