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Skeptical Theism

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Perry Hendricks

    1. University of Minnesota, Morris, Morris, USA

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  • Discusses the problem of evil, evolution, and divine hiddenness
  • Discusses and defends skeptical theism and how it undermines the popular arguments against God’s existence
  • Argues that belief in God is not irrational despite all of the evil and suffering found in the world

Part of the book series: Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion (PFPR)

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Perry Hendricks
    Pages 1-10

  3. Axiological Skeptical Theism Proved

    • Perry Hendricks
    Pages 11-48

  4. Deontological Skeptical Theism Proved

    • Perry Hendricks
    Pages 49-70

  5. Skeptical Theism and the Problems of Evil

    • Perry Hendricks
    Pages 71-118

  6. Skeptical Theism and Other Arguments for Atheism

    • Perry Hendricks
    Pages 119-139

  7. Skeptical Theism Defeated?

    • Perry Hendricks
    Pages 141-167

  8. Faithful Skeptical Theism

    • Perry Hendricks
    Pages 169-202

  9. Theodicy and Natural Theology

    • Perry Hendricks
    Pages 203-234

  10. Commonsense Problems of Evil

    • Perry Hendricks
    Pages 235-269

  11. Back Matter

    Pages 271-294
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Keywords

About this book

Is evil evidence against the existence of God? Does divine hiddenness provide an evidential problem for theism? Is our evolutionary history evidence that God doesn’t exist? Skeptical theism is the view that humans are cognitively limited in important ways that prevent us from providing affirmative answers to these evidential questions. In this book—the first monograph published on skeptical theism—Perry Hendricks gives careful, novel, and compelling arguments in favor of skeptical theism and provides a comprehensive defense of it, addressing all major objections to skeptical theism on offer. The implications of skeptical theism are teased out: it undermines the most prominent arguments for atheism on offer, which significantly lowers the epistemic status of atheism.

Reviews

“Perry Hendricks raises the discussion of skeptical theism to a new level of sophistication, relying on detailed arguments to support skeptical theism instead of just intuitions and analogies. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the intellectual problem of evil.”
-Paul Draper, Professor of Philosophy, Purdue University

“Skeptical theism—which expresses skepticism about our ability to accurately evaluate divine permission of suffering and evil—is one of the most popular contemporary replies to the atheistic argument from evil. Perry Hendricks’ book, Skeptical Theism, is a must-read work for anyone interested in this response to the problem of evil or in atheistic arguments more generally. It is chock-full of novel and compelling reasoning, both in support of skeptical theism and in response to all of the major objections to that view to date.”
-Michael Bergmann, Professor of Philosophy, Purdue University

“In this book, Hendricks clarifies both the nature and plausibility of skeptical theism, a response to the problem of evil stretching back several millennia.  His charitable treatment of objections, careful parsing of positions, and extension of skeptical theism to a life of faith make the book a worthwhile read.”
-Justin McBrayer, Professor of Philosophy, Fort Lewis College

“Perry Hendricks has done philosophers a service by filling a glaring gap in the literature. Hendricks writes a single authored monograph that is a rigorous and up to date defense of skeptical theism. For those interested in the problem of evil literature, this is a must read.”
-Tyler Dalton McNabb, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Saint Francis University

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Minnesota, Morris, Morris, USA

    Perry Hendricks

About the author

Perry Hendricks is an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris. He has published numerous articles in such journals as: Analysis, American Philosophical Quarterly, Ergo, The Journal of the American Philosophical Association, and Pacific Philosophical Quarterly.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Skeptical Theism

  • Authors: Perry Hendricks

  • Series Title: Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34271-4

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-34270-7Published: 07 December 2023

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-34273-8Due: 07 January 2024

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-34271-4Published: 06 December 2023

  • Series ISSN: 2634-6176

  • Series E-ISSN: 2634-6184

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 294

  • Topics: Philosophy of Religion

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