Epistemology as Theology: An Evaluation of Alvin Plantinga's Religious Epistemology

by James Beilby

Overview

Alvin Plantinga is arguably one of the most influential philosophers of our time. Much of his career has been devoted to explaining and defending the intellectual acceptability of Christian belief. Recently he has developed a comprehensive, rigorous, and distinctively Christian religious epistemology. This book presents the development of Plantinga's religious epistemology before considering Plantinga's mature religious epistemology in detail. Locating Plantinga's most recent work in the context of his theological assumptions, his previous work on religious epistemology, and in the context of the current debate over how knowledge should be characterized, Beilby blends theological and philosophical discussion to offer a unique perspective on Plantinga's influential proposal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781351939317
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/29/2017
Series:	Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	262
File size:	431 KB

About the Author

James Beilby is Assistant Professor of Theology at Bethel College, USA.

Table of Contents

Contents: Preface. Part I The Development of Plantinga's Religious Epistemology: The background to Plantinga's religious epistemology; Plantinga's early religious epistemology; The warrant trilogy: Plantinga's current proposal. Part II An Evaluation of Plantinga's Religious Epistemology: Plantinga on the task of religious epistemology; Plantinga's theory of epistemic warrant; The extended a/c model and warranted Christian belief. Bibliography; Indexes.

Editorial Reviews

'... a very lucid and accurate presentation of Plantinga's epistemology; it displays a wide acquaintance with the literature on Plantinga, and offers some perceptive criticisms from the author.' Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology, Yale University, USA '... a clear, informed, sympathetic study of Plantinga's epistemology as this has a bearing on religious and theological issues. Beilby offers a good balance of exposition and criticism.' Paul Helm, Emeritus Professor, King's College London, UK 'What James Beilby's new book successfully brings out is the extent to which Plantinga's general epistemological views are internally related not only to his philosophy of religion, but also to his Calvinist faith... (an) illuminating account of Plantinga's work...' Times Literary Supplement '... provides a comprehensive overview and evaluation of Plantinga's epistemological enterprise... a valuable study of a very important Christian voice in the field of philosophy.' Reformed Theological Journal ’The book is supplemented by a useful 25 page bibliography of works by and about Plantinga... Beilby offers significant refinements of Plantinga's work in such areas as the role of natural theology, the truth status of Christian belief, the charge of fideism, and the lingering Great Pumpkin objection... Beilby succeeds in going some distance to demonstrating how Plantinga's externalist epistemology accords well with the loftier demands of reflective knowledge... careful analysis is extended to other areas of Plantinga's epistemology as well, making Epistemology as Theology a welcome addition to the literature.’ Ars Disputandi ’... a fair and charitable account of Plantinga, but not a slavish one. Recommended for advanced classes in the philosophy of religion and in apologetics.’Theological Book Review

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