Just kidding. This guy is planted theologically in what was native soil for me, before I became Catholic. Which is not to say I know his work well. What I knew was filtered through my seminarian colleagues at the time. To be quite honest, I felt a twinge of annoyance at the time, because it seemed like his was the only voice for our times in our circles. It's easy to proclaim a guy overrated by default in those circumstances. That's not fair to Pastor Keller, and I know that.
On the other hand, do you notice these philosophers? I intend no disrespect. Let me state it another way: Do you notice who's not mentioned? Christianity already has resources in our Catholic philosophical tradition. Feel free to steal it, fellows. You can still disagree theologically with the Church, but your philosophy of knowledge--your epistemology--needs to be on firmer ground.
I remain shocked that philosophers trained today many times want to move away from realism. It's like reinventing the wheel, and replacing it with nothing. Keller may not intend to premise his philosophy on skepticism, but that's what a debate about "faith" used in two senses seems to imply. Christians can't win that fight on these terms. You can't get to divine faith via a probabalistic "leap" from human faith.
Let's come at it from another direction: If you truncate what can be known by reason--and if the two interlocutors agree that they can't know anything except by revelation--what will the avowed Christian do when his partner in dialogue denies that supernatural revelation has occurred? Neither partner will use an alleged source of knowledge they deny.
Put your Bible down for a minute, and start a conversation about the nature of reality. Talk about sufficiently credible witnesses. If Aquinas' "First Cause" is the anchor of a chain of caused causes, then there is a basis for reality itself. But we have to inhabit the same thought world. Dialogue begins with agreement; it continues with disputation; it ends with adjudication and revision in the language of shared terms.
One cannot actually debate without shared terms and definitions. I think Plantinga and Keller are attempting to ground faith in something apart from reason.
On the other hand, do you notice these philosophers? I intend no disrespect. Let me state it another way: Do you notice who's not mentioned? Christianity already has resources in our Catholic philosophical tradition. Feel free to steal it, fellows. You can still disagree theologically with the Church, but your philosophy of knowledge--your epistemology--needs to be on firmer ground.
I remain shocked that philosophers trained today many times want to move away from realism. It's like reinventing the wheel, and replacing it with nothing. Keller may not intend to premise his philosophy on skepticism, but that's what a debate about "faith" used in two senses seems to imply. Christians can't win that fight on these terms. You can't get to divine faith via a probabalistic "leap" from human faith.
Let's come at it from another direction: If you truncate what can be known by reason--and if the two interlocutors agree that they can't know anything except by revelation--what will the avowed Christian do when his partner in dialogue denies that supernatural revelation has occurred? Neither partner will use an alleged source of knowledge they deny.
Put your Bible down for a minute, and start a conversation about the nature of reality. Talk about sufficiently credible witnesses. If Aquinas' "First Cause" is the anchor of a chain of caused causes, then there is a basis for reality itself. But we have to inhabit the same thought world. Dialogue begins with agreement; it continues with disputation; it ends with adjudication and revision in the language of shared terms.
One cannot actually debate without shared terms and definitions. I think Plantinga and Keller are attempting to ground faith in something apart from reason.
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