The philosopher of religion, alvin plantinga, in his book warranted christian belief advances a detailed account of the rationality of religious, and especially christian, theistic belief. So perhaps well have to say that goodness, for an argument, is personrelative. Pdf alvin plantingas warranted christian belief researchgate. Plantinga evaluates the issue of whether we are rationally justified in believing in god. Hello select your address best sellers todays deals new releases electronics books customer service gift ideas home computers gift cards subscribe and save coupons sell. Alvin plantinga, god s philosopher 3 he resolved to become a philosopher. Knowledge of god by tooley, michael, plantinga, alvin and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at.
Knowledge of god alvin plantinga 20090217 is belief in god. Alvin plantinga, warranted christian belief find, read. In his argument, he lays out the basics of the reformed and catholic views calvin and aquinas of how christians attain knowledge of god. Voltaire once swam the atlantic for example is surely implausible indeed, there is a clear sense in which it is impossible. In short, god has given people an inbuilt mechanism for perceiving him a sensus divinitatis. Critical evaluationdespite plantinga s claims, god, freedom, and evil remains a difficult work. Plantinga, alvin professor of philosophy, university of notre dame the nature of necessity print isbn 0198244142, 1978. Leslie allan examines the adequacy of plantinga s argument that the existence of god is logically compatible with the existence of moral evil. Knowledge of god, by alvin plantinga and michael tooley. Knowledge of god is belief in god epistemically justified. Science, religion and naturalism find, read and cite all the research you need on researchgate. Plantinga s careful development of his arguments reveals the working of a firstclass philosophical mind. Alvin plantinga and michael tooley, knowledge of god.
Alvin plantinga and michael tooley, knowledge of god by. Tooley, michael and a great selection of similar new, used and collectible books available now at great prices. Oct 29, 2009 alvin plantinga and michael tooley here debate the question whether god s existence is known or, at least, justifiably believed. Now belief in god is not the same thing as belief that god exists, or that there is such a thing as god. Pdf god, evil, and alvin plantinga on freewill defense. Thats the question at the heart of this volume in the great debates in philosophy series, with alvin plantinga and michael tooley each addressing this fundamental question with.
Plantinga s father was a firstgeneration immigrant, born in the netherlands. Selection file type icon file name description size revision time user. His contributions returned the exploration of religious. Justification, on aps view, is fairly easy to come byits warrant that is important for knowledge. Embed embed for hosted blogs and item tags want more. In order to have genuine knowledge of god, one needs to have affections toward god. Contrary to stereotypes, this did not make young alvin a bookish nerd indeed, he was an enthusiastic participant in high school football, basketball and tennis. Knowledge of god edition 1 by alvin plantinga, michael. May 02, 2008 alvin plantinga and michael tooley here debate the question whether god s existence is knownor, at least, justifiably believed. The two christian philosophers alvin plantinga and cornelius van til have much in common in terms of their religious upbringing, their education, their approach to christian philosophy, and their work on the relationship between epistemology and metaphysics. Plantinga uses this epistemology to set up a foundation for christian belief. Alvin plantinga and michael tooley each tackle the matter with distinctive arguments fromopposing perspectives.
As expected from two such distinguished philosophers, their discussion has the originality and intellectual weight to repay careful consideration, as much by. Pdf plantinga on divine foreknowledge and free will. Alvin plantinga s where the conflict really lies science, religion, and naturalism plantinga s book is a semipopular treatment of the conflicts, real or. But for the most part it remains true that belief in god is the foundation of these great religions. Alvin plantinga hand, it is narrower than that of causal or natural necessity. God, freedom, and evil alvin plantinga free download as pdf file. This is how we should understand alvin plantingas proper function view of religious knowledge, and william alstons view that we can have perceptual knowledge. Alvin plantinga cannot be said to use medieval ideas in any. His family is from the dutch province of friesland, they lived on a relatively low income until he secured a teaching job in michigan in 1941. Thats the fundamental question at the heart of this volume of the great. Because these disciplines are so broadly construed, the christian who is interested in apparent conflicts between science and biblical christianity will likely be somewhat disappointed in plantinga s treatment. After dealing with objections to the ac model in ch. A defense of religious exclusivism, the rationality of.
Eighteenth century intellectuals as distinguished from dol phins simply lacked the physical equipment for this kind of feat. The real referent for god is never accessible to us or in any way open to our observation or experience. God has all of these qualities and has some knowledge, power, and love, for example to the maximal. Thats the question at the heart of this volume in the great debates in philosophy series, with alvin plantinga and michael tooley each addressing this fundamental question with distinctive arguments from opposing perspectives. Complete dissertation vu research portal vrije universiteit. Pdf on may 1, 2012, maarten boudry published alvin plantinga. Resources here are made available free for our students. Over his 50 years of research, plantinga refuted the logical problem of evil as an argument against the existence of god and identified compatibilities between rationality and religious belief. Alvin plantinga is wellknown as one of the most important christian philosophers of our day. There is no other debatestyle book in the philosophy of religion that packs the intellectual punches thrown by heavyweights plantinga and tooley.
I present a sound modal version of the ontological argument for the existence of god. A defense of religious exclusivism alvin plantinga defends religious exclusivism from a variety of objections. Plantinga was born on november 15, 1932, in ann arbor, michigan, to cornelius a. The book opens with an explanation of the philosophers viewpoints, followed by a lively and engaging conversation in which each directly responds to. Thats the fundamental question at the heart of this volume of the great debates in philosophyseries. Here is the third featured essay from jeffrey poomkudy, a junior at dartmouth college. Alvin plantinga and thomas aquinas on the possibility of. Barely reaching the length of the average novella, it is one of the densest works in terms of level. Knowledge of god, with michael tooley, blackwell publishing, 2008. He is widely known for his work in epistemology and philosophy of religion, and is the author of warranted christian belief 2000. Last year we commissioned 12 students to write on the importance of plantinga for the modern university. Buy knowledge of god by plantinga online at alibris. Teleology, and evil will repay careful study on its own terms.
Alvin plantinga swings around kants object by showing how necessity is a property, and that existence is not. His modal ontological argument for foundational religious necessity is seen as an almost. Although plantinga cannot remember ever not having been convinced. In doing so, he considers the natural theologians arsenal, the atheologians response, and whether belief in god can be salvaged from the analogy of other minds. Everyone interested in christian apologetics and how knowledge of god works should read plantinga, and this book is the best place to start. Plantinga s book is a semipopular treatment of the conflicts, real or perceived, between science and religion, broadly construed. The first half of the book contains each philosophers explanation of his particular view. Much of alvin plantinga s career has focused on the question of whether or not everyday, nonacademic. Against naturalism knowledge of god plantinga wiley.
It must remain always an unknown x, a mere limiting idea with no content. Obrien professor of philosophy at the university of notre dame. Dec 05, 2012 the key to plantinga s reformed epistemology is warrant, the property which turns mere true belief into knowledge when possessed in sufficient degree. American catholic philosophical quarterly, summer 2010 alvin plantinga and michael tooley here debate the question whether god s existence is known. Alvin plantinga recognized for revolutionary thinking in philosophy. The idea that religious belief is some sort of illness or irrational stance, is not uncommon in western europe. Attualmente professore emerito di filosofia alla university of notre dame e presidente del dipartimento di filosofia al calvin. Beversluis on the closely allied topics of natural knowledge of god and the noetic effects of sin in relation to the work of john calvin and alvin. Catherines college, oxford, one of the questions that preoccupied me was this. For plantinga, this may be as simple as it gets, but for the average reader, it may still be daunting.
Christian research journal tremendously insightful and enjoyable to read. Knowledge and christian belief by alvin plantinga, paperback. Reason and belief in god alvin plantinga belief in god is the heart and center of the christian religionas it is. Examines both the logical and probabilistic arguments against god from suffering and evil. Alvin plantinga is regarded as one of the foremost religious philosophers of the contemporary era. Some atheistic philosophers have argued that god could have created a world with free moral agents and yet absent of moral evil.
That said, of course, it doesnt follow that there arent any good theistic. The mission of the elearning of the redeemed christian bible college is to advance knowledge and educate students of theology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the body of christ and the world in the 21st century. Alvin plantinga s where the conflict really lies science, religion, and naturalism plantinga s book is a semipopular treatment of the conflicts, real or perceived, between science and religion, broadly construed. Plantingas evolutionary argument against naturalism. With a striking similarity, the notion that human knowledge presupposes the existence of god also features prominently in the writings of van til. Knowledge and christian belief by alvin plantinga a book. I argue that these ideas enable us to resolve the former and find a sound formulation of the latter. Finally, we come to an area of deep conflict between science and the religion of naturalism. Plantinga deals, not with a natural knowledge of god, as might be expected from the subtitle of this section, but rather with a brief comparison and contrast to be expanded on later in the book betwee n the sensus divinitatis and the internal testimony called by plantinga, the internal instigation of the holy spirit. Using possible world semantics, alvin plantinga sought to defuse this logical form of the problem of evil. More precisely, i use a strategy presented by alvin plantinga and. Calvin, plantinga, and the natural knowledge of god. Jul 20, 2018 throughout july, were celebrating the legacy of philosopher alvin plantinga, who reintroduced the validity of christian thought to the academy.
Alvin plantinga and michael tooley 2008 alvin plantinga and michael tooley. Knowledge of god 9780631193647 by plantinga, alvin. Alvin plantingas reformed epistemology dallas baptist university. In particular, both have claimed that the existence of god is in some weighty sense a precondition of human knowledge. In perfect being theology, god is defined as a maximally great being which means that god possesses all greatmaking, properties such as love, knowledge, and power, and possesses each in a maximal way. As expected from two such distinguished philosophers, their discussion has the originality and intellectual weight to repay careful consideration, as much by philosophers of mind and epistemologists as by philosophers of religion. Some of plantinga s most influential works include god and other minds 1967, the nature of necessity 1974, and a trilogy of books on epistemology, culminating in warranted christian belief 2000 that was simplified in knowledge and christian belief 2015. A person has or can have knowledge and belief, but also affections, loves, and hates. The dependence of epistemology on factual knowledge is, of course. According to this idea, human reason can have natural knowledge of god via special cognitive mechasnism, which is closer to the functioning of human perception, than to the proofs along the line of traditional. Clearly, plantinga needs to say more to explain how we acquire knowledge of the mental events in god s mind. Reader do not support viewing pdf files within firefox on mac os and if you are. Because if johns did not perform the act, it can be concluded that his.
This is a collection of philosophical papers by alvin plantinga. This book discusses and exemplifies the philosophy of religion, or philosophical reflection on central. Knowledge of god wiley online books wiley online library. In this paper we will give a critical account of plantinga s wellknown argument to the effect that the existence of an omnipotent and morally perfect god is consistent with the actual presence of evil.
965 1520 30 1323 205 660 32 537 985 1255 1384 1309 791 1599 89 1054 1556 928 715 1329 1623 517 871