Array
(
    [fullTitle] => Revisiting the 'Reformed Objection' to Natural Theology
    [abstract] => In the present paper I address two significant and prevalent errors concerning opposition to natural theology within the Reformed theological tradition. First, contrary to Alvin Plantinga, I argue that the idea of properly basic theistic belief has not motivated or otherwise grounded opposition to natural theology within the Reformed tradition. There is, in fact, a Reformed endorsement of natural theology grounded in the notion that theistic belief can be properly basic. Secondly, I argue that late nineteenth- and twentieth-century Reformed criticisms of natural theology do not constitute an objection to natural theology as such but rather an objection to natural theology construed in a particular way. I explore the nature of this objection and its compatibility with an alternative understanding of natural theology. 
    [authors] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [givenName] => Michael
                    [affiliation] => San Francisco State University
                )

        )

    [keywords] => Array
        (
        )

    [doi] => 10.24204/ejpr.v1i2.340
    [datePublished] => 2009-09-23
    [pdf] => https://www.philosophy-of-religion.eu/menuscript/index.php/ejpr/article/view/340/version/287/314
)
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Revisiting the 'Reformed Objection' to Natural Theology

Michael
San Francisco State University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.v1i2.340

Abstract

In the present paper I address two significant and prevalent errors concerning opposition to natural theology within the Reformed theological tradition. First, contrary to Alvin Plantinga, I argue that the idea of properly basic theistic belief has not motivated or otherwise grounded opposition to natural theology within the Reformed tradition. There is, in fact, a Reformed endorsement of natural theology grounded in the notion that theistic belief can be properly basic. Secondly, I argue that late nineteenth- and twentieth-century Reformed criticisms of natural theology do not constitute an objection to natural theology as such but rather an objection to natural theology construed in a particular way. I explore the nature of this objection and its compatibility with an alternative understanding of natural theology. 

Keywords:

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