Warranted Christian Belief.

Copan, Paul

PLANTINGA, Alvin. Warranted Christian Belief. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. xx + 508 pp. Cloth, $60.00; paper, $24.95--Alvin Plantinga is John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. This book is the third volume in his trilogy on warrant, which is that elusive x that turns true belief into knowledge (discussed in Warrant: The Current Debate) and which is bound up with the proper function of our cognitive processes and faculties according to a design plan (discussed in Warrant and Proper Function).

Theistic belief has good warrant, Plantinga wants to show. Made in the divine image, we have been created by God with a belief-producing process aimed at the truth called the sensus divinitatis. When functioning properly, as we were designed, we will have knowledge, which is warranted belief.

The book can be understood in two different ways: (a) it is "an exercise in apologetics and philosophy of religion, an attempt to demonstrate the failure of a range of objections to Christian belief" and (b) "an exercise in Christian philosophy" (p. xiii). Certain de jure objections to Christianity--in which it is considered irrational, unwarranted, or intellectually deficient to be a Christian--have been notoriously complicated and difficult to nail down, and Plantinga spends most of the book exploring them, asking wherein the badness of Christian belief lies. The more straightforward de facto questions against the coherence of the Trinity, incarnation, or atonement are not treated (although the problem of evil--which is skillfully treated in the last chapter--is partly a de facto objection).

In part 1 ("Is There a Question?"), Plantinga thoroughly rebuts standard arguments against the coherence of theism and against knowledge of God's existence. Kant, Gordon Kaufman, and John Hick receive a thorough thrashing for their inconsistencies and incoherencies.

Part 2 ("What Is the Question?") treats of the rationality or justifiability of theistic/Christian belief. Plantinga looks at the classical picture of foundationalism and evidentialism/deontologism in both theistic and atheistic contexts. Plantinga rejects the demands made by both theists and atheists that believers (and unbelievers) are duty-bound to base belief on evidence, on pain of irrationality. These demanders "seldom say what's bad about [insufficient evidence]" (p. 86). At the end of this section, Plantinga responds to the Freudian and Marxian complaint about religious belief (religion as a cosmic Linus blanket or as an opiate) as fallacious. Again, the de jure arguments against Christian belief are far from clear.

Part 3 ("Warranted Christian Belief") deals with the nub of the issue: whether or not Christian belief lacks warrant. Plantinga states that if Christian belief is true, it is also warranted. In this section, he looks at the Aquinas/Calvin model: Christian belief is produced by the Holy Spirit's instigation according to properly functioning cognitive faculties. Plantinga takes serious stock of the noetic effects of sin in chapter 7; the defect of knowledge is not only cognitive, but affective--we "perversely turn away from what ought to be loved [that is, God]," which is "a sort of madness of the will" (p. 208). Toward the end of this section various epistemological objections to Plantinga's project are treated.

Finally, part 4 ("Defeaters?") deftly deals with potential defeaters to Christian belief such as higher biblical criticism, postmodernism, pluralism, and the problem of evil.

As has been his modus operandi, Plantinga is quite expert at defeating potential defeaters for the Christian faith. He offers his typical defensive arguments against Christianity's critics. He claims that the normal Christian is justified in his belief--that is, he is doing his epistemic duty in excelsis. No doubt, many Christians would have liked to see Plantinga offer a positive case and arguments, even if they are not universally accepted (and precious few arguments in philosophy actually are). Plantinga remarks: "I don't know of an argument for Christian belief that seems very likely to convince one who doesn't already accept its conclusion" (p. 201).

Going beyond what this brief review does, a book symposium on Warranted Christian Belief by various contributors (for example, Paul K. Moser, Richard Fumerton, and Keith Yandell, among others) and a response by Plantinga can be found in the journal Philosophia Christi 3 (Fall 2001): 327-400. (see www.epsociety.org)--Paul Copan, Trinity International Univeristy and RZIM.

* Books received are acknowledged in this section by a brief resume, report, or criticism. Such acknowledgement does not preclude a more detailed examination in a subsequent Critical Study. From time to time, technical books dealing with such fields as mathematics, physics, anthropology, and the social sciences will be reviewed