revelation. Similar claims could obviously be made on behalf of other religions by their
proponents. The philosopher can perhaps examine the internal coherence of the “models”
of religious knowledge offered and see if there are any “defeaters” for religious
knowledge-claims, any disproofs of religious truths. However, given the limits of human
reason, a guarantee of the truth or falsity of a religious perspective may be something
human philosophy cannot achieve.
NOTES
1.For a good philosophical exploration of some of the ways God might employ human
authors to reveal himself, see Nicholas Wolterstorff, Divine Discourse (1995).
Wolterstorff himself makes a distinction between God speaking and God revealing
himself, and develops his analysis with respect to the former. However, as he himself
admits, a God who speaks may also at the same time reveal himself, even if speaking is
not a species of revealing.
2.For a clear account of Locke's epistemological positions and their implications for
religious belief, see Nicolas Wolterstorff, John Locke and the Ethics of Belief (1996).
3.See my Faith Beyond Reason: A Kierkegaardian Account (1998), for an extensive
development and defense of responsible fideism.
end p.341
4.For a fuller account of all of these ways reason might be seen as limited, see ibid.
5.However, it is not at all clear that the arguments Kant presents for the contradictions are
really convincing.
6.I provide such a defense in my Kierkegaard's Fragments and Postscript (1983, ch. 11)
and Passionate Reason (1992, ch. 7).
7.It is well known that many philosophers, such as Kant and Hegel, make a sharp
distinction between “reason” and the “understanding.” I agree with David Swenson,
however, that Kierkegaard does not regard such a distinction as important. See Swenson
(1945, 218–23).
WORKS CITED
Aquinas, Thomas. 1945. Summa Theologiae. Selections included in Basic Writings of
Thomas Aquinas, vol. 1, ed. Anton C. Pegis. New York: Random House. (Originally
written 1265–1272.)
Aquinas, Thomas. 1975. Summa Contra Gentiles. Book I: God. Notre Dame, Ind.:
University of Notre Dame Press. (Originally written 1259–1264.)
Evans, C. Stephen. 1983. Kierkegaard's Fragments and Postscript: The Religious
Philosophy of Johannes Climacus. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press.
Evans, C. Stephen. 1992. Passionate Reason: Making Sense of Kierkegaard's
Philosophical Fragments. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.