Warranted Christian Belief: The Aquinas/Calvin Model

Abstract

Early in the book Warranted Christian Belief I propose a model according to which belief in God can have the three varieties of positive epistemic status: justification, rationality (in both its external and internal guises), and warrant. But what about specifically Christian belief, belief, not just in God, but in Trinity, incarnation, Christ’s resurrection, atonement, forgiveness of sins, salvation, regeneration, eternal life? How can we think of the full panoply of Christian belief as enjoying justification, rationality in both its internal and external varieties, and warrant? How can we possibly think of these beliefs — some of which, as David Hume loved to point out, go entirely contrary to ordinary human experience — as reasonable or rational, let alone warranted, let alone having warrant sufficient for knowledge? The materials for an answer lie close at hand. Actually, the materials have lain close at hand for several centuries — certainly since the publication of Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections and John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion.1 As a matter of fact, they have lain close at hand for much longer than that: much of what Calvin says can be usefully seen as a development of remarks of Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventura. Indeed, these materials go much further back yet, all the way back to the New Testament, in particular the gospel of John and the epistles of Paul.