Christian Theism and the Problems of Philosophy

Alvin Plantinga has done much to stimulate the resurgence of interest in the philosophy of religion. This collection of essays is written in response to his seminal paper, Advice to Christian Philosophers , in which he issues a powerful, and inevitably controversial, challenge to religious philosophers to serve their own religious communities more faithfully. Plantinga advises Christian philosophers to expend more effort on issues of importance to the Christian community and, by implication, the particular Christian communities of which they are members. In addition he urges them to use their distinctively theistic and Christian perspectives in working in the many traditional areas of philosophy, a task on which the present volume focuses. The book begins by presenting Plantinga’s essay, and the chapters that follow address issues in three traditional areas of interest to philosophers: epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics. The first section, on epistemology and theism, contains essays by Alvin Plantinga, Jonathan Kvanvig, Richard Otte, and Stephen Wykstra. The next section, on metaphysics and theism, has papers by Linda Zagzebski, Del Ratzsch, Christopher Menzel, Charles Taliaferro, and Eleonore Stump. The final group, including Philip L.Quinn, William P.Alston, Scott MacDonald, and Carlton D.Fisher, addresses the subject of moral theory and theism. While certainly intended for Christian philosophers, other instructors and students of philosophy may be interested as well, because the book discusses several traditional philosophical issues in innovative ways, such as the nature of probability, scientific rationality, religious rationality, the logic of counterfactuals, and free will and moral responsibility.