God and the Reach of Reason
الله ومدى العقل
Dieu et la portée de la raison
Wielenberg argues that when the arguments of C.S. Lewis, Bertrand Russell, and David Hume are rigorously compared, naturalism emerges as at least as rationally defensible as theism, and that the problem of evil and the moral argument both cut more deeply against classical theism than its defenders acknowledge.
Editorial summary
Erik Wielenberg's God and the Reach of Reason examines the philosophical exchanges between three influential twentieth-century thinkers: C.S. Lewis, David Hume, and Bertrand Russell. The monograph investigates how these figures deployed reason to address fundamental questions about God's existence, morality, and the nature of the universe. Wielenberg structures his analysis around key philosophical battlegrounds where these thinkers' arguments intersect and clash, offering a systematic evaluation of their respective positions.
The work engages substantively with cosmological arguments, particularly examining Lewis's argument from reason and his moral argument for God's existence. Wielenberg analyzes how Lewis contends that naturalism undermines the reliability of human reason, thereby defeating itself, while theism provides the necessary foundation for rational thought. Against this, Wielenberg explores Hume's skeptical challenges to design arguments and Russell's naturalistic alternatives. The treatment of the problem of evil receives careful attention, with Wielenberg examining how Lewis attempts to reconcile suffering with divine goodness through his free will defense, while considering Humean and Russellian objections that evil constitutes decisive evidence against theism.
Wielenberg's analytical approach dissects the logical structure of each thinker's arguments, identifying key premises and evaluating their soundness. He demonstrates how Lewis constructs a cumulative case for theism, weaving together multiple lines of argument that he believes collectively support Christian belief. The monograph shows how Russell and Hume offer competing naturalistic explanations for phenomena that Lewis takes as evidence for God, including moral experience, reason, and cosmic order.
The significance of this work lies in its careful philosophical arbitration between theistic and naturalistic worldviews through the lens of three major intellectuals. Wielenberg illuminates how fundamental disagreements about metaphysics, epistemology, and value theory shape these thinkers' approaches to the God question. His analysis reveals that the debate often turns on competing intuitions about what requires explanation and what counts as a satisfactory explanation. The monograph contributes to contemporary philosophy of religion by clarifying the logical relationships between various arguments in the theism-naturalism debate and demonstrating how background philosophical commitments influence the assessment of evidence for and against God's existence. Through rigorous analytical scrutiny, Wielenberg advances understanding of both the power and limitations of rational argument in addressing ultimate questions.
Structure of the work
Argument formulations engaged
Related works
Wielenberg, Erik J. (2008). God and the Reach of Reason. Cambridge University Press.
@book{god-and-the-reach-of-reason,
author = {Wielenberg, Erik J.},
title = {God and the Reach of Reason},
year = {2008},
publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
url = {https://god-database.com/en/works/god-and-the-reach-of-reason}
}