Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T13:34:27.674Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Mad, Bad, or God argument explained

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2013

MATTHEW FRISE
MATTHEW FRISE*
Affiliation:
Philosophy Department, University of Rochester, Box 270078, Rochester, NY 14627-0078, USAmfrise@z.rochester.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

According to Stephen Davis's Mad, Bad, or God (MBG) argument, Jesus must be divine since all other leading explanations of his alleged claim to be divine can be ruled out. I criticize Davis's argument and then sketch an ‘inference to best explanation’ MBG argument. I argue that proponents and critics of MBG arguments should focus on mine since it avoids common pitfalls at no cost and it best respects (for better or worse) a massive but too easily ignored body of evidence relevant to its conclusion.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , December 2013 , pp. 581 - 589
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Audi, Robert (1994) ‘Dispositional beliefs and dispositions to believe’, Nous, 28, 419–434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chesterton, G. K. (1925/1993) The Everlasting Man (San Francisco: Ignatius Press).Google Scholar
Davis, Stephen T. (2004) ‘The mad/bad/god trilemma: a reply to Daniel Howard-Snyder’, Faith and Philosophy, 21, 480–492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Stephen T. (2009) ‘Was Jesus mad, bad, or God?’, in Rea, Michael (ed.) Oxford Readings in Philosophical Theology: Trinity, Incarnation, Atonement I (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 166–185.Google Scholar
Howard-Snyder, Daniel (2009) ‘Was Jesus mad, bad, or God? … or merely mistaken?’, in Rea, Michael (ed.) Oxford Readings in Philosophical Theology: Trinity, Incarnation, Atonement I (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 186–210.Google Scholar
Lewis, C. S. (1943) Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan).Google Scholar
Lewis, C. S. (1947) Miracles (New York: Macmillan).Google Scholar