Faith with Reason - Softcover

Helm, Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199256632 ISBN 13: 9780199256631

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2003

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review

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)

About the Author

Paul Helm is Professor of the History and Philosophy of Religion at King's College London.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0199256632
• ISBN 13: 9780199256631
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208