Theism and the challenge of twentieth-century philosophy

Abstract

This paper examines the challenge that philosophers influenced by positivism posed to religion during the twentieth century, and considers how philosophers more sympathetic to theism responded to this challenge. By focusing upon the trajectory of the philosophical challenge to theism in the twentieth century, this paper seeks to highlight the various ways that the relationship between theistic faith and reason was conceived by those debating the credibility of religious belief. The paper concludes that although the conception of reason’s relationship to faith dominant at the end of the twentieth century was more conducive to creative religious thought than was that prevalent at the beginning of the century, it nevertheless generates significant unresolved problems.