Table Of ContentTHE ANALYTIC THEIST
THE ANALYTIC THEIST
An Alvin Plantinga Reader
Edited by
James F. Sennett
Contents
Preface Vii
Alvin Plantinga: A Short Chronology ix
Introduction The Analytic Theist: An Appreciation, by James F Sennett
xi
I
NATURAL THEOLOGY AND ATHEOLOGY 1
1. God and Analogy 4
2. The Free Will Defense 22
3. The Ontological Argument 50
4. Is Naturalism Irrational? 72
II
REFORMED EPISTEMOLOGY 97
5. Reason and Belief in God 102
6. Justification and Theism 162
7. A Defense of Religious Exclusivism 187
III
DIVINE NATURE AND ATTRIBUTES 211
8. Necessary Being 214
9. Does God Have a Nature? 225
10. On Ockham's Way Out 258
IV
CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY 293
11. Advice to Christian Philosophers 296
12. Sheehan's Shenanigans: How Theology Becomes Tomfoolery 316
13. Christian Philosophy at the End of the Twentieth Century 328
Afterword, by Alvin Plantinga 353
Alvin Plantinga: A Bibliography 359
Reprint Permission Acknowledgments 368
Preface
This project began as an idea in the summer of 1993. I was a participant in a
National Endowment for the Humanities summer institute at UC-Berkeley
under the direction of Keith Lehrer and Nick Smith. The subject was
"Knowledge, Teaching, and Wisdom," and one of our guest lecturers was
Alvin Plantinga. While visiting with him and talking over some of his more
significant work, I was suddenly struck by the fact that so much of that work is
scattered hither and yon in a dozen different sources - a journal here, a book
chapter there, etc. "How odd," I thought, "that no one has put all this important
philosophy of religion in one place." I broached the idea of a collection to
Plantinga that summer and received his endorsement to pursue it. But, as
academic careers so often go, it would be over two years before I launched the
project in earnest.
Now at last I am pleased to present this volume. I hope it will be a valuable
contribution to the study of philosophy of religion and Christian philosophy in
America. But more than anything it is a labor of love, presented with gratitude
to one who has given so much to me and to Christian philosophers across this
country. I testify to those contributions in some detail in my introductory essay,
and will reserve the accolades until then.
As can be seen from the bibliography at the end of this book, Plantinga's
published corpus is immense. Choosing a representative sample of that corpus
was no mean task, as they say. Some selections were simple: no collection of
his work would be complete without "Reason and Belief in God" or "Advice to
Christian Philosophers." But beyond that the selection task was quite arduous.
In choosing the pieces I did I was guided primarily by the desire to represent as
adequately as possible Plantinga's immeasurable contribution to contemporary
philosophy of religion in general and to the resurgence of Christian philosophy
in particular. But I was painfully aware that there were many different ways this
might be done.
One problem I faced was that Plantinga's work ranges from the
semipopular to the laboriously technical. To make the right selections, I had to
decide exactly what kind of audience I envisioned. For better or worse, I have
selected these essays primarily with the scholarly audience in mind. They are
not, for the most part, easily digested. They require intense study and reflection,
plus perhaps some delving into related literature, for full appreciation.
However, I do not think one need be a philosophical scholar to benefit
from this work. (For example, I selected Plantinga's less technical treatments of
the Ontological Argument and the Free Will Defense in God, Freedom, and
Evil, rather than his highly specialized and technical treatments of them in The
Nature of Necessity.) Theologians, biblical scholars, and social scientists,
among others, should be able to read and understand Plantinga's writings, and
benefit greatly from them in their specific disciplines.
Two editorial notes. First, as I intimated above, I include a bibliography of
Plantinga's work at the end of this volume. The entries in this bibliography are
numbered consecutively. References to Plantinga's works in the introductory
essay, editor's notes, and the section introductions are then made by using those
numbers. Second, I have tried to stay out of the way as much as possible in this
volume and allow Plantinga to speak for himself. I have kept the actual editing
of the original texts to a bare minimum (with the exception of chapters five and
nine, very large works that had to be excerpted to make it feasible to include
them at all). On occasion, however, clarity requires my intervention with a short
editor's note. These are indicated in the text by an asterisk (*) and appear at the
bottom of the relevant page.
Many colleagues and friends across the country provided me with insights
and suggestions regarding the composition of this collection and other
dimensions of the project. I thank all of them profusely, though I could never
pretend to name them all. I will offer special thanks to Paul Draper, William
Hasker, Dewey Hoitenga, Philip Quinn, Tom Senor, Richard Swinburne,
William Wainwright, and Nicholas Wolterstorff, who provided me with very
helpful written comments concerning the structure of the volume and offered
helpful words of advice regarding a project of this nature. Of course, I must say
a very special word of thanks to Alvin Plantinga for making himself available
to me as this project unfolded, for writing the Afterword, and for being the kind
of philosopher, Christian, and human being that is worthy of the appreciation
this volume intends.
Soli Deo Gloria
May 1998
