Alston, William Payne

(1921-)

   A leading Christian philosopher, a co-founder and past president of the Society of Christian Philosophers and founding editor of the journal Faith and Philosophy, William P. Alston also edits the important monograph series Cornell Studies in the Philosophy of Religion, and was President of the Central (then called 'Western') Division of the American Philosophical Association. His philosophy is of a realistic bent, and this shows itself in his work on truth, meaning and metaphysics, as well as in philosophy of religion, in which he has argued, contrary to those that claim it is entirely equivocal or analogical, that there is a 'univocal core' to religious discourse, and that much of our thought about God is literally true. Alston's work in philosophy of religion has also been groundbreaking where it has intersected with his innovative contributions to epistemology. Perhaps particularly notable is his defence of the rationality of religious belief based on 'mystical perception' the perception of God associated with religious experiences. He has argued that since we treat beliefs based on sense perception as rational we should treat beliefs based on mystical perception as rational too. Alston also taught Alvin Plantinga when the latter was a graduate student.

   See analogy; experience, religious; Plantinga, Alvin; Society of Christian Philosophers; univocal

   Further reading: Alston 1989a, 1989b and 1993; Howard-Snyder 2004; Morris 1994.