Atheism and Theism JJ Haldane - Common Sense Atheism

254 Bibliography
general, Swinburne’s approach follows ‘modern’ – Cartesian and post-Cartesian –
philosophy rather than the Aristotelian-cum-Thomistic tradition favoured by Haldane.
Two recent and readable articles critical of Plantinga’s epistemological theology are
Richard M. Gale, ‘Plantinga’s Warranted Christian Belief ’, Philo 4 (2001), 138–47 and
Evan Fales, ‘Reformed Epistemology and Biblical Hermeneutics’, Philo 4 (2001),
169–84.
While the ‘moderns’ are in the majority among philosophical theists in the
analytical world, neo-Aristotelianism is not without representation; see David Braine,
The Reality of Time and the Existence of God (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988), William
Charlton, Philosophy and Christian Belief (London: Sheed & Ward, 1988) and Barry
Miller, From Existence to God (London: Routledge, 1992). The distinctive approach
of John Leslie in Value and Existence (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1979) and Universes
(London: Routledge, 1989) bears some relation to ancient neo-Platonic tradition, as
do the arguments advanced by Stephen R.L. Clark in The Mysteries of Religion (Oxford:
Basil Blackwell, 1986). For a sophisticated presentation of the more traditional
style of ontological argument see Alvin Plantinga, God, Freedom and Evil (New York:
Harper and Row, 1974).
Additional bibliographical items (2nd edition): Peter Forrest, God Without the
Supernatural (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996), Peter Geach, Truth and
Hope (Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 2001), Alvin Plantinga, Warranted
Christian Belief (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), James F. Sennett, The
Analytic Theist: An Alvin Plantinga Reader (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998),
Richard Swinburne, Is There a God? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996).
John Leslie’s Infinite Minds: A Philosophical Cosmology (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 2001) is a remarkable piece of metaphysical and theological speculation, with
an interesting coming together of ideas from Plato, Spinoza and Berkeley.
Particular Themes and Issues
The content and coherence of theistic conceptions of God have been the subject of
much recent philosophical theology in the analytical tradition. A useful anthology is
Thomas V. Morris (ed.), The Concept of God (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987).
Morris discusses these issues on his own account in Our Idea of God (Notre Dame:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1991). Another sophisticated treatment, defensive of
theism, is that presented in Gerard J. Hughes SJ, The Nature of God (London: Routledge,
1995). See also Anthony Kenny, The God of the Philosophers (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1979) who reaches a somewhat agnostic conclusion. Kenny is a fine writer, clear
and economical, and two other works of his can be recommended, viz., Reason and
Religion: Essays in Philosophical Theology (Oxford: Blackwell, 1987), and What is Faith?
Essays in the Philosophy of Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992). For recent
philosophical thinking about the the nature of Christian theism see the essays in
Godfrey Vesey (ed.), The Philosophy in Christianity (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1989) and Michael D. Beaty (ed.), Christian Theism and the Problems of
Philosophy (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990).