On Christian Belief A Defence of a Cognitive Conception of Religious Belief in a Christian Context

"On Christian Belief" offers a defense of realism in the philosophy of religion. It argues that religious belief--with particular reference to Christian belief--unlike any other kind of belief, is cognitive; making claims about what is real, and open to rational discussion between believers and non-believers. The author begins by providing a critique of several views which either try to describe a faith without cognitive context, or to justify believing on non-cognitive grounds. He then discusses what sense can be made of the phenomenon of religious conversion by realists and non-realists. After a chapter on knowledge in general, he defends the idea that religious knowledge is very like other knowledge, in being based on reliable testimony, sifted by reason and tested by experience. The logical status of the content of religious belief is then discussed with reference to Christianity.

Introduction; Chapter 1 Faith without belief I; Chapter 2 Faith without belief II; Chapter 3 Non-cognitive grounds for belief; Chapter 4 The intelligibility of conversion; Chapter 5 About knowledge in general; Chapter 6 About religious knowledge; Chapter 7 The content of Christian revelation; Chapter 8 The knowledge of God as creator;

Andrew Collier is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton and has previously lectured at Warwick, Sussex and Bangor universities. His recent publications include Being and Worth, which extends realism to ethics, and Christianity and Marxism, which aims to reconcile these two world views.