7.8 /10 1 Votes
Country United States Pages 336 Originally published 12 December 1991 Page count 336 Subject Philosophy of religion | 3.9/5 Goodreads Language English ISBN 978-0801481550 Genre Philosophy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Media type Print (Hardcover and Paperback) Similar Works by William Alston, Experience books, Philosophy books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Perceiving God: The Epistemology of Religious Experience is a 1991 book by William Alston, one of Alston's chief works in the philosophy of religion.
Contents
Summary
Alston, combining his interests in epistemic justification and religious language, gives a detailed account of the epistemology of religious experience, and argues that experiential awareness of God makes an important contribution to the grounds of religious belief. He argues that religious experiences which are taken by their subjects to be direct non-sensory experiences of God are perceptual in character because they involve a presentation or appearance to the subject of something that the subject identifies as God.
He defends the view that such mystical perception is a source of prima facie justified beliefs about divine manifestations by arguing for the practical rationality of engaging in a belief-forming practice that involves reliance on mystical perception.
Scholarly reception
Perceiving God has been praised by philosopher Alvin Plantinga.