Can arguments boost warrant for Christian belief? Warrant boosting and the primacy of divine revelation

Abstract

It is well known that in Reformed circles there is significant doubt about the extent of the role natural theology might play in warranting Christian belief. I argue that even if we accept the core theological reservations and philosophical commitments shared by the likes of Karl Barth and Reformed epistemologists, there remains room for the arguments of natural theology to serve a vital, positive function. I offer a proposal for how we might think about the co-ordination of multiple sources of warrant for Christian belief such that arguments function as catalysts to or extensions of the deliverances of faith.

Ibn Taymiyya on theistic signs and knowledge of God

“…Yet, there is also another way to construe the scenario. Drawing upon the ‘combined warrant scenarios’ offered by Kevin S. Diller (2011), suppose one has some vague theistic seeming (due to an impaired fiṭra ) that God exists, a seeming not strong enough for warrant. But then perhaps one learns of some inference for God, say a cosmological argument that goes something like this: whatever begins to exist has a cause, the universe began to exist, therefore, the universe has a cause (i.e.…”