Knowledge and Christian Belief

Alvin Plantinga’s Warranted Christian Belief is a landmark book on the rationality of Christian belief. . . . This splendid shorter rendering of that book’s proposals makes them accessible to general readers and to students outside the field of philosophy. It is a total pleasure to welcome this version of his seminal work. All the hallmarks of Plantinga’s humility and brilliance are on display here; no one can read this book without being spiritually refreshed and intellectually challenged.

—William J. Abraham, Albert Cook Outler Professor of Wesley Studies and University Distinguished Teaching Professor, Perkins School of Theology

A remarkable book. Over the years Alvin Plantinga has undercut conventional prejudices and defended theistic beliefs. This book contains the major ideas of his philosophy of religion on God, faith, historical criticism, pluralism, and many other key topics. What distinguishes this book is the clarity with which Plantinga presents and develops his arguments. . . . An excellent compendium of his thought.

—Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, Charles Chauncey Stillman Professor of Roman Catholic Theological Studies, Harvard Divinity School

This welcome simplification of Warranted Christian Belief, Plantinga’s magnum opus of Christian religious epistemology, is highly readable but just as erudite and philosophically engaging — worth reading and rereading for both its intellectual and its spiritual depth.

—Thomas M. Crisp, associate professor of philosophy, Biola University

Alvin Plantinga’s magisterial Warranted Christian Belief is one of the most important works on the epistemology of religious belief within the last century. It is exciting to see the core ideas of that great work presented here in a more succinct and accessible format. Knowledge and Christian Belief is a pleasure to read and will serve as an excellent and engaging introduction to Plantinga’s most influential ideas about the rationality of religious belief.

—Michael Rea, professor of philosophy, University of Notre Dame

A very clear, easy-to-understand, and challenging presentation of the main steps of Plantinga’s argument in his magnum opus Warranted Christian Belief. Using the tools of modern epistemology, Plantinga defends a classical position—that Christian belief does not need to be supported by any arguments from generally agreed premises in order to be fully rational, and that that belief cannot be shown to be false by any such arguments.

—Richard Swinburne, emeritus professor of philosophy, University of Oxford