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Cognitive opacity and the analysis of faith: acts of faith interiorized through a glass only darkly

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2018

DANIEL J. MCKAUGHAN
DANIEL J. MCKAUGHAN*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA
*
e-mail: daniel.mckaughan@bc.edu
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Abstract

In conversation with Morgan (2015), I point out that the view of relational faith I have elsewhere defended (McKaughan 2013, 2016, 2017) fits rather well with the understanding of pistis that emerges from Morgan's careful reading of New Testament texts. Moreover, the fact that New Testament authors display little interest in examining interior aspects of faith makes it difficult to justify the claim that their understanding of the pistis lexicon requires believing in the modern sense as the attitude Christians must take towards relevant content, in contrast to various other positive but non-doxastic attitudes that philosophers recognize today. Such faith is of contemporary interest, given its congruity with early Christian tradition, the role it can play in helping relationships to persevere through various kinds of challenges (including doubts significant enough to preclude believing), and for the wide range of evidential circumstances in which it can be enacted with intellectual integrity.

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Type
Book Symposium
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 54 , Issue 4 , December 2018 , pp. 576 - 585
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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