Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:34:24.844Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Experience and the Justification of Religious Belief

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Eugene Thomas Long
Eugene Thomas Long
Affiliation:
Professor of Philosophy, The University of South Carolina
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Perhaps you have heard the story of the philosopher who fell off the edge of a cliff and was hanging by the limb of a tree. After calling for help for some time he heard a voice from the heavens saying, ‘I am here’. The philosopher explained his dilemma and then asked, ‘Can you help me?’ The voice replied, ‘Do you believe in me?’, to which the philosopher without hesitation, given the circumstances, said, ‘Yes, of course’. The voice came back, ‘Then, let go.’ There was silence and some moments passed before the philosopher somewhat meekly replied, ‘Lord, I know that this is not the best time and place for a discussion but you know how philosophers are, and you do seem to be asking a good bit of me. I know that many of your followers in recent times would agree that I should let go, but I have this feeling that they may be confusing the doctrine of salvation by faith alone with an epistemological doctrine that faith is a commitment that requires no justification. Could we talk about this? And, in the meantime, I hope you will not be offended if I ask, Is there anyone else up there?’

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , December 1981 , pp. 499 - 510
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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

page 499 note 1 Mitchell, Basil, The Justification, of Religious Belief (New York: Macmillian, 1973), p. 112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 500 note 1 Malcolm, Norman, ‘Anselm's Ontological Arguments’, The Existence of God, ed. Hick, John (London: Collier–Macmillian, 1969), p. 67.Google Scholar

page 500 note 2 Smith, John, Experience and God (London: Oxford University Press, 1968), p. 22.Google Scholar

page 502 note 1 Baillie, John, The Sense of the Presence of God (London: Oxford University Press, 1962), p. 36.Google Scholar

page 502 note 2 Jaspers, Karl, Philosophy, vol. 3, translated by Ashton, E. B. (Chicago: University Press, 1971), pp. 5–6.Google Scholar

page 503 note 1 Smart, Ninian, ‘Interpretation and Mystical Experience’, Religous Studies, 1 (1965), 79.Google Scholar

page 503 note 2 Heidegger, Martin, Being and Time, translated by Macquarrie, John and Robinson, Edward (New York: Harper and Row, 1962), p. 58.Google Scholar

page 504 note 1 Tillich, Paul, Systematic Theology, (Chicago: University Press, 1951) 1, 106.Google Scholar

page 504 note 2 Lewis, H. D., Our Experience of God (London: George Allen, 1959), p. 102.Google Scholar See my ‘Expérience, raison et croyance religieuse d'après Lewis, H. D.Archives de Philosophie, XLIII, 3 (1980).Google Scholar A revised version of this article is forthcoming in The Review of Metaphysics.

page 505 note 1 Dilthey, W., Meaning in History, ed. Rickman, H. P. (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1961), p. 77.Google Scholar

page 505 note 2 Being and Time, p. 28.Google Scholar

page 505 note 3 Richmond, James, Theology and Metaphysics (London: S.C.M. Press, 1970), p. 89.Google Scholar

page 507 note 1 Donovan, Peter, Interpreting Religious Experience (London: Sheldon Press, 1979), pp. 89 ff.Google Scholar

page 510 note 1 Macquarrie, John, Principles of Christian Theology, second edition (New York: Charles Scribner's, 1977), p. 137.Google Scholar