Princeton Project in Philosophy and Religion & Rutgers Center for the Philosophy of Religion Joint Colloquium - April 27th, 2022

Princeton Project in Philosophy and Religion & Rutgers Center for the Philosophy of Religion Joint Colloquium

Wednesday April 27th, 4.30-6.00pm ​

Matthew Benton (Seattle Pacific University):

"Faith and Interpersonal Knowledge" 

Abstract

Epistemology of religion in the western tradition has prioritized propositional belief, where the recent focus is largely on the rationality of such belief. Yet within monotheistic traditions, this emphasis has developed in tension with other notions which are often given non-propositional glosses: for example, recent accounts of faith and interpersonal knowledge need not reduce to, or entail, propositional belief. In this paper I develop an epistemological framework centered on the relational aspects of interpersonal knowledge. This framework makes room for two seemingly discordant notions: on the one hand, someone could believe and know that there is a God, without knowing God interpersonally; but on the other hand, someone could know and relate to God interpersonally while believing a number of false claims about God, and even without believing (under certain guises) that there is such a God. I propose an account of interpersonal faith in God which makes good on how one would relate to God as a person, how such faith can be a virtue, and how it is that, when one's faith is mature, it explains what it is to trust God in terms of how one relates to God as a person. Such an account also offers distinctive ways of understanding divine hiddenness and religious pluralism.