How are we to construe the relationship between faith, belief, and skepticism if we seek to understand what is characteristic of a life of faith, or of unfaith? Is belief in God necessary for faith in God to be possible? Does one need to have sufficient reasons for believing something before one is rationally entitled to having faith in something? In short, what is the relationship between faith and belief, belief and understanding, understanding and experience, and experience and skepticism?
The authors of this volume rethink our usual understanding of the relationship between faith, belief and skepticism. For some, »skeptical faith« is an oxymoron and faith and skepticism are mutually exclusive states or attitudes. Others argue that there is no proper faith without skepticism about faith. Taking John Schellenberg's recent work on the possibility of a »skeptical faith« as a starting point, the authors respond to and in some cases seek to go further than Schellenberg. In a variety of ways, the papers take up the following questions: How are we to construe the relationship between faith, belief, and skepticism if we seek to understand what is characteristic of a life of faith, or of unfaith? Is belief in God necessary for faith in God to be possible? Does one need to have sufficient reasons for believing something before one is rationally entitled to having faith in something? In short, what is the relationship between faith and belief, belief and understanding, understanding and experience, and experience and skepticism?
Table of contents:
Ingolf U. Dalferth: Skeptical Faith in Dispute -
John L. Schellenberg: Skepticism as the Beginning of Religion -
Michael Rodgers: A Response to John L. Schellenberg -
Adriano Fabris: Skepticism, Involvement, Faith: From Weischedel to Schellenberg -
Marlene Block: A Response to Adriano Fabris -
Philip Clayton: Between Skepticism and Faith: Evolution, Peirce, and Religious Belief -
Randy Ramal: Skepticism and the Grammar of Evidence and Causality in Religion -
Stephen T. Davis: Christian Skepticism: Can we really know God? -
Ryan Falcioni: A Response to Stephen T. Davis -
John H. Whittaker: Why Athens Will Never Reach Jerusalem -
Sanjay Merchant: A Response to John H. Whittaker -
Patricia Easton: The Siren Song of Skepticism: Pierre Bayle's Non-fideistic Refrain -
Eric Hall: A Response to Patricia Easton -
Jure Zovko: Skeptical Faith as an Aspect of Conscious Life: Some remarks on D. Henrich's Philosophy of Religion -
Deena Lin: A Response to Jure Zovko -
John Cottingham: Religion, Faith and the Epistemic Bias -
Andreas Hunziker: A Response to John Cottingham
