
Contents
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I: Religious Belief and Knowledge I: Religious Belief and Knowledge
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II: Divine Revelation II: Divine Revelation
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III: Faith and Reason III: Faith and Reason
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IV: Mysteries IV: Mysteries
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V: Speaking of God V: Speaking of God
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Conclusion Conclusion
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References References
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25 The Epistemology of Religious Belief
Get accessDesmond M. Clarke is Professor (emeritus) of Philosophy at University College Cork, and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He is general editor (with Karl Ameriks) of Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy; his recent monographs include Descartes's Theory of Mind and Descartes: A Biography. His translations include a two-volume edition of Descartes for Penguin.
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Published:02 May 2011
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Abstract
This article examines the epistemological aspects of religious belief in early modern Europe. It suggests that the most prominent feature of Christian creeds during this period was their plurality and mutual inconsistency and that efforts to address this issue focused on the capacity of our natural cognitive faculties to limit the scope of faith and to establish the authenticity and meaning of documents that were said to have been inspired by God. It was widely accepted that the probability of any religious belief depends on the probability that it was revealed by God and that it has been correctly interpreted. Thus, the proliferation of inconsistent creeds by a wide range of churches provided many reasons to doubt both the source and the interpretation of doctrines that were presented as if they were indubitable.
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