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Recent and Forthcoming Publications
"Alvin Plantinga."
Forthcoming in A History of the Philosophy of
Religion, vol. 5,
ed. Graham Oppy and Nick Trakakis, Acumen Press
"The Citizen Kane
Mutiny: What Hollywood Knows and Will Never Admit
About Life, Love, and Human Relationships."
in Faith, Film, and Philosophy,
ed.
Jim Spiegel and Doug Geivett, 21-36
InterVarsity, 2007
"A Line Worth
Walking: June Carter Cash and the Power of Love"
in Johnny Cash: The Ring of Truth,
ed. John Huss and Dave Werther, 101-15
Open Court, 2008
What
I've Been Up To Lately
"The
Existence of God: New Answers to an Ancient Question"
(Presented at
McNeese State University 9/14/07)
In 2005 Doug
Groothuis and I edited and published In Defense of
Natural Theology: A Post-Humean Assessment (InterVarsity
Press), a collection of thirteen new essays in natural
theology by some of today's best Christian philosophers.
The book focuses on what we call "Hume's Legacy" -- the
overwhelming propensity of natural theology critics to
rely on the basic criticisms raised by Hume over two
centuries ago. This lecture is an overview of the book's
contents, highlighting several of the most significant
contributions. Along the way I support the general
thesis of the book -- that the impression often given by
Hume's Legacy, that natural theology has little of
importance to offer the debate over God's existence --
is greatly exaggerated and unjustified.
HTML format
MS Word format
MP3 File
"Faith (Once
Again) Seeking Understanding:
Alvin Plantinga and the Renaissance of Christian
Philosophy"
(Presented to the 2007 Faith and the Academy
Conference)
The
work of Alvin Plantinga has been as far-reaching and
influential as any, and much more than most, in the
renaissance of Christian philosophy over the past forty
years. This paper examines the influence of Plantinga on
Christian philosophy along two axes: content and
methodology. The subjects with which he has dealt have
helped define the major research projects of
contemporary Christian philosophy – including modal
versions of the ontological argument and free will
defense and the Reformed epistemology project,
challenging the evidentialism that has dominated
religious epistemology since Locke. Furthermore,
Plantinga’s sharp analytic approach has inspired a
precision and clarity among Christian philosophers that
is second to none in the profession.
DRAFT
AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD
Handout at Faulkner University
MP3 of Presentation at Faulkner University.
What
I'm Up to Right Now
"Acceptance,
Faith, and Epistemic Justification"
William Alston has argued that faith does not entail
belief. Rather, the propositional attitude of
acceptance, utilized in philosophy of science and
elsewhere, may serve as the basis for religious faith. I
agree with Alston on this point, but challenge him on a
further point – that acceptance-based faith (ABF)
requires less in the way of epistemic justification than
does faith grounded in belief. My argument rests in two
observations: first, that religious faith has momentous
practical implications that affect its epistemic
acceptability requirements; and second, that the
acceptance underlying ABF can be reasonably expected to
develop into belief. I argue that these factors support
the claim that the requirements of epistemic
justification for ABF are just as stringent as they are
for faith grounded in belief.
DRAFT AVAILABLE ONLINE
MP3 of
presentation at Niagara University 2008
"Hick
the Inclusivist: Religious Pluralism as Unstable Middle
Ground"
John Hick is the philosophical poster child for
religious pluralism. However, in this paper I argue that
Hick is more accurately labeled an inclusivist. His
portrayal of religion as a call out of destructive
self-centeredness to Reality-centeredness is specific
enough to rule out much of what has gone under the
rubric "religion" and to demarcate a "one true
religion," though other religions can and do serve as
conduits to that one true religion. I also argue that
Hick's case shows genuine pluralism to be implausible,
and some form of inclusivism to be the only rationally
defensible approach to religious diversity.
DRAFT
AVAILABLE ONLINE
"An Intelligent
Discussion of Intelligent Design"
The Intelligent Design movement is much maligned,
for good reasons and for bad. In this lecture,
presented in the "Banners Series" liberal and fine arts
festival at McNeese State University in 2008, I
present the core claims of what I call "Bare Bones" Intelligent Design,
based in the work of William Dembski, and argue
that those claims are, in the main, defensible and worth
a hearing. I then point out several ways that
Intelligent Design advocates shoot themselves in the
foot and make their project even harder than it has to
be.
DRAFT AVAILABLE ONLINE
DRAFT AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD
POWERPOINT PRESENTATION
MP3 FILE OF McNEESE PRESENTATION
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