Warranted Resurrection
Belief
In
the great halls of Philosophy lies a School of Epistemology which has existed for
thousands of years. The question of how we know what we know is discussed at
this school and great men have fought and disputed the phenomenon of human
knowledge since the dawn of philosophy itself. Sometimes reading through the
tombs of essays and anthologies on this subject can make you feel like you are
stuck in an MS Escher painting. I will do my very best to present this material
as concisely as possible.
Alvin
Plantinga really has to be given credit as being the one who has revived
interest in the subject of religious epistemology. He laid the groundwork for
what might be called an intellectual treatise on faith. Ever since the dawn of
the modern era faith has been seen as a hindrance to rational thought. Marx saw
it as the opiate of the masses, and the faithful responded by proving him
right. Everyday we see stories of people doing the most irrational things for
their faith, and for any critical person these tragedies seem so easily avoided
should we not all adhere to a simple code of reason. I for one would not ever
want to be on the side that tries to limit or suppress rationality.
So
the question Plantinga ultimately sets out to answer is; is faith rational?
This is not expressly admitted to, but through his technical jargon this is the
basis for Warranted Christian Belief, which is the culmination of his Warranted
trilogy. What Plantinga offers is a very easy and common sense theory of
knowledge, which is refreshing, but his approach is still steeped in the
analytical school of philosophy. It can be daunting to try and read through his
books. Plantinga’s basic thesis is to identify the cognitive functions that
produce true beliefs, and if such functions are working properly then they
obtain warrant. Now there are a few more caveats to add to the idea of what it
means for a cognitive function to “work properly”, but that phrase is
sufficient enough to grasp the general meaning. Thus, a properly functioning
cognitive system is a rational one.
Plantinga
does very little to elaborate on what neurological components exist in his
epistemology to identify cognitive functions, nor does he ever make a
connection between faith and cognitive functions in order to truly establish
his thesis, but he does go to great lengths to show how principle Christian
beliefs demonstrate coherency toward general metaphysical principles. I cannot
say for sure why Plantinga drops the ball at the most critical juncture of his
argument, but it is still recognized to be one of the great contributions to
religious epistemology. My guess is that Plantinga wanted to shy away from
over-rationalizing the Christian faith, and to establish a specific cognitive
function as representing faith would in the end make our spirituality too banal
and natural. Plantinga mentions in his books how his epistemology is a
naturalistic one, but can be used for spiritual purposes. So in keeping “faith”
shrouded in its religious conclave made it possible for him to simply sidestep
the issue and move on to other important theological concepts.
But
where Plantinga left off, Paul Tillich gives us great insight into the
cognitive properties of faith. Paul Tillich describes faith as ultimate
concern. Tillich was not afraid of over-rationalizing the Christian faith, in
fact, that was his objective. Which might be to his peril. His Systematic
Theology is one of the greatest modern works of Theology, and one of the most
sacrilegious. It is pure theosophy on the one hand and Christian mysticism on
the other. Tillich gives us a comprehensive Christian faith seen through the
eyes of modern intellectualism. One can feel as though they completely
understand Christianity and still not know anything about it at all, after
reading it, like reading a manual on how to build a car and thinking you can
then drive it afterward.
What
is ultimate concern? For Tillich ultimate concern was that state of concern
that existed ultimately, and I know that sounds repititous, but it is an
important distinction. Concern is that state of seeking personal meaning. We
show concern, but concern is in a sense non-rational. It is not derived from
the inductive or deductive synthesis’ of our noetic structure. The way we
think, the way we hold beliefs, the way we arrange information into patterns is
all determined by a set of filters already in place we see as our identity. Our
identity is who we are. It is not simply knowledge. It is *our* knowledge. We
have no rational foundation for our identity is simply is. It exists and
everything else comes afterward.
When
Tillich proposed faith as ultimate concern what he was doing is saying that
faith is our way of finding meaning and purpose for our lives, and his proposal
was to argue that since our identities are non-rational we have the epistemic
license to seek the transcendent as a source for ultimate meaning. God, in this
sense, is the bringer or source of ultimate meaning. So for Tillich, god is a
tacit belief for all concerned people. We all just name our gods differently.
For some god is popularity. For others it is success, and still have family as
their god. The point is that the role is the same as directing our total selves
to something we see as beyond or transcendent.
The
argument along these lines to direct us to God in the proper sense, is to seek
out that one principle which is truly transcendent that can exist ultimately.
It does not good to make success our god, for that is clearly a false god. It
is no more transcendent then jump rope. It is an idol. Modern Evangelicals have
manufactured a term called, “classical theism” and with it they have made
themselves sound legitimate as possessing “classical” belief, but the reality
is that patristic and medieval theology had a well spring of divergent
theological belief that was very accommodating and adaptable to a pluralistic
society, and one such idea saw God as Unity. Unity of self and unity of others
and unity of nature is a valid transcendent concept that faith can properly
call God. It was along these lines that Thomas Aquinas called Truth, Good, and
One the Transcendentals of his metaphysical system, meaning that they were in
all beings and no being could ever separate itself from these three qualities.
He elaborated further to say that these Transcendentals could be condensed
further into Simplicity/Unity.
So
Warrant and Ultimate Concern can lead us theologically to accepting the reality
of God. And if we follow Plantinga’s line of thinking such a process is in a
sense naturalistic. In that, it becomes natural to find in God meaning to life
for those who come to find meaning in devoting themselves to God. And because
we can identify a natural source, albeit a genuine spirituality nonetheless, we
can propose that a relatable safe guard exists which can block or provide
resistance should we misuse or abuse our faith. We can easily assume that
because we can understand faith, we can also understand that something called,
“bad faith” exists.
If
Plantinga is correct and warrant is conferred through properly functioning
cognitive processes, and Tillich is correct that faith is ultimate concern then
we have a basis of determining what is good or bad faith, and thusly what would
be a good or bad religious experience. This fact alone makes the appeal to
religious experience as a basis for the resurrection extremely plausible. From
the a posteriori facts alone the resurrection produced some of the most
important spiritual insights for Western Civilization, and continues to do so
today. So what it comes down to is understanding what an identity is. An
identity is a unity. What makes an identity, what it is, is its basic
uniqueness while remaining unified to everything else. So what unites us to the
world?
Humans
have a distinct identity. I would say one that is ontologically different than
everything else. As Sarte exclaimed, “Existence before essence”. What he meant
was that for humans we first exist and then we have to figure out what we are.
For everything non-human, or non-person, what they are comes first and then
they are allowed to exist or not exist. Unicorns possess being, in that they
are potential. In classical metaphysics unicorns exist, because they exist
potentially. Today we would say that unicorns exist in a possible world. What
this means is that we lack a basic unity that everything around us has by
virtue of the fact that they are a non-person.
This
ontic unity is the basis of normativity for all faith activity. Anything “of
faith” ought to lead us to a greater inner unity and external harmony. The cult
leader who shuns society is intrinsically acting in bad faith. The serial
killer who hears from God, may be acting according to some “reason” for his
crime, but it is not in good faith that he does so. I would say that the
resurrection most certainly increased the unity quotient in those who first
confessed that they were witnesses to the Living God present in the New Life of
Jesus Christ. The literature that came from this event testifies to their
reliance on God and a new awareness of His existence in their hearts and in
their being as they live out their lives aware that everything they do, they do
for His purpose.
Since
we have no instruments which can measure whether or not something was either a
hallucination or a vision two thousand years ago. I propose that the a
posteriori evidence be considered and meriting genuine religious experience.
Since it can then I argue that a spiritual resurrection model has a good chance
of success.