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    [fullTitle] => An Epistemological Corrective to Doctrines of Assurance
    [abstract] => 
Many Christian traditions affirm a doctrine of assurance. According to this doctrine, those who are saved have assurance of their own salvation; that is, the doctrine of assurance tells us that the elect can know their status as elect. In this paper, I explore two developments of the doctrine of assurance by theologians (i.e. John Calvin & Kenneth Keathley) and argue that they fail to accommodate the fallibilistic nature of human knowing. I then develop a fallibilistic doctrine of assurance, which makes such assurance available to most Christians, and respond to an objection from the camp of pragmatic encroachment.

    [authors] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [givenName] => Jonathan C.
                    [affiliation] => University of St Andrews
                )

        )

    [keywords] => Array
        (
        )

    [doi] => 10.24204/ejpr.v9i1.1869
    [datePublished] => 2017-05-03
    [pdf] => https://www.philosophy-of-religion.eu/menuscript/index.php/ejpr/article/view/1869/version/426/1503
)
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An Epistemological Corrective to Doctrines of Assurance

Jonathan C.
University of St Andrews

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.v9i1.1869

Abstract

Many Christian traditions affirm a doctrine of assurance. According to this doctrine, those who are saved have assurance of their own salvation; that is, the doctrine of assurance tells us that the elect can know their status as elect. In this paper, I explore two developments of the doctrine of assurance by theologians (i.e. John Calvin & Kenneth Keathley) and argue that they fail to accommodate the fallibilistic nature of human knowing. I then develop a fallibilistic doctrine of assurance, which makes such assurance available to most Christians, and respond to an objection from the camp of pragmatic encroachment.

Keywords:

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