Prospectus for A Reformed Epistemology Reader

Dr. Michael Czapkay Sudduth

 

I. General Description and Justification of the Proposed Project

 

Some Background

There remains a vibrant interest in questions in religious epistemology in contemporary philosophy of religion. Not only is this apparent in the continued reflection and discussion on arguments for the existence of God, but even more fundamentally as these questions are related to basic questions in general epistemology: What is meant by the variety of terms of positive epistemic appraisal (e.g., rationality, justification, knowledge)? What conditions would be required for beliefs be rational, justified, or to constitute knowledge?

One of the contemporary movements that has contributed to inspiring new discussions in religious epistemology, and reviving Anglo-American philosophy of religion in general, is the so-called Reformed epistemology movement associated with Alvin Plantinga (University of Notre Dame), Nicholas Wolterstorff (Yale), and William Alston (Syracuse). These philosophers have initiated some very fundamental challenges to the epistemology of religious belief that has dominated the Western intellectual world since the Enlightenment. In contrast to the long-standing evidentialist tradition in philosophy going back to the Enlightenment, Reformed epistemology has emphasized that theistic belief can have many different epistemic merits (e.g., rationality, justification) without being based on propositional evidence.

The idea that belief in God can be rational, and constitute knowledge, without evidence has been argued by Alvin Plantinga in over two dozen articles and is the focus of his forthcoming book Warranted Christian Belief (Oxford). The central claim of Reformed epistemology has also been developed and defended by William Alston in his Perceiving God (Cornell, 1993). From its initial systematic articulation in the early 1980s, Reformed epistemology has prompted an array of responses by Anglo-American philosophers and theologians. In addition to the plethora of articles that have appeared in academic journals, several books have been devoted in part, if not exclusively, to the examination of the claims of Reformed epistemology.

It is clear that Reformed epistemology is a perspective of great current interest in contemporary philosophy, and it is likely to have a lasting influence on the philosophy of religion.

General Description of Project

The current proposed project is A Reformed Epistemology Reader, an anthology in religious epistemology that is specifically focused on the Reformed epistemology movement in contemporary philosophy of religion. The readings have been collected from previously published papers and books. They have been carefully selected with three goals in mind.

Although narrowly focused, the book addresses several crucial questions in religious epistemology: the implications of the demise of classical foundationalism and rise of externalist epistemologies for religious epistemology, the nature of religious knowledge, the role of evidence in rational belief, and the contemporary status of natural theology. Although there are many anthologies in religious epistemology currently on the market, there are significantly fewer that consist of collections of previously published papers.

Three anthologies of previously published material in religious epistemology are:

It is important to emphasize some of the ways in which my anthology significantly differs from these works.

Justification

There are three reasons why I believe my proposed anthology is a worthwhile, necessary, and marketable project.

II. Outline of Contents of Reformed Epistemology Reader

The following is an outline for the readings to be included in the anthology and how they should be organized.

Part I: Proper Basicality, Religious Experience, and Rational Belief

INTRODUCTION

Part II: Critical Responses to Plantinga on Proper Basicality

INTRODUCTION

The Plantinga/Van Hook Exchange

The Plantinga/Quinn Dialogue

Part III: Critical Responses to Alston's Religious Epistemology

INTRODUCTION

Part IV: Externalism, Internalism, and the Knowledge of God

INTRODUCTION

Part V: Reformed Epistemology and Natural Theology

INTRODUCTION

 

Bibliography: Complete Bibliography on Reformed Epistemology

 

III. The Logical Relations of the Readings and Coherence of the Anthology

 

Although the readings were selected on the basis of the three goals discussed above (in section I), the readings have some important logical relations that give an important coherence to the work as a whole.

Three Seminal Pieces in Reformed Epistemology

The first section of the work contains three seminal papers in Reformed epistemology by its three leading representatives: Alvin Plantinga, Nicholas Wolterstorff, and William Alston. These works inspired a plethora of articles and books in religious epistemology and philosophy of religion that have appeared in many of the leading academic journals in America and Europe. These articles provide a foundation for the papers that follow in the volume, both those papers that offer a critical analysis of the central claims of Reformed epistemology (in sections II and III) and those papers that represent further developments of Reformed epistemology (in section IV).

Important Dialogues on Reformed Epistemology

I wanted to include in the anthology not just a haphazard collection of critical responses, but strategic responses and, more important, the kinds of dialogues that have been generated by reformed epistemologists and their critics. Not only is this important to communicate the dialogical nature of philosophical reasoning, but it shows the dynamic and developmental character to Reformed epistemology and evidentialism. Hence, the anthology includes some seminal critical responses to Reformed Epistemology, such as those by Jay van Hook and Phillip Quinn, along with Plantinga's response to these. This dialogical structure is also represented in the papers on William Alston's religious epistemology.

Internalist and Externalist Reformed Epistemology

The critical responses to Reformed epistemology introduce the distinction between internalist and externalist epistemological theories. I have devoted an additional part of the volume to include more articles by Plantinga and Alston that deal explicitly with externalist versions of the proper basicality thesis, along with some critical responses to the distinctly externalist variety of Reformed epistemology. I believe that these contributions are important to future assessments of Reformed epistemology in the light of evidentialist rejoinders.

The Status of Natural Theology

The final part of the anthology is a collection of articles devoted to the question of the project of natural theology. Since Plantinga's early thesis included "the Reformed Objection to Natural Theology", a crucial question is the relation between proper basicality and natural theology. The articles, including one by Plantinga himself, suggest a number of perspectives on this relation. These contributions have an important bearing on more general criticisms of Reformed epistemology from evidentialists who believe that Reformed epistemology at best marginalizes natural theology and at worst has rejected its importance. The contributions are designed to show the complexity of this question, but also shed some light on the problem by making some important conceptual and historical distinctions. Since the role of natural theology is closely connected to the internalist/externalist debate in epistemology, the last two papers of section IV (which emphasize the role of internalist conditions for knowledge) offer a point of transition to the issues of the final section.