Clifford Williams

Clifford Williams. Existential Reasons for Belief in God: A Defense of Desires & Emotions for Faith. Downers Grove: IVP, 2011. 183 pp. $22.00.

Clifford Williams is a professor of philosophy at Trinity College in Deerfield, Illinois. He has authored numerous books, including The Divided Soul: A Kierkegaardian Exploration, The Life of the Mind: A Christian Perspective, and With All That We Have Why Aren’t We Satisfied?

With this short volume, Dr. Williams enters the arena where Reason and Emotion are often considered at war with one another. Our author ably articulates how the two are friend and not foe to the Christian faith. His thesis states that “the ideal way to acquire and sustain faith is through [emotional] need and reason” (176). Such an undertaking goes against a storied tradition of rationalists who emphasize reason and emotionalists who emphasize emotion. Both view either reason or emotion as enemies of the faith.

The complex argument begins by distinguishing two kinds of human needs. Self-directed needs include the need for cosmic security, heaven, goodness, meaning, and the need to be loved and forgiven. Other-directed needs include awe, justice, fairness and the need to love. In total, the author briefly describes thirteen desires that either lead to or sustain faith in God. It is pointed out that not all people experience every desire to the same degree of intensity. Nor do they need to in order for the argument to succeed.

The existential argument takes the basic form: (1) We need cosmic security, justice, mutual love etc. (2) Faith in God satisfies these needs (3) Therefore, we are justified in having faith in God.

This proposal is more modest than an evidentialist argument. The existential argument does not attempt to state the aforementioned needs demand an explanation, namely God. It simply states one is justified in having faith in God due to faith satisfying these needs. Through repetition, this point is made abundantly clear.

Four objections receive a response over the course of ninety pages. By the end Professor Williams suggests that his argument demonstrates “that faith in the Christian God satisfies the thirteen existential needs better than means that do not involve faith in a Christian God” (142). For example, faith in God satisfies the need for meaning better than a weekend hobby.

Williams’ work is well written and the argument is meticulously outlined and defended. The book is persuasive and the tone is winsome. Furthermore, the subject of emotion is often neglected in academic settings. Colleges and seminaries wage war against emotional congregations and carve out a living by emphasizing the mind and reason. However, Clifford reminds us not to throw out the proverbial baby with the bath water. A faith devoid of emotion is not a mature faith.

A weakness of the book is the target audience which is aimed toward “both professional and lay readers” (16). Yet, the volume is far from a Lee Strobel publishing. The writing is geared more appropriately toward the professional than the lay reader. Professors, pastors and seminarians will benefit from engaging in this discussion. Undergraduate students will likely struggle to follow along. Existential Reasons belongs in an advanced apologetics course, not in an introductory course.… (mais)