Faith in Certain Terms

Description

This book considers how certainty and faith are related in the Christian faith. It asks: How certain can Christian believers be about their beliefs about God? Should Christians doubt the assurance of their salvation? The chapters provide a historical analysis of both certainty of faith and assurance from the early Church to modern times while also paying attention to confessional differences. The author explores contemporary debates in analytic epistemology on the certainty and fallibility of our beliefs and argues for a fallibilist understanding of the Christian faith. The book also addresses some less-discussed arguments that threaten the certainty of faith and offers an account of faith as cognitive practice. It will be of interest to scholars of both theology and philosophy. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 1.1. To be certain or not to be 1.2. Certainty about what? 1.3. The structure and aims of the study 2. Some preliminary considerations 2.1. The problem with idealized epistemology 2.2. Biblical accounts of knowing 2.3. Jesus as an epistemological example 2.4. Doctrinal and pastoral approaches 2.5. Modern aversion to certainty 2.6. The way ahead 3. Certainty and the Church 3.1. Certainty in the early Church 3.1.1. Clemens of Alexandria 3.1.2. St. Augustine 3.1.3. Gregory the Great 3.2. Certainty in scholastic theology 3.2.1. Early scholasticism 3.2.2. High scholasticism 3.2.3. The mystical tradition 3.3. Certainty in the Reformation 3.4. Confessional differences on assurance 3.4.1. The Catholic tradition 3.4.2. The Lutheran tradition 3.4.3. The Reformed tradition 3.4.4. The Orthodox tradition 3.5. Conclusion 4. Faith, certainty, and fallibilism 4.1. Taxonomies of faith in contemporary philosophical theology 4.1.1. Sessions’s models of faith 4.1.2. Audi on hope, trust, and faith 4.2. Certainties 4.3. Certainty of faith in recent accounts of theological epistemology 4.3.1. Reformed epistemology 4.3.2. Evidentialism 4.3.3. Virtue epistemologies 4.4. Enter fallibilism 4.5. For and against fallibilism in theology 4.6. Believing fallibly? 5. Faith and doubt 5.1. Accommodating faith 5.2. On having faith 5.3. Doubt in the Bible 5.4. Philosophy of doubt 5.5. From doubt to certainty 5.5.1. Faith, belief, and knowledge 5.5.2. Why is faith not necessarily destroyed by a low level of credence? 5.5.3. Should the believers seek higher certainty? 6. Certainty challenged 6.1. Certainty and religious luck 6.1.1. Soteriological adjustments 6.1.2. Epistemic adjustments 6.2. Changing my mind 6.3. Faith as cognitive practice 6.4. Conclusion: Faith in certain terms Bibliography Index