Realism and Christian Faith: God, Grammar, and MeaningThe question of realism - that is, whether God exists independently of human beings - is central to much contemporary theology and church life. It is also an important topic in the philosophy of religion. This book discusses the relationship between realism and Christian faith in a thorough and systematic way and uses the resources of both philosophy and theology to argue for a Christocentric narrative realism. Many previous defences of realism have attempted to model Christian belief on scientific theory but Moore argues that this comparison is misleading and inadequate on both theological and philosophical grounds. In dialogue with speech act theory and critiques of realism by both non-realists and Wittgensteinians, a new account of the meaningfulness of Christian language is proposed. Moore uses this to develop a regulative conception of realism according to which God's independent reality is shown principally in Christ and then through Christian practices and the lives of Christians. |
Contents
Realism and Christian faith towards an ontological approach | 1 |
Limping with two different opinions? | 21 |
Taking leave of theological realism | 40 |
Realism and Christian faith after Wittgenstein | 73 |
The grammar of Christian faith and the relationship between philosophy and theology | 108 |
Representation reconciliation and the problem of meaning | 138 |
God reality and realism | 166 |
Speaking the reality of God | 197 |
Realism conformed to the conforming word | 214 |
References | 240 |
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Common terms and phrases
analogy anti-realist argue assertion Barth belief Bible biblical chapter Christian faith Christian language Christian practices Christian realism Christocentric Christology church claim concept concerning conformed context covenant critical critical realism Cupitt D. Z. Phillips debate deconstruction defend Derrida direction of fit divine doctrine ehyeh empiricism empiricist entities epistemic epistemological example expressed fideism first-order fulfilment God's reality God's word grammar Hebblethwaite human Huyssteen idolatry independent reality interpretation Jesus Christ judgement Lindbeck linguistic Lord meaning meaningful metaphysical Moses narrative nature non-realism non-realist object ontological commitment particular Paul Peacocke perspective Phillips Phillips's philosophical philosophical theism philosophy of science possibility prevenient question Rahner realissimum reference regarded regulative relationship religion religious experience religious language representation resurrection revealed Rowan Williams scientific realism scripture semantic sense Soskice speak speech act story suggests teleological Testament theism theologians theological realists theory tradition Trigg triune truth understanding unobservable Wittgenstein YHWH