Author Description

Are humans rational beings? Can reason and religion be reconciled? Can and should belief in God be rationally justified? What does it really mean to say that something is "reasonable" or "rational"? These are some of the issues Mikael Stenmark wrestles with in this volume as he attempts to explicate what rationality is and under what conditions something may be considered rational. Stenmark distinguishes four different models for understanding the concept of rationality (formal evidentialism, social evidentialism, presumptionism, and contextualism) and discusses what consequences each view or model of rationality has for three central areas of human life: science, religion, and everyday life. Students and scholars of philosophy and philosophy of religion will appreciate this study for the provocative and original contribution it makes to the rationality debate in contemporary philosophy and theology, as well as for its inclusion of an overview of the accounts of rationality developed by contemporary philosophers such as Thomas Kuhn, Alasdair MacIntyre, D. Z. Phillips, and Alvin Plantinga, among others.