Theology`s Epistemological Dilemma – How Karl Barth and Alvin Plantinga Provide a Unified Response

Kevin Diller (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

352 Seiten

2014
Inter-Varsity Press,US (Verlag)
978-0-8308-3906-3 (ISBN)

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Karl Barth and Alvin Plantinga are not thought of as theological allies. Barth is famous for his opposition to philosophy's role in theology, while Plantinga is famous for his emphasis on warranted belief. Kevin Diller argues that they actually offer a unified response to the central epistemological dilemma in theology.

The problem of faith and reason is as old as Christianity itself. Today's philosophical, scientific and historical challenges make the epistemic problem inescapable for believers. Can faith justify its claims? Does faith give us confidence in the truth? Is believing with certainty a virtue or a vice?
In Theology?s Epistemological Dilemma, Kevin Diller addresses this problem by drawing on two of the most significant responses in recent Christian thought: Karl Barth's theology of revelation and Alvin Plantinga's epistemology of Christian belief. This will strike many as unlikely, given the common stereotypes of both thinkers. Contrary to widespread misunderstanding, Diller offers a reading of both as complementary to each other: Barth provides what Plantinga lacks in theological depth, while Plantinga provides what Barth lacks in philosophical clarity. Diller presents a unified Barth/Plantinga proposal for theological epistemology capable of responding without anxiety to the questions that face believers today.

Kevin Diller (PhD, University of St. Andrews) is associate professor of philosophy and religion at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. He holds graduate degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary and Calvin Theological Seminary, and completed postdoctoral work at the University of Notre Dame where he was awarded the prestigious Frederick J. Crosson Fellowship from the Notre Dame Center for Philosophy of Religion.

Foreword by Alvin Plantinga

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

Addressing the Epistemic Problems for Christian Faith

The Primary Aim: Elucidating a Combined Barth/Plantinga Response

A Secondary Aim: Analytic Theology and the Incompatibility of Barth and Plantinga

Part I: Prospects for a Combined Barth/Plantinga Approach to Christian Theological Epistemology

1. What Is the Epistemic Problem?

The Value of Skepticism

What Is Knowledge? And What Does It Require?

True Belief

Particular Epistemic Issues for Christian Theology

2. Barth?s Theology of Revelation: For Us and for Our Salvation

Knowing in Reflection on Revelation

God as Object and Subject of His Personal, Cognitive Revelation

The Hiddenness of God in Revelation

Revelation as Whole-Person Transformation

Conclusion

3. Barth?s Engagement with Philosophy: A Theo-foundational Epistemology

Why Theology Is Not Philosophy

Contesting the Ontological Presupposition of the Enlightenment

The Boundary of Philosophy

Conclusion

4. Plantinga?s Christian Philosophizing and Warrant

The Concern of the Christian Philosopher

Plantinga?s Epistemology and Warrant

Conclusion

5. Plantinga?s Epistemology of Christian Belief: The Warrant of Revelation

Preliminary Cautions

Plantinga?s A/C Model of Theistic Belief

Plantinga?s Extended A/C Model of Christian Belief

Conclusion

6. Summarizing Interlude: The Unified Barth/Plantinga Approach to Christian

Theological Epistemology

Part II: A Unified Barth/Plantinga Response to Theology?s Contemporary Epistemological Issues

7. Theology and Reason: Natural Theology and the Reformed Objection

Part 1: Barth?s Driving Concerns and the Natural Theology He Rejects

Part 2: Plantinga on Natural Theology

Part 3: The Relationship Between Barth and Plantinga on Natural Theology

Conclusion

8. Faith and Revelation: What Constitutes a Genuine Human Knowledge of God?

Barth and Three Aspects of the Knowledge of Faith

The Critiques of Evans, Helm and Wolterstorff

The Propositional Form and Content of the Knowledge of Faith

Hiddenness, Analogy and History

Plantinga and Barth on Faith and Knowing

Conclusion

9. Scripture and Theology: Warrant and the Normativity of Scripture?

Toward an Ontology of Scripture

Warrant and the Authority of Scripture

Conclusion

Concluding Postscript: Fallibility and Assurance

Bibliography

Author Index

Subject Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	16.1.2015
Verlagsort	Illinois
Sprache	englisch
Maße	153 x 227 mm
Gewicht	470 g
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
	Sonstiges ► Geschenkbücher
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Erkenntnistheorie / Wissenschaftstheorie
	Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte
ISBN-10	0-8308-3906-2 / 0830839062
ISBN-13	978-0-8308-3906-3 / 9780830839063
Zustand	Neuware