The Wisdom to Doubt: A Justification of Religious Skepticism, by J. L. Schellenberg. * The Elusive God: Reorienting Religious Epistemology, by Paul K. Moser.

Two important books propose revisions to the philosophy of religion — Schellenberg’s The Wisdom to Doubt and Moser’s The Elusive God. The former has fourteen densely textured chapters divided into three parts. Part I lays out the nature of, and arguments for, suspending belief that Ultimism or its denial is true. (Generic) Ultimism, the propositional content of minimalist religion, is the view that there is an ontologically and evaluatively ultimate (not necessarily uncaused) reality, proper relationship to which constitutes the human summum bonum (p. 3). Part II (the shortest) argues that while naturalism entails that Ultimism is false, it is unavailable to the sceptic since naturalism itself is unjustified. It also contends that religious experience does not justify religious belief. Part III (surprisingly) argues that theism is false. It is important to separate the essential argument and the argument that is said to prove theism false. We read:...