Religious Disagreement and Pluralism

Epistemological questions about the significance of disagreement have advanced alongside broader developments in social epistemology concerning testimony, the nature of expertise and epistemic authority, the role of institutions, group belief, and epistemic injustice, among others. During this period, related issues in the epistemology of religion have re-emerged as worthy of new consideration, and available to be situated with new conceptual tools. Does disagreement between, and within, religions challenge the rationality of religious commitment? How should religious adherents think about exclusivist, inclusivist, and pluralist frameworks as applied to religious truth, or to matters of salvation or redemption or liberation? This volume explores many of these issues at the intersection of the epistemology of disagreement and religious epistemology. It engages in careful reflection on religious diversity and disagreement, offering ways to balance epistemic humility with personal conviction. Recognizing the place of religious differences in our social lives, it provides renewed efforts at how best to think about truths concerning religion.

1 - Disagreement and Religion: Problems and Prospects
2 - Disagreement, Testimony, and Religious Understanding
3 - How Confident Should the Religious Believer Be in the Face of Religious Pluralism?
4 - Religious Disagreement is Not Unique
5 - Is There Anything Special about Religious Disagreement?
6 - Transformative Experience and the Problem of Religious Disagreement
7 - The Apologist's Dilemma
8 - Rationalist Resistance to Disagreement-Motivated Religious Skepticism
9 - How to Be an Inclusivist
10 - The Loyalty of Religious Disagreement
11 - Democracy of the Dead? The Relevance of Majority Opinion in Theology

Matthew A. Benton is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Seattle Pacific University, where he has taught since 2016. Prior to that he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and at the University of Oxford. He earned a PhD in Philosophy from Rutgers University. He works primarily in epistemology, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of language. Jonathan L. Kvanvig is Professor of Philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis, USA. He was previously Professor of Philosophy at Texas A&M University, Professor and Department Chair at the University of Missouri, and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University. He works primarily in epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion, with related work in the philosophy of language and logic. He has published 18 books, and his work has been supported by grants from the Marc Sanders Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Templeton Religion Trust.