Eerdmans Philosophical Theology Collection (4 vols.)
Overview
Featuring work from some of the most accomplished apologists and philosophers, this collection includes four valuable works on faith in the twenty-first century. Alvin Plantinga’s God, Freedom, and Evil tackles ontology and the problem of suffering as the two greatest issues in theology. C. Stephan Evans’ Faith beyond Reason delves into the writings of Søren Kierkegaard and his Why Believe? investigates the most common historical objections to Christianity. And finally Thomas G. Long’s What Shall We Say? addresses how pastors can practically approach theodicy using primarily the book of Job and the parable of the wheat and the tares.
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Key Features
- Collects the work of celebrated Christian apologists
- Explores the most common historical objections to Christianity
- Addresses how pastors can practically approach theodicy
Product Details
- Title: Eerdmans Philosophical Theology Collection
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Volumes: 4
- Pages: 633
- Christian Group: Evangelicals
- Resource Type: Topical
- Topic: Philosophy & Apologetics
Individual Titles
- Faith beyond Reason: A Kierkegaardian Account by C. Stephen Evans
- Why Believe? Reason and Mystery as Pointers to God by C. Stephen Evans
- God, Freedom, and Evil by Alvin Plantinga
- What Shall We Say? Evil, Suffering, and the Crisis of Faith by Thomas G. Long
This volume provides an explanation and defense of a view of faith and reason found in the writings of Søren Kierkegaard and others that is often called fideism. Carefully distinguishing indefensible forms of fideism that involve a rejection of reason from responsible forms of fideism that require reason to become self-critical, C. Stephen Evans unfolds a Kierkegaardian view that genuine religious knowledge is grounded in faith beyond reason.
Three versions of responsible fideism are discussed and analyzed. First, Evans looks at faith without reasons, illustrating this form of attack on evidentialism with the thought of Alvin Plantinga and William James. Next, Evans considers the form of fideism that understands faith as above reason, a view exemplified by Thomas Aquinas and Immanuel Kant. Finally, Evans examines the form of fideism that claims that faith must go against what is taken as rational by most human societies. This position is most clearly displayed in the writings of Kierkegaard. Evans here defends the Kierkegaardian view that genuine religious knowledge is grounded in faith beyond reason by analyzing faith as making possible a critical analysis of the limits of reason that reason itself can recognize as sound. Evans’ discussion is deepened by concrete examples of how fideists might view three traditional topics in philosophy of religion: the knowledge of God’s existence, the problem of evil, and the verifiability of divine revelation.
C. Stephen Evans is distinguished professor of philosophy and humanities at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He also taught for many years in the philosophy department at Calvin College.
Why do some people believe while others don’t? Why do some change their beliefs? Is Christianity a viable option in today’s intellectual world where Christianity is often regarded as intellectually disreputable? In Why Believe?, a highly readable defense of the Christian faith, C. Stephen Evans discusses these questions and shows that belief in God still makes sense in a world of many religious options.
Evans outlines a simple yet solid case for historic Christian belief and responds to such common objections as: Why would a good God permit evil? Is Christian belief unscientific? Is Christianity sexist? If Christianity is true, why have so many social evils been done in the name of Christ? He also makes the case for faith by pointing to cogent objective evidence and to the signs and clues that God displays in ordinary human experience and shows why Jesus is the final revelation of that God.
Originally published as The Quest for Faith, Why Believe? has been extensively rewritten and includes many pages of new material.
This clear-headed guide by a leading Christian philosopher is a good book to give seekers, but it also could be used with profit in a college-level small group where students are wrestling with challenges to their faith.
—Christianity Today
C. Stephen Evans is distinguished professor of philosophy and humanities at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He also taught for many years in the philosophy department at Calvin College.
In his discussion of natural theology (arguments to prove the existence of God) and natural atheology (arguments for the falsehood of theistic belief) Alvin Plantinga focuses on two of the traditional arguments: the ontological argument as an example of natural theology, and the problem of evil as the most important representative of natural atheology. Plantinga’s volume is accessible to serious general readers.
A witty and logical introduction to the groundbreaking work of Alvin Plantinga, who has done more than anyone else to restore in analytic circles the respectability of belief in God.
—Harry Gensler, professor, department of philosophy, John Carroll University
A classic work in the philosophy of religion, Plantinga’s God, Freedom, and Evil is the single most influential text on the problem of evil in the past 50 years.
—Kevin Timpe, assistant professor of philosophy, University of San Diego
Alvin Plantinga is one of the top Christian philosophers in the world today. He is well known in Christian and secular philosophical circles for his logical skills, his rigorous arguments, and his energetic defense of full-blooded Christianity. This book covers some of the same ground as his more technical The Nature of Necessity, but unlike most of Plantinga’s works, it is aimed at the general reader. . . . Students can understand this book; they must only be willing to think as hard as they read.
—Stephen T. Davis, Russell K. Pitzer Professor of Philosophy, Claremont McKenna College
Alvin Plantinga holds the William Harry Jellema Chair of Christian Philosophy at Calvin College and is John A. O’Brien Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.
Tsunamis, earthquakes, famines, diseases, wars—these and other devastating forces lead Christians to ask painful questions. Is God all-powerful? Is God good? How can God allow so much innocent human suffering?
These questions, taken together, have been called the ‘theodicy problem,’ and in this book Thomas Long explores what preachers can and should say in response. Long reviews the origins and history of the theodicy problem and engages the work of major thinkers who have posed solutions to it. Cautioning pastors not to ignore urgent theodicy-related questions arising from their parishioners, he offers biblically based approaches to preaching on theodicy, guided by Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the tares and the ‘greatest theodicy text in Scripture’—the book of Job.
Among preachers, Tom Long is perhaps the most broadly read and deeply incisive of them all. . . . Long doesn’t offer easy answers, but he does open a wonderful conversation.
—Richard Lischer, James T. and Alice Mead Cleland Professor of Preaching, Duke Divinity School
Tom Long has done it again, tackling a tough subject with wit, intelligence, and integrity. Moving beyond the ministry of presence, Long challenges clergy to stop dodging the bullet and to answer the hard questions laypeople ask. More importantly, he also gives us the tools to do it well.
—Lillian Daniel, First Congregational Church, Glen Ellyn, IL
A valuable book for preachers and others struggling with the relationship between God and suffering.
—Religious Studies Review
Thomas G. Long is Bandy Professor of Preaching and coordinator of the Initiative in Religious Practices and Practical Theology at Candler School of Theology, Emory University.
Partially includedReviews
1 rating
Stephen Williams
3/15/2015
I found this book to be a facinating journey into the questions of how a good God and so much suffering in the world can coexist. In a world such as ours where we have daily access to the suffering of the world... the groaning planet that our new globalised world is I think this book is good medicine... extremely important for a generation of beleivers who are perhaps the least prepared for suffering.
Prayson Daniel
3/10/2015
God, Freedom, and Evil by Plantinga was one of the books that helped me move from Taoism to Christianity. God used Plantinga's work to restore my trust in a sovereign God in a fallen world of pain and suffering. This book alone is worthy of the price.
