The Theological Case for Fideism

Lecture 7 of Theological Epistemology Course

The main two views in theological epistemology are the fideist view and the rationalist view. The fideist view rejects natural theology and the use of reason or natural knowledge as a basis for faith. The rationalist view defends natural theology. You can guess which side I’m on.

In this seventh lecture of my course “Theological Epistemology,” I steel-man the theological case for fideism, analyzing sixteen arguments for fideism. We survey the arguments of Pascal, Barth, Kierkegaard, and Van Til, digging in to Barth’s “No!” concerning natural theology.

The first, sizable part of the lecture and a pdf of my lecture notes are available for free! To listen to the rest, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to The Natural Theologian.

Syllabus

Theological Epistemology Syllabus

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Previous Lectures

1. What Is Theological Epistemology? An Introduction

2. Bertrand Russell Refutes Cornelius Van Til

3. The Epistemology of Arguments for God, Ancient and Medieval

4. The Epistemology of Arguments for God, Modern and Contemporary

5. The Order of Being and the Order of Knowing

6. The Context of Contemporary Epistemology: Foundationalism, Coherentism, and Empiricism

7. The Theological Case for Fideism

Lecture Notes

Lecture 7 The Fideist Theological Case

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Part 1: The Pride of Human Reason

In this lecture, I consider sixteen arguments for theological fideism. Part 1 covers the first four:

1. Pride/Hubris of Human Reason

2. Christian Doctrine Includes Contradiction

3. Compromise with Natural/Pagan Man

4. The Noetic Effects of Sin

Part 2: Is Natural Theology Self-Salvation?

5. Falsifiability

6. Natural Theology is works-salvation or natural religion

7. Philosophy and natural science lead to the wrong God

8. The world doesn’t reveal God; God is hidden.

9. God of the gaps

10. Natural theology = naturalism