Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T09:29:31.418Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cognitive opacity and the analysis of faith: acts of faith interiorized through a glass only darkly

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2018

DANIEL J. MCKAUGHAN
DANIEL J. MCKAUGHAN*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA
*
e-mail: daniel.mckaughan@bc.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In conversation with Morgan (2015), I point out that the view of relational faith I have elsewhere defended (McKaughan 2013, 2016, 2017) fits rather well with the understanding of pistis that emerges from Morgan's careful reading of New Testament texts. Moreover, the fact that New Testament authors display little interest in examining interior aspects of faith makes it difficult to justify the claim that their understanding of the pistis lexicon requires believing in the modern sense as the attitude Christians must take towards relevant content, in contrast to various other positive but non-doxastic attitudes that philosophers recognize today. Such faith is of contemporary interest, given its congruity with early Christian tradition, the role it can play in helping relationships to persevere through various kinds of challenges (including doubts significant enough to preclude believing), and for the wide range of evidential circumstances in which it can be enacted with intellectual integrity.

Type
Book Symposium
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 54 , Issue 4 , December 2018 , pp. 576 - 585
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alston, W. (1996) ‘Belief, acceptance, and religious faith’, in Jordan, Jeff & Howard-Snyder, Daniel (eds) Faith, Freedom, and Rationality (Lanham, MD: Lowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.), 3–27, 241–244.Google Scholar
Alston, W. (2007) ‘Audi on Nondoxastic Faith’, in Timmons, Mark, Greco, John, & Mele, Alfred R. (eds) Rationality and the Good: Critical Essays on the Ethics and Epistemology of Robert Audi (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Audi, R. (1991) ‘Faith, belief, and rationality’, Philosophical Perspectives, 5, 213–239.Google Scholar
Audi, R. (1992) ‘Rationality and religious commitment’, in Hester, Marcus (ed.) Faith, Reason, and Skepticism (Philadelphia: Temple University Press), 50–97 & 160–166.Google Scholar
Audi, R. (2007) ‘Belief, faith, and acceptance’, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 63, 87–102.Google Scholar
Audi, R. (2011) Rationality and Religious Commitment (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Aquinas, T. (1256–1259) Quaestiones disputatae de Veritate (Disputed Questions on Truth), 3 vols. Questions 1–9, Mulligan, Robert W. S.J (tr.) (1952); Questions 10–20, McGlynn, James V. S.J. (tr.) (1953); Questions 21–29, Schmidt, Robert W. S.J. (tr.) (1954) (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company). [ = de Veritate]Google Scholar
Aquinas, T. (c. 1259–1265) [1975] Summa Contra Gentiles, Book I: God, Pegis, Anton C. F.R.S.C. (tr.) (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press). [ = Summa Contra Gentiles]Google Scholar
Aquinas, T. (1265–1274) [1981] Summa Theologica, 5 vols, Fathers of the English Dominican Province (trs) (Westminster, Md.: Christian Classics). [ = ST]Google Scholar
Campbell, D. A. (2005) The Quest for Paul's Gospel: A Suggested Strategy (London & New York: T&T Clark International).Google Scholar
De Vaan, M. (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages (Leiden: Brill).Google Scholar
Dunn, J. D. G. (2007) ‘Faith, faithfulness’, in Sakenfeld, K. D. (eds) The New Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, II (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press), 408–423 .Google Scholar
Howard-Snyder, D. (2013) Propositional faith: What it is and what it is not. American Philosophical Quarterly, 50, 357–372.Google Scholar
Howard-Snyder, D. (2017) Markan Faith. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 81, 31–60.Google Scholar
Kvanvig, J. (2013) ‘Affective theism and people of faith’, Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 37, 109–128.Google Scholar
Kvanvig, J. (2016) ‘The idea of faith as trust: lessons in noncognitivist approaches to faith’, in Bergmann, Michael and Brower, Jeffrey (eds) Reason and Faith: Themes from Richard Swinburne (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 4–26.Google Scholar
Kvanvig, J. (2018) Faith and Humility (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Lindsay, D. R. (1993) “The Roots and Development of the ττιστ- Word Group as Faith Terminology” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 15(49), 103–118.Google Scholar
Locke, J. (1689/1975) An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Nidditch, Peter H. (ed.) (Oxford: Clarendon Press).Google Scholar
Malcolm, F., & Scott, M. (2016) ‘Faith, belief and fictionalism’, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, doi: 10.1111/papq.12169.Google Scholar
McKaughan, D. J. (2007) Toward a Richer Vocabulary for Epistemic Attitudes: Mapping the Cognitive Landscape. Ph.D. Dissertation (History and Philosophy of Science Program, University of Notre Dame).Google Scholar
McKaughan, D. J. (2013) Authentic faith and acknowledged risk: Dissolving the problem of faith and reason. Religious Studies: An International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion, 49(1), 101–124.Google Scholar
McKaughan, D. J. (2016) ‘Action-centered faith, doubt, and rationality’, Journal of Philosophical Research, 41, 71–90.Google Scholar
McKaughan, D. J. (2017) ‘On the value of faith and faithfulness’, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 81, 7–29.Google Scholar
McKaughan, D. J. and Elliott, K. C. (2015) Introduction: Cognitive Attitudes and Values in Science. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, special issue on “Cognitive Attitudes and Values in Science,” 53, 57–61.Google Scholar
Morgan, T. (2015) Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churches (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Mugg, J. (2016) ‘In defense of the belief-plus model of faith’, European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 8, 201–219.Google Scholar
Radcliffe, D. M. (1995) ‘Nondoxastic faith: Audi on religious commitment’, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 37, 73–86.Google Scholar
Smith, W. C. (1998a) Believing: An Historical Perspective (Oxford: Oneworld Publications).Google Scholar
Smith, W. C. (1998b) Faith and Belief: The Difference between Them (Oxford: Oneworld Publications).Google Scholar
Swinburne, R. (2005) Faith and Reason, 2nd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar