Divine Faith Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies Series

Using philosophical and theological reflection, this book explores the rational grounding for Christian faith, inquiring into the basis for believing the Christian revelation, and using the answers to give an account of Christian faith itself. Setting the discussion in the context of the history of views on revelation, Divine Faith makes an original contribution to historiography and draws out hitherto unnoticed affinities between Catholic and Protestant thought. Re-examining the question from the beginning by asking how it is that the Christian revelation is made, Lamont then looks at the fundamental philosophical issues concerning the nature of knowledge and the reasonableness of belief in testimony that are crucial to an understanding of Christian belief. Through theological considerations on the relations of grace and the church, and new advances in the philosophy of belief in testimony and how God speaks to communicate the Christian religion, this book offers an original and powerful account of the nature of Christian belief.

Contents: Fundamental assumptions; The existence of divine speaking; History of Christian views on the basis of belief I: patristic themes; History of Christian views on the basis of belief II: medieval and modern options; Knowledge as the product of intellectual virtue; Knowledge from testimony; The nature of divine speaking; The nature of divine faith; Appendix I: content externalism and the development of doctrine; Appendix II: Newman on the development of doctrine; Select bibliography; Index.

Dr John R.T. Lamont is Gifford Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews, UK.