Christian existential apologetics
Christian existential apologetics differs from normal Christian apologetics by basing belief in God on the satisfaction of existential needs rather than on purely evidential arguments. Christian existential apologetics also differs from Christian existentialism and experiential apologetics. The former deals with the human condition in general and the latter consists of evidential argumentation based on religious experience.
Existential apologetics
Christian existential apologetics is “the demonstration that Christian faith is justified because it satisfies certain emotional and spiritual needs.”[1] It typically consists of “existential arguments for believing in God” that are expressed as follows:
- Humans have certain “existential” needs. N. T. Wright lists four such needs: “the longing for justice, the quest for spirituality, the hunger for relationships, and the delight in beauty.” [2] Clifford Williams lists thirteen: “We need cosmic security. We need to know that we will live beyond the grave in a state that is free from the defects of this life, a state that is full of goodness and justice. We need a more expansive life, one in which we love and are loved. We need meaning, and we need to know that we are forgiven for going astray. We also need to experience awe, to delight in goodness and to be present with those we love.”[3]
- Faith in God satisfies these needs.
- Therefore, faith in God is justified.
Williams states that this argument is not the same as an evidential argument: "A person who is convinced of an existential argument says, 'I believe because I am satisfied when I do.' A person who is convinced of an evidential argument says, 'I believe because there is a good reason to do so.'"[4] He also states that the argument is different from C. S. Lewis’s argument from desire, which argues that there is an explanation of the source of the existential needs: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”[5]
Criticisms
Evidentialists, such as W. K. Clifford, argue that it is wrong to have beliefs for which one lacks proper evidence: "it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence."[6] Sigmund Freud stated that "religious ideas . . . are not precipitates of experience or end-results of thinking: they are illusions, fulfillments of the oldest, strongest and most urgent wishes of mankind."[7] By an “illusion” Freud meant a belief for which one must “disregard its relations to reality.”[8]
See also
References
- ^ Clifford Williams, Existential Reasons for Belief in God: A Defense of Desires and Emotions for Faith (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2011) p. 13.
- ^ N. T. Wright, Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), p. x.
- ^ Williams, Existential Reasons for Belief in God, p. 32.
- ^ Williams, Existential Reasons for Belief in God, p. 45.
- ^ C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001) pp. 136-137.
- ^ W. K. Clifford, The Ethics of Belief and Other Essays (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1999), pp. 70-96 and online at http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/w_k_clifford/ethics_of_belief.html
- ^ Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion in The Freud Reader, ed. Peter Gay (New York: W. W. Norton, 1989), p. 703.
- ^ Freud, The Future of an Illusion, in The Freud Reader, p. 704.
Further reading
- Becker, Ernest, The Denial of Death (New York: The Free Press, 1997)
- Freud, Sigmund, The Future of an Illusion, in Peter Gay, ed., The Freud Reader (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1989), 686-722
- James, William, "The Will to Believe," in John J. McDermott, ed., The Writings of William James (New York: The Modern Library, 1968), 717-735
- James, William, "The Sentiment of Rationality," in John J. McDermott, ed., The Writings of William James (New York: The Modern Library, 1968), 317-345
- Jordan, Jeff, "The Ethics of Belief," in Jeff Jordan, Pascal's Wager: Pragmatic Arguments and Belief in God (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 37-72
- Morris, Thomas, Making Sense of It All: Pascal and the Meaning of Life (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1992)
- Pascal, Blaise, Pensées, trans. A. J. Krailsheimer (New York: Penguin Books, 1995)
- Wainwright, William J., Reason and the Heart: A Prolegomenon to a Critique of Passional Reason (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1995)
- Williams, Clifford, Existential Reasons for Belief in God: A Defense of Desires and Emotions for Faith (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2011
- Wynn, Mark R., Emotional Experience and Religious Understanding: Integrating Perception, Conception and Feeling (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005)
External links