- m ll ■ i A m mm®f A #H \ . __ REASON J for the H W ope ithin edited by Michael J. Murray foreword by \ -Alv in Plantinga ! REASON FOR THE HOPE WITHIN Edited by Michael J. Murray William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K. © 1999 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 / P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K. All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 17 13 12 11 10 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Reason for the hope within / edited by Michael J. Murray. P- cm. ISBN 978-0-8028-4437-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Christianity — Philosophy. I. Murray, Michael J. BR100.R35 1999 239 — dc21 98-49100 CIP www.eerdmans.com Contents A cknowledgments vi 1 Foreword x Alvin Plantinga Introduction xm Michael J. Murray 1. Reason for Hope (in the Postmodern World) 1 Michael J. Murray 2. Theistic Arguments 20 William C. Davis 3. A Scientific Argument for the Existence of God: The Fine-Tuning Design Argument 47 Robin Collins 4. God, Evil, and Suffering 76 Daniel Howard-Snyder 5. Arguments for Atheism 116 John O3Leary-Hawthorn v CONTENTS 6. Faith and Reason 135 Caleb Miller 7. Religious Pluralism 165 Timothy O'Connor 8. Eastern Religions 182 Robin Collins 9. Divine Providence and Human Freedom 217 Scott A. Davison 10. The Incarnation and the Trinity 238 Thomas D. Senor 11. The Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting 261 Trenton Merricks 12. Heaven and Hell 287 Michael J. Murray 13. Religion and Science 318 W. Christopher Stewart 14. Miracles and Christian Theism 345 J. A. Cover 15. Christianity and Ethics 375 Frances Howard-Snyder 16. The Authority of Scripture 399 Douglas Blount Contributors 423 Index 424 vi Acknowledgments In preparing this book, the authors gathered for two weeks in July of 1997 at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, to read through and dis­ cuss the manuscript collectively. Following this two-week period, the au­ thors, in conjunction with the Center for Christian Studies and Gordon College, sponsored a two-day apologetics workshop for Christian leaders and laity from the New England area. During the workshop, authors pre­ sented the material from these chapters in small group settings in order to provide some “hands on” training in apologetics, as well as to “road test” the material for this volume. Both the authors’ conference and the work­ shop were instrumental in producing this book. Without both of them, it is unlikely this work would have ever made it to completion. So many people were involved in launching and seeing through the conference and the workshop, it is hard to acknowledge them all. Thanks must first of all go out to Tom and Lynn Shields for the enthusiasm and vision they exhibited for this project before it was even formally under­ way. Their encouragement, advice, and financial support in bringing about the conference and the book were critical to getting these projects through their birth pangs. All of the authors are deeply grateful to Gordon College, the Center for Christian Studies, and a few individuals who supported and financed these events. First and foremost we thank Harold Heie, Director of the Center for Christian Studies. Harold’s vision for this project very early on allowed it to become something more than any of us could have dreamed. His determination and hard work were the main reason the conference and workshop happened. vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In addition we would like to thank Gordon College President Jud Carlburg and Provost Mark Sargent for their support and nurture of this project. Very special thanks are due to Dwight and Deborah Anderson, Preston and Pamela Mason, Charles and Carol Purdy, Tom and Mary Morris, Alvin Plantinga, and to Millersville Bible Church (PA). They had faith in this project and in turn provided the financial and moral support that brought it to fruition. We are also deeply indebted to Amy Kvistad, Ron Hilton, and Chris Underation of Gordon College for the untiring efforts at working out all of the million details for our summer gathering. We are especially grateful to those who attended and participated in the workshops with us. They provided us with invaluable feedback as we “road tested” this material. Their forthrightness helped us see when the material was too difficult or not relevant to their concerns. The changes that resulted from this feedback have been nothing short of drastic. We are also grateful to Peter Kreeft and Gordon MacDonald for their sup­ port of and participation in the two-day workshop. All of the authors would like to express their gratitude to Eleonore Stump, William Alston, Brian Leftow, William Wainwright, Laura Ekstrom, and Kelly Monroe for their participation in the conference as well. Their encouragement, mature guidance, and helpful feedback were instrumental in guiding our subsequent revisions. All of the authors would also like to thank their spouses for their pa­ tience during that summer event. Many of them had to endure van rides to Boston from as far away as Texas and Wyoming. Since most of the au­ thors have small children, spouses spent a number of very hot days and nights in dorm rooms running around after a dizzying blur of children and babies while we worked on this book. No expression of our apprecia­ tion could adequately measure our gratitude for their loving support. We promise air conditioning next time! An extra measure of thanks is due to my wife, Kirsten, and my three children, Sam, Elise, and Julia. Not only did they have to endure some of the trying circumstances surrounding our summer event, but they had to put up with the many hours of planning, meetings, trips, etc., that pre­ ceded it. In addition, Kirsten willingly took on the difficult role of confer­ ence organizer during much of the year preceding the conference and was the “go to” person for many of the practical details during that sum­ mer. Her exceptional organizational talents made so much of this seem effortless. Without her many hours of time on the phone, on e-mail, writ­ ing letters, etc., I would surely have made a mess of things. viii Acknowledgments Finally, I would like to thank the three senior pastors under whom I have sat during my Christian life. Rich Ainsworth, Craig Clapper, and Steve Butts not only ignited and sustained in me a hunger for a knowl­ edge of and a relationship with God, but, through their teaching, fed me more richly than I could have hoped for. I have been truly blessed to have been instructed by them. But beyond being good teachers and expositors of the Scriptures, they were and are men who have modeled the godly Christian life in excelsis. It is to them that this book is dedicated. Michael J. Murray ix Foreword Reason for the Hope Within is a wonderful idea, splendidly executed. Fur­ ther, its presence and execution is a greatly encouraging sign. When I be­ gan teaching philosophy forty years ago, the conventional wisdom was that Christianity was doomed; it might persist in a few culturally isolated pockets — the deep south, perhaps, and maybe western Michigan — but its future was continued marginalization, irrelevance, and diminution to museum status. This process was particularly clear in academia, where the process was already far advanced. Of course this wasn’t the first time for such predictions: one thinks of Voltaire’s and Thomas Jefferson’s expression of similar sentiments in the eighteenth century, and of Nietzsche’s strident declarations in the nineteenth. Like them, this one turned out decidedly premature.2 Chris­ tian belief is doing much better than predicted. This is true even in acade­ mia and even in philosophy, which has not traditionally been thought a bastion in defense of the faith. Indeed, this is true especially in philoso­ phy; a fairly sizeable proportion of this country’s philosophers are pre­ pared to identify themselves as Christians by way of membership in the Society of Christian Philosophers or the American Catholic Philosophical Association. The fact is plain even if the reasons are obscure: there is now more serious involvement with Christian thought in philosophy than there has been for a very long time. Now one presumes that being a Christian will make a difference to one’s philosophy. Centrally important here is this: a Christian philosopher will take seriously her responsibility to the broader Christian community. x