Trust in God

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter applies the account of trust developed hitherto in another novel area, addressing a current debate in the philosophy of religion. Many writers in recent years have argued that faith in God does not require any propositional belief, such as the belief that God exists, and of these, a number have used the notion of trust to develop a non-doxastic account of faith. This chapter addresses this debate indirectly, arguing that, by trusting in a speaking God, one normally commits oneself to believing a core of what is presented as divine speech. That is, trust in God normally has doxastic implications. This has the implication that, if faith in God involves trust, so faith is normally doxastic. Central to this claim is an argument about the rational implications of two-place trust for three-place trust relations, an argument which also has wider relevance for how to think about trust.