Warranted Christian Belief

545 Pages·2016·4.14 MB·English

by  Alvin Plantinga

Warranted Christian Belief
Author(s): Plantinga, Alvin (1932-)
Publisher: Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Description: "This book is about the intellectual or rational acceptability
of Christian belief." So writes Alvin Plantinga in the first line
of the preface to his book, Warranted Christian Belief.The
book is the third volume of a series by Plantinga discussing
the warrant (i.e. the plausibility and believability) of Christian-
ity. It is meant to be independent of the other volumes,
though, so starting here is a good choice. Plantinga engages
the topic of Christian epistemology here, and does so with
his usual style and intelligence. He starts at the very base of
the issue and builds layers from there, which allows readers
to gain understanding of the topic before moving on to more
complex arguments. In the preface, Plantinga notes that the
book is long, and suggests a helpful abridgment for those
looking only for "the central part of the story line" - they need
only read chapters six through nine. Plantinga is one of
modernity's greatest philosophers, and Warranted Christian
Belief is a prime example of his religious inclination and
masterful arguments for the importance and viability of faith.
Abby Zwart
CCEL Staff Writer
Subjects: Doctrinal theology
Apologetics. Evidences of Christianity
i
Contents
Title Page 1
Dedication 2
Preface 3
Part I. Is There a Question? 12
1. Kant 13
I. The Problem 14
II. Kant 19
A. Two Worlds or One? 21
B. Arguments or Reasons? 31
2. Kaufman and Hick 40
I. Kaufman 41
A. The Real Referent and the Available Referent 42
B. The Function of Religious Language 49
II. Hick 53
A. The Real 54
B. Coherent? 60
C. Religiously Relevant? 67
D. Is There Such a Thing? 70
Part II. What is the Question? 75
3. Justification and the Classical Picture 76
I. John Locke 80
A. Living by Reason 84
B. Revelation 89
II. Classical Evidentialism, Deontologism, and Foundationalism 91
A. Classical Foundationalism 93
B. Classical Deontologism 96
ii
III. Back to the Present 99
IV. Problems with the Classical Picture 104
A. Self-Referential Problems 106
B. Most of Our Beliefs Unjustified? 109
V. Christian Belief Justified 111
VI. Analogical Variations 114
A. Variations on Classical Foundationalism 115
B. Variations on the Deontology 117
C. Is This the de Jure Question? 119
4. Rationality 122
I. Some assorted versions of rationality 123
A. Aristotelian Rationality 124
B. Rationality as Proper Function 125
C. The Deliverances of Reason 129
D. Means-Ends Rationality 132
II. Alstonian Practical Rationality 134
A. The Initial Question 135
B. Doxastic Practices 136
C. Epsitemic Circularity 137
D. The Argument for Practical Rationality 138
E. Practical Rationality Initially Characterized 139
F. The Original Position 141
G. The Wide Original Position 143
H. A Narrow Original Position? 145
5. Warrant and the Freud-and-Marx Complaint 153
I. The F&M Complaint 154
A. Freud 155
B. Marx 159
C. Others 161
D. How Shall We Understand the F&M Complaint? 164
II. Warrant: The Sober Truth 172
III. The F&M Complaint Again 180
iii
Part III. Warranted Christian Belief 182
6. Warranted Belief in God 183
I. The Aquinas/Calvin Model 185
A. Models 186
B. Presentation of the Model 188
II. Is Belief in God Warrant-Basic? 203
A. If False, Probably Not 204
B. If True, Probably So 206
III. The de Jure Question is not Independent of the de Facto Question 208
IV. The F&M Complaint Revisited 210
7. Sin and Its Cognitive Consequences 217
I. Preliminaries 218
II. Initial Statement of the Extended Model 222
III. The Nature of Sin 226
IV. The Noetic Effects of Sin 232
A. The Basic Consequences 233
B. Sin and Knowledge 237
8. The Extended Aquinas/Calvin Model: Revealed to Our Minds 259
I. Faith 265
II. How Does Faith Work? 268
III. Faith and Positive Epistemic Status 271
A. Justification 272
B. Internal Rationality 275
C. External Rationality and Warrant: Faith is Knowledge 276
IV. Proper Basicality and the Role of Scripture 279
V. Comparison with Locke 286
VI. Why Necessary? 288
VII. Cognitive Renewal 300
9. The Testimonial Model: Sealed upon Our Hearts 308
I. Belief and Affection 309
II. Jonathan Edwards 313
A. Intellect and Will: Which Is Prior? 314
iv
B. The Affirmations of Faith 322
III. Analogue of Warrant 327
IV. Eros 329
10. Objections 341
I. Warrant and the Argument from Religious Experience 343
II. What Can Experience Show? 348
III. A Killer Argument? 352
IV. Son of Great Pumpkin? 359
V. Circularity? 367
Part IV. Defeaters? 369
11. Defeaters and Defeat 370
I. The Nature of Defeaters 372
II. Defeaters for Christian or Theistic Belief 379
III. Projective Theories a Defeater for Christian Belief? 381
12. Two (or More) Kinds of Scripture Scholarship 387
I. Scripture Divinely Inspired 389
II. Traditional Christian Biblical Commentary 394
III. Historical Biblical Criticism 399
A. Varieties of Historical Biblical Criticism 404
B. Tensions with Traditional Christianity 412
IV. Why Aren’t Most Christians More Concerned? 414
A. Force Majeure 416
B. A Moral Imperative? 420
C. Historical Biblical Criticism More Inclusive? 424
V. Nothing to be Concerned About 426
A. Troeltschian Historical Biblical Criticism Again 427
B. Non-Troeltschian Historical Biblical Criticism 429
C. Conditionalization 433
VI. Concluding Coda 435
13. Postmodernism and Pluralism 437
I. Postmodernism 438
A. Is Postmodernism Inconsistent with Christian Belief? 439
v
B. Do These Claims Defeat Christian Belief? 441
C. Postmodernism a Failure of Nerve 451
II. Pluralism 453
A. A Probabilistic Defeater? 457
B. The Charge of Moral Arbitrariness 459
14. Suffering and Evil 473
I. Evidential Atheological Arguments 480
A. Rowe’s Arguments 481
B. Draper’s Argument 485
II. Nonargumentative Defeaters? 497
[Original] Index 513
Indexes 533
Index of Scripture References 534
Greek Words and Phrases 536
Index of Pages of the Print Edition 537
vi
This PDF file is from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, www.ccel.org. The mission of
the CCEL is to make classic Christian books available to the world.
• This book is available in PDF, HTML, and other formats. See
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/plantinga/warrant3.html.
• Discuss this book online at http://www.ccel.org/node/4966.
The CCEL makes CDs of classic Christian literature available around the world through the
Web and through CDs. We have distributed thousands of such CDs free in developing
countries. If you are in a developing country and would like to receive a free CD, please
send a request by email to [email protected].
The Christian Classics Ethereal Library is a self supporting non-profit organization at
Calvin College. If you wish to give of your time or money to support the CCEL, please visit
http://www.ccel.org/give.
This PDF file is copyrighted by the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. It may be freely
copied for non-commercial purposes as long as it is not modified. All other rights are re-
served. Written permission is required for commercial use.
vii
Title Page
TITLE PAGE
WARRANTED CHRISTIAN BELIEF
iii
Alvin Plantinga
New York     Oxford
Oxford University Press
2000
Copyright © 2000 by Alvin Plantinga
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York, 10016
iv
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Plantinga, Alvin.
Warranted Christian belief / Alvin Plantinga.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0–19–513193–2 (pbk.)—ISBN 0–19–513192–4
1. Apologetics.  2. Christianity—Philosophy.  3. Faith and reason—Christianity.
I. Title.
BT1102.P57 1999
230’.01-dc21   98.054362
1
Dedication
DEDICATION

To
WILLIAM P. ALSTON v
Mentor, Model, Friend
vi
2