This is one of the most important books for Christians published in decades. Plantinga carefully distinguishes between the de facto question (the veracity of Christian belief) and the de jure question (warrant). This is a commonly understood idea in philosophy, that epistemology depends on metaphysics how you know depends on the nature of reality. The one caveat is that Plantinga’s argument for the warranted nature of Christian belief depends on that belief being true. The end result is a masterfully mounted argument that Christian belief is in fact warranted. Part 4 defends against objections and defeaters, such as religious pluralism, the problem of evil, and (an especially interesting section on) historical criticism. So Plantinga builds on Thomas Reid especially to extend the foundation of basic beliefs to include the things of the gospel. Christian belief is therefore a properly basic belief, not drawn inferentially from anything else, and is therefore properly a foundational belief. He uses an “extended Aquinas/Calvin” model by which the Holy Spirit mends our broken sensus divinitatis and reveals to us the things of the gospel which becomes the occasion of our belief. Part 3 argues for the warranted nature of theistic belief and then of specifically Christian belief. Plantinga must then argue that Christian beliefs are aimed at truth and that Christians are not cognitively dysfunctional. Part 2 clarifies the question he is pursuing by more clearly defining warrant and noting that his main objection he is answering is the “Freud-Marx” complaint. Freud’s complaint is that Christian belief functions properly, but is not aimed toward truth, while Marx’s complaint is that Christians are cognitively dysfunctional. Plantinga shows his mastery of the self-referentially incoherent argument. Part 1 clears the ground against those who say we cannot predicate about God, following in Kant’s footsteps. The main argument of the book is then that, if Christianity is true, then it is more likely than not warranted, in which case we can truly know the things of the gospel. If a belief is true, whenever enough warrant is added to that true belief, it becomes knowledge. By warrant, he means something similar to rationality, but a bit different. In Warranted Christian Belief, Plantinga argues that belief in the main tenets of Christianity is warranted.
Even more important than that, though, is his defense of Christian belief. Many attribute to his influence the fact that many philosophers now find it intellectually defensible to believe in God (see, e.g., Mascord’s work). Alvin Plantinga is well-known as one of the most important Christian philosophers of our day.
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