Atheists: the featherweight theological division

One thing I like about apologetics (both for theism and atheism), despite its bad reputation for cherry-picking facts, indulging in ad hominems and breeding false confidence, is that it focuses entirely on what is to me the most interesting question in the academic study of religion: the cognitive status of religious truth-claims. There's certainly a place for more phenomenological, descriptive studies of particular religious experiences, religious history and so on, but generally scholars in religious studies refrain from advancing arguments for the truth of any particular belief or belief system.

Denys Turner wants that to change: "[this is] how I envision Theology being done within the university-as argument between traditions of truth-claim in contestation over the truths they make claim to."

William J. Abraham has issued a similar challenge to religious scholars:

"We need more than armchair possibilities and thought experiments; we need actual claims advanced in some detail and with some care...Proponents of divine revelation need to advance in some detail the particular claims they think are secured, the relevant epistemic considerations they deem appropriate, the precise arguments they think straighten their case, and the way they propose to handle standard defeaters and objections...Thus it is up to Moslems to advance the claims of Mohammed; it is up to Mormons to argue the case for Joseph Smith...Indeed, it is the mark of a serious theological tradition derived from divine revelation to own up to this responsibility and explain itself in public...Let each tradition speak for itself and say its piece. In turn, let critics be free to develop whatever objections they deem relevant." (Crossing the threshold of divine revelation, p.153)

So what does Turner think of the so-called 'new atheism' which is creating such headaches for thinking Christians? Apparently, not much:

"Unhappily today...atheists are in practice mostly runts, being intellectually under-weight and having little of interest to contribute to family life, not even decent levels of disagreement. There is in fact an important role for the university theologians in the re-education of atheists in what it would be worthwhile having them around to deny, because, even looking at it from their point of view, the superficiality of their negations gets them nowhere near a proper denial of God, but often little beyond the abandonment of an infantile fairy tale: so that they are not even very good atheists. Likewise, there is far too little in common between what a Flew or a Dawkins tells us does not exist and what any theologians claim does exist for their denials to offer any real theological stimulus, so that there is a certain lopsidedness to the theological argument. The atheistical challenge being so generally lackadaisical, the consequence is that hardly anyone really argues about God any more, not even theologians much." (Fields of Faith, p.35)

And lest you be tempted to think that this is just a brash, dismissable outburst, try reading his Faith, Reason and the Existence of God for a mental workout. I have to admit that, having just started doing further reading in the more sophisticated theologians such as Miroslav Volf, Robert Adams and Robert Jenson, Turner seems to be right about the current state of discussion between theists and atheists. There are a few exceptions, such as Graham Oppy's Arguing about Gods or Nicholas Everitt's The Non-Existence of God. But it's clear that there's still a long way to go before atheists can lay claim to a serious, intellectual vital tradition with a clear atheist identity, especially in a time when a theologian like Volf can appropriate Nietszche as the preferred dialogue partner for a major work on Christian ethics!