KNOWLEDGE AND CHRISTIAN BELIEF

A philosophically serious yet accessible investigation of the rationality of Christian belief

In his widely praised Warranted Christian Belief (Oxford, 2000) Alvin Plantinga discussed in great depth the question of the rationality, or sensibility, of Christian belief. In this book Plantinga presents the same ideas in a briefer, much more accessible fashion.

Recognized worldwide as a leading Christian philosopher, Plantinga probes what exactly is meant by the claim that religious — and specifically Christian — belief is irrational and cannot sensibly be held. He argues that the criticisms of such well-known atheists as Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens are completely wrong. Finally, Plantinga addresses several potential « defeaters » to Christian belief — pluralism, science, evil and suffering — and shows how they fail to successfully defeat rational Christian belief.

REVIEWS William J. Abraham - Perkins School of Theology « Alvin Plantinga’s Warranted Christian Belief is a landmark book on the rationality of Christian belief. . . . This splendid shorter rendering of that book’s proposals makes them accessible to general readers and to students outside the field of philosophy. It is a total pleasure to welcome this version of his seminal work. All the hallmarks of Plantinga’s humility and brilliance are on display here ; no one can read this book without being spiritually refreshed and intellectually challenged."

Francis Schüssler Fiorenza - Harvard Divinity School « A remarkable book. Over the years Alvin Plantinga has undercut conventional prejudices and defended theistic beliefs. This book contains the major ideas of his philosophy of religion on God, faith, historical criticism, pluralism, and many other key topics. What distinguishes this book is the clarity with which Plantinga presents and develops his arguments. . . . An excellent compendium of his thought."

Michael Bergmann - Purdue University « Written by one of the greatest living philosophers of religion, this book is sure to be an instant classic. It provides a concise and accessible statement of one of his most distinctive ideas — which he has developed with extreme rigor and care over the past fifty years — namely, that theistic and Christian belief can amount to knowledge, without being based on arguments."

Thomas M. Crisp - Biola University « This welcome simplification of Warranted Christian Belief, Plantinga’s magnum opus of Christian religious epistemology, is highly readable but just as erudite and philosophically engaging — worth reading and rereading for both its intellectual and its spiritual depth."

Michael Rea - University of Notre Dame « Alvin Plantinga’s magisterial Warranted Christian Belief is one of the most important works on the epistemology of religious belief within the last century. It is exciting to see the core ideas of that great work presented here in a more succinct and accessible format. Knowledge and Christian Belief is a pleasure to read and will serve as an excellent and engaging introduction to Plantinga’s most influential ideas about the rationality of religious belief."

Richard Swinburne - University of Oxford « A very clear, easy-to-understand, and challenging presentation of the main steps of Plantinga’s argument in his magnum opus Warranted Christian Belief. Using the tools of modern epistemology, Plantinga defends a classical position — that Christian belief does not need to be supported by any arguments from generally agreed premises in order to be fully rational, and that that belief cannot be shown to be false by any such arguments."