Taking Plantinga Seriously

In this chapter, Merold Westphal suggests that Christian philosophers pay more attention to their other audience, the Church, that they reflect on ways in which their situation is similar to that of feminist philosophers, and that they seek to transcend not only the foundationalism and evidentialism of modernity, but also to go beyond its monological concept of reason to a dialogical concept. Finally, and at greater length, Westphal suggests that Christian philosophers abandon the widespread assumption that the coin of their realm is propositions, assuming too easily that we have already transcended Plato’s cave when we start our work and speak a language that is no natural language. The bearing of this issue on the realism/anti-realism issue and on the relation of metaphysics to both politics and spirituality is explored.