The Reformed Objection to Natural Theology

Dr. Michael Sudduth

Outline April 2001

 

 

CHAPTER 1: Theistic Arguments and the Project of Natural Theology

I. Cosmological Arguments

·         Greek and Medieval Arguments

·         Theism and the Beginning of the Universe

·         Explaining an Eternal Cosmos

II. Arguments from Design

·         Design/Anti-Design: Aquinas, Paley, Hume, and Darwin

·         Spatial and Temporal Regularities

·         The Argument from Fine-Tuning

III. From Morality to Miracles

·         The Moral Argument

·         Argument from Religious Experience

·         Argument from Miracles

IV. The Ontological Argument

·         Anselm’s Argument

·         Modal Ontological Arguments

 

CHAPTER 2: Natural Revelation and Natural Theology

I. Revelation and the Knowledge of God

·         Revelation as the Basis of Knowledge of God

·         Twofold Revelation: Natural and Supernatural

II. Natural Revelation and the Natural Knowledge of God

·         Romans Chapter 1 and the Natural Knowledge of God

·         Human Accountability and Knowledge of God

·         The Protestant Scholastic Tradition

·         19th and 20th Century Reformed Theology

III. Innate vs. Acquired Knowledge of God

·         Calvin’s Institutes, Abridgements, and Peter Martyr Vermigli

·         The Emergence and Systematization of the Distinction

IV. Theistic Arguments in the Reformed Tradition

·         Vermigli and Melachthon

·         Theistic Arguments in the Protestant Scholastic Tradition

·         The Scholastic Legacy

 

CHAPTER 3: The Reformed Objection to Natural Theology: Overview

I. The Noetic Effects of Sin

II. Immediate Natural Knowledge of God

III. Logical Objections to Natural Theology

IV. The Moral Objection and Christian Apologetics

 

CHAPTER 4: John Calvin and Natural Theology

I. The Noetic Effects of Sin

·         Barth, Beversluis, and the Denial of Natural Knowledge of God

·         Distinct Senses of Knowledge of God

·         Theistic Knowledge of Human Accountability

II. Calvin and the Natural Knowledge of God

·         The Traditional Interpretation

·        Parker, Plantinga, and Hoitenga: The Exclusivist Immediacy Thesis

III. Calvin and Inferential Knowledge of God

·         The Nature of Inferential Belief and Knowledge

·         Calvin and Structurally Inferential Beliefs

·        Calvin and Episodically Inferential Beliefs

IV. Some Objections Considered

 

CHAPTER 5: Postlapsarian Epistemic Deficiency

I. Relocating the Objection

·         Scientia and Propositional Knowledge

·         Escaping Self-Referential Inconsistency

·         The Nature of Propositional Knowledge

II. Epistemic Internalism and the Noetic Effects of Sin

·         Evidence and Evidentialism

·         Sin and the Gettier Problem

III. Epistemic Externalism and the Noetic Effects of Sin

·         Reliabilism

·         Plantinga’s Proper Function Epistemology

 

CHAPTER 6: Immediate Natural Knowledge of God in the Reformed Tradition

I. Theistic Intuitionism

·         Theistic Intuitionism in Reformed Theology
·         Catholic Theology and the Pre-Philosophical Knowledge of God: Brief Excursus

II. Psychological Immediacy and Theistic Arguments

·         Psychological Immediacy and the Endorsement of Theistic Arguments

·         Evidence and the Psychological Ground of Belief: Further Complications

·         Belief Rationalization and the Other Epistemic Implications

III. Immediacy, Inferential Reasoning, and The Content Objection

·         The Uselessness/Superfluity Objection Against Theistic Arguments

·         A Response: The Content Objection

·         Excursus on God and Other Minds

IV. The Plausibility of the Psychological and Epistemic EI Thesis: A Further Assessment

·         Confusion between Structurally Inferential and Episodically Inferential Beliefs

·         The Arguments for Immediate Knowledge of God Examined

 

CHAPTER 7: Reformed Epistemology

I. Properly Basic Theistic Belief: An Old Idea Made New

·         Classical Evidentialism Challenged

·         Internalist Rationality and Justification

·         Reliabilism and Proper Function: Externalist Proper Basicality

II. Apologetics and Second-Order Evidentialism

·         Showing vs. Knowing

·         Second-Order Evidentialism

III. Epistemic Defeat and Restricted Proper Basicality

·         The No-Defeater Condition

·         The Defeater-Defeater Requirement

IV. Objections to Defeater-Based Evidentialism

·         The Practical Objection

·         Intrinsic Defeater Objection

·         Undercutting Defeater Objection

 

CHAPTER 8: Logical Objections to Theistic Arguments

I. Objections to the Ontological Argument

II. Criticisms of Aquinas’ Arguments

·         The Denial of Infinite Regress

·         Other Alleged Logical Problems

·         Legitimate Criticisms

III. Criticisms of Cosmological Arguments

·         Kantian Residue on Hoeksema’s Objection

·         Augustus Strong’s Objections to the Kalam Cosmological Argument

·         Fallacy of Composition Objection

IV. Criticisms of the Argument From Design

·         Problem of Evil

·         Other Objections

 

CHAPTER 9: The God of the Philosophers vs. the God of Faith

I. The Descriptive Inadequacy Objection

·         Strong, Lecerf, Hoeksema

·         The Argument Developed

II. Responding to the Descriptivist Objection

·         Criticisms of Individual Theistic Arguments

·         The Plausibility of GOP Arguments

III. The Incompatibility Argument

·         The Objection Developed

·         Aquinas’ Unmoved Mover and the God of Aristotle

·         Anselm’s Perfect Being Theology

 

CHAPTER 10: The Impropriety of the Apologetic Use of Theistic Arguments

I. Kierkegaard, Barth, and the Implicit Stance of Unbelief

II. Negative and Positive Apologetics

III. Presuppositionalism and the Problem Common Ground

IV. Epistemological Arguments for God’s Existence: A Reformed Contribution to Natural Theology

 

CONCLUSION