1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910781346103321

Autore

Schellenberg J. L. <1959->

Titolo

The wisdom to doubt [[electronic resource] ] : a justification of religious skepticism / / J.L. Schellenberg

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ithaca, : Cornell University Press, 2007

ISBN

0-8014-6513-3

0-8014-7851-0

0-8014-6239-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (342 p.)

Disciplina

211/.7

Soggetti

Religion - Philosophy

Belief and doubt

Skepticism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

pt. 1. Finitude and the future: seven modes of religious skepticism -- pt. 2. Cradles of conviction: the modes applied and fortified -- pt. 3. God and the gaps: the modes illustrated and vindicated.

Sommario/riassunto

The Wisdom to Doubt is a major contribution to the contemporary literature on the epistemology of religious belief. Continuing the inquiry begun in his previous book, Prolegomena to a Philosophy of Religion, J. L. Schellenberg here argues that given our limitations and especially our immaturity as a species, there is no reasonable choice but to withhold judgment about the existence of an ultimate salvific reality. Schellenberg defends this conclusion against arguments from religious experience and naturalistic arguments that might seem to make either religious belief or religious disbelief preferable to his skeptical stance. In so doing, he canvasses virtually all of the important recent work on the epistemology of religion. Of particular interest is his call for at least skepticism about theism, the most common religious claim among philosophers.The Wisdom to Doubt expands the author's well-known hiddenness argument against theism and situates it within a larger atheistic argument, itself made to serve the purposes of his broader skeptical case. That case need not, on Schellenberg's view, lead



to a dead end but rather functions as a gateway to important new insights about intellectual tasks and religious possibilities.