Faith with Reason by Paul Helm

Faith with Reason by Paul Helm

Paul Helm presents a new study of the nature of religious faith, investigating what makes it reasonable. Religious belief needs to meet and sustain philosophical scrutiny just as any other type of belief does; nothing about religion purchases immunity from this. But at the same time religious epistemology must also respect the contours of religion, the distinctiveness of the subject-matter of religious belief. Helm looks sympathetically at two currently prominent ways of defending the rationality of religious belief: 'Reformed' epistemology and the cumulative case for theism. He argues that the reasonableness of faith depends not only on beliefs about the world but also on beliefs about oneself (for instance about what one wants, about one's hopes and fears) and on what one is willing to trust. Helm goes on to look at the relations between belief and trust, and between faith and virtue, and concludes with an exploration of one particular type of belief about oneself, the belief that one is oneself a believer. This is a book for anyone interested in the basis of religious faith.

Helm argues convincingly for distinguishing between the involuntariness of specific beliefs and the involuntary nature of broader patterns of belief.. Helm is as trenchant in his critique of Barth's view of the unconditionality of faith as he is in his critique of evidentialist philosophies of religion. * Douglas Hedley, The Journal of Theological Studies *

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780199256631
ISBN 10	0199256632
Title	Faith with Reason
Author	Paul Helm
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Year published	2003-04-03
Number of pages	202
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.