Plantingian Religious Epistemology and World Religions

To what extent can non-Christian religious traditions utilize Plantinga’s epistemology? And, if there are believers from differing religious traditions that can rightfully utilize Plantinga’s religious epistemology, does this somehow prevent a Plantingian’s creedal-specific religious belief from being warranted? In order to answer these questions, Baldwin and McNabb first provide an introduction to Plantinga’s religious epistemology. Second, they explore the prospects and problems that members of non-Christian religions face when they attempt to utilize Plantingian religious epistemology. Finally, they sketch out possible approaches to holding that a Plantingian’s creedal-specific religious belief can be warranted, even given believers from other religious traditions who can also rightfully make full use of Plantinga’s religious epistemology.

Contrary to the pronouncements of a vocal few, the increasingly religiously plural nature of our world has not brought about the irrelevance of the questions of religious epistemology. Proposals about how to think about the epistemic status of religious belief remain crucially important, and Alvin Plantinga’s proposal stands out among those as uniquely valuable and powerful. What our religiously plural world does require is more of what Baldwin and McNabb do in this important volume — engage religious traditions in deep and substantive ways and then ask how those religious traditions might employ the resources of Plantinga’s work. This book is a valuable contribution to scholarship on Plantinga’s religious epistemology and on the broader question of religious epistemology within and among the world’s religious traditions., Plantingian Religious Epistemology and World Religions is a substantial work that deserves a wide readership. This volume establishes Baldwin and McNabb as pioneers in the emerging field of comparative religious epistemology. While covering a wide selection of Asian and Western traditions and incorporating both historical and contemporary sources, Baldwin and McNabb present a sustained and engaging argument. This work should become required reading for all those interested in Plantingian religious epistemology and its potential applications.

Erik Baldwin teaches at Indiana University, Northwest.Tyler Dalton McNabb is assistant professor of philosophy at Houston Baptist University.