The Reformed Objection to Natural Theology

Michael Sudduth

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780754661757
• eBook ISBN: 9781317018063
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Michael Sudduth examines three prominent objections to natural theology that have emerged in the Reformed streams of the Protestant theological tradition: objections from the immediacy of our knowledge of God, the noetic effects of sin, and the logic of theistic arguments. Distinguishing between the project of natural theology and particular models of natural theology, Sudduth argues that none of the main Reformed objections is successful as an objection to the project of natural theology itself. One particular model of natural theology - the dogmatic model - is best suited to handle Reformed concerns over natural theology. According to this model, rational theistic arguments represent the reflective reconstruction of the natural knowledge of God by the Christian in the context of dogmatic theology. Informed by both contemporary religious epistemology and the history of Protestant philosophical theology, Sudduth''s examination illuminates the complex nature of the project of natural theology and its place in the Reformed tradition.

ASHGATE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION SERIES

Series Editors

Paul Helm, King’s College, University of London, UK

Linda Zagzebski, University of Oklahoma, USA

The Ashgate Philosophy of Religion series spans many critical debates, and presents new directions and new perspectives in contemporary research and study within the philosophy of religion. This series presents books by leading international scholars in the field, providing a platform for their own particular research focus to be presented within a wider contextual framework. Offering accessible, stimulating new contributions to each topic, this series will prove of particular value and interest to academics, graduate, postgraduate and upper-level undergraduate readers world-wide focusing on philosophy, religious studies and theology, sociology or other related fields.

Titles in the series include:

The Sense of Creation

Experience and the God Beyond

Patrick Masterson

Problems of Evil and the Power of God

James A. Keller

Religion and Morality

William J. Wainwright

God and the Nature of Time

Garrett J. DeWeese

Rationality and Religious Theism

Joshua L. Golding

God and Realism

Peter Byrne

Religious Diversity

A Philosophical Assessment

David Basinger

The Reformed Objection to Natural Theology

Michael Sudduth

San Francisco State University, USA

First published 2009 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge

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Copyright © Michael Sudduth 2009

Michael Sudduth has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Sudduth, Michael.

The Reformed objection to natural theology. – (Ashgate philosophy of religion series)

1. Natural theology – History of doctrines. 2. Protestant churches – Doctrines.

3. God – Knowableness – History of doctrines.

I. Title II. Series

210–dc22

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sudduth, Michael, 1965–

The Reformed objection to natural theology / Michael Sudduth.

p. cm.—(Ashgate philosophy of religion series)

ISBN 978-0-7546-6175-7 (hardcover : alk. paper)

1. Natural theology. 2. Reformed Church—Doctrines. I. Title.

BL183.S84 2009

230’.42—dc22

2009006952

ISBN 9780754661757 (hbk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781315553580

For Richard Swinburne

Contents

• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• PART I NATURAL THEOLOGY IN THE REFORMED TRADITION
  • 1 The Emergence and Evolution of the Reformed Endorsement of Natural Theology
  • 2 Understanding the Reformed Objection to Natural Theology
• PART II NATURAL THEOLOGY AND THE IMMEDIATE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
  • 3 The Naturally Implanted Knowledge of God
  • 4 The Immediate Knowledge of God in Twentieth-Century Religious Epistemology
  • 5 Immediacy and Reformed Models of Natural Theology
• PART III SIN AND THE CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION OF NATURAL THEOLOGY
  • 6 Natural Theology and the Noetic Effects of Sin
  • 7 The Noetic Effects of Sin and Contemporary Epistemology
  • 8 The Dogmatic Model of Natural Theology
• PART IV THE LOGIC OF NATURAL THEOLOGY
  • 9 The Logic of Theistic Arguments
  • 10 God of the Philosophers
  • 11 The ‘Robust Theistic Descriptivist’ Objection Evaluated
• Epilogue
• Index of Subjects
• Index of Persons

Preface

The foundations of the present book were laid in my 1996 D.Phil. dissertation at the University of Oxford in which I explored the prospects for the compatibility of two very different approaches to the knowledge of God, one that regards the knowledge of God as immediate or intuitive and a contrasting viewpoint that sees the knowledge of God as a matter of logical inference or argument. Although both viewpoints have an old and interesting pedigree, in contemporary philosophy of religion they have crystallized into the dichotomy between ‘Reformed epistemology,’ represented by thinkers such as ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Frontmatter 1
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• PART I NATURAL THEOLOGY IN THE REFORMED TRADITION
• PART II NATURAL THEOLOGY AND THE IMMEDIATE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
• PART III SIN AND THE CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION OF NATURAL THEOLOGY
• PART IV THE LOGIC OF NATURAL THEOLOGY
• Epilogue
• Index of Subjects
• Index of Persons