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.
- ISBN10 0198238452
- ISBN13 9780198238454
- Publish Date 30 March 2000
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 20 April 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Oxford University Press
- Imprint Clarendon Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 202
- Language English