Reason, Revelation, and Devotion
Inference and Argument in Religion

The book presents a novel defense of the beneficial epistemic effect that extra logical features can have on the assessment of religious arguments.

William J. Wainwright (Author)

9781107650367, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 1 December 2015

211 pages
22.7 x 15.3 x 1.3 cm, 0.31 kg

'William Wainwright (1935–2020) is a famous contemporary philosopher of religion who passed away in November 2020. I think this is a great loss for all of us. He has made immense contributions to the analytic philosophy of religion, and together with towering figures like Richard Swinburne, William Alston, and Alvin Plantinga, he has led the way for the resurgence of theistic philosophy in academia.' Kai-man Kwan, Religious Studies Review: Symposium - A tribute to William Wainwright

Reason, Revelation, and Devotion argues that immersion in religious reading traditions and their associated spiritual practices significantly shapes our emotions, desires, intuitions, and volitional commitments; these in turn affect our construction and assessments of arguments for religious conclusions. But far from distorting the reasoning process, these emotions and volitional and cognitive dispositions can be essential for sound reasoning on religious and other value-laden subject matters. And so western philosophy must rethink its traditional antagonism toward rhetoric. The book concludes with discussions of the implications of the earlier chapters for the relation between reason and revelation, and for the role that the concept of mystery should play in philosophy in general, and in the philosophy of religion and philosophical theology in particular.

1. Four examples of religious reasoning
2. The purposes of argument and person-relativity of proofs
3. Religious reading and theological argument
4. Passional reasoning
5. The role of rhetoric in religious argumentation
6. Reason, revelation, and religious argumentation
7. Theology and mystery.

Subject Areas: History of religion [HRAX], Religious ethics [HRAM1], Religious issues & debates [HRAM], Philosophy of religion [HRAB]