Hi, I'm Peter Adamson, and you're listening to the History of Philosophy podcast brought to you with the support of the Philosophy Department at King's College London and the LMU in Munich, online at Historyofilosovied.net.

Today's episode, we are not our own, John Calvin.

Modern-day analytic philosophers do not by and large take inspiration from the 16th century founders of the Reformation, but there is a notable exception in the work of Alvin Plantinga, who as it happens taught at Notre Dame where I got my PhD.

Plantinga is a leading philosopher of religion who explicitly refers to John Calvin in setting out one of his most famous ideas, a so-called reformed epistemology that proposes a new way of defending the rationality of religious belief.

Usually, religious philosophers argue that belief in Christianity or the existence of God can be proven, or at least shown to be rational by appealing to premises that an atheist might accept.

Thus, in the natural theology tradition, one might point to features of the universe that suggested as well designed, features everyone should recognize.

On this basis, one can infer that the universe has a designer, namely God.

Plantinga suggests a different approach. For him, it could be rational simply to believe that God exists without any argument.

This could be, as Plantinga puts it, properly basic, a fitting entry in the beliefs we accept without further justification.

How could it be rational simply to believe in something that is so controversial?

Well, Plantinga says, what if you are aware of God's presence immediately in the way that we are aware of sensory experiences or memories?

It would be just like when you rationally believe you had an almond croissant for breakfast, or see that a giraffe is standing in front of you without needing to offer any rationale for these beliefs.

Theists may just find themselves having a belief like that, but about God.

To illustrate how this could work, Plantinga refers to an idea set forth in Calvin's major theological treatise, the Institutes of the Christian Religion.

This was a central work of the Reformation published in 1532 in Basel, and then appearing in numerous expanded editions, with the final version of 1560 being five times as long as the first.

Early on in the Institutes, Calvin refers to an awareness of divinity that all of us have, an inborn tendency to believe in God.

Plantinga says, Calvin's claim is that one who exceeds to this tendency and in these circumstances accepts the belief that God has created the world is entirely within his epistemic rights in doing so.

His belief need not be based on any other propositions at all.

Under these conditions, he is perfectly rational in accepting belief in God in the utter absence of any argument.

Now, as Plantinga is himself a Calvinist, I can hardly object to his taking inspiration from John Calvin, who, as Plantinga remarks, is as good a Calvinist as any.

But I would gently correct his interpretation.

Calvin's stance might imply that it is rational to believe in God without argument, but this is not what Calvin was trying to say.

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