Perceiving God: The Epistemology of Religious Experience

by William P. Alston

Overview

In this clear and provocative account of the epistemology of religious experience, William P. Alston argues that the perception of God—his term for direct experiential awareness of God—makes a major contribution to the grounds of religious belief. Surveying the variety of reported direct experiences of God, Alston demonstrates that a person can be justified in holding certain beliefs about God on the basis of mystical experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801471247
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	01/24/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	672 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

The late William P. Alston was Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Syracuse University. His books include A Realist Conception of Truth, Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meanings, The Reliability of Sense Perception, and Perceiving God: The Epistemology of Religious Experience, all from Cornell.

What People are Saying About This

Alvin Plantinga

This splendid book is the fruit of decades of mature and penetrating reflection. As you would expect, it takes discussion of the topics surrounding experience of God to a new level of insight and penetration.

Robert Audi

A first-rate and truly important piece of work, Perceiving God is both a signal contribution to the philosophy of religion and a powerful treatise in epistemology. The book is philosophically rigorous and admirably lucid. It is in my judgment the leading contemporary work on the epistemic status of religious experience.

Editorial Reviews

The elegant and comprehensive argument in this book is the definitive version of a position Alston has been developing over the past decade. It is arguably the most important investigation of the epistemology of mysticism from a sophisticated analytical-pragmatic perspective since James's Varieties.

Theological Studies

The elegant and comprehensive argument in this book is the definitive version of a position Alston has been developing over the past decade. It is arguably the most important investigation of the epistemology of mysticism from a sophisticated analytical-pragmatic perspective since James's Varieties.

-- "Theological Studies"

From the Publisher