Paul Moser

Paul K. Moser (born 1957 in Bismarck, North Dakota) is an American philosopher who writes on epistemology and the philosophy of religion. He is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago and past editor of the American Philosophical Quarterly. He is the author of many works in epistemology and the philosophy of religion, in which he has supported versions of epistemic foundationalism and volitional theism. His work brings these two positions together to support volitional evidentialism about theistic belief, in contrast to fideism and traditional natural theology. He draws from some epistemological and theological insights of the apostle Paul, Kierkegaard, P.T. Forsyth, H.R. Mackintosh, and H. H. Farmer, but he adds (i) a notion of purposively available evidence of God’s existence, (ii) a notion of authoritative evidence in contrast with spectator evidence, (iii) a notion of personifying evidence of God whereby willing humans can become salient evidence of God's existence, and (iv) a notion of convictional knowledge of divine reality. His most recent work emphasizes the importance of experiential foundational evidence from the self-manifestation of God's moral character to cooperative humans, particularly in moral conscience. An evidential role for experienced agapē, along the lines of Romans 5:5, is central to his theistic epistemology, as is his view that God is self-authenticating or self-evidencing via self-manifestation and conviction toward unselfish love. One result is a distinctive approach to divine hiddenness and the evidence for God's reality and presence. The latter evidence need not be limited to the confines of Christian religious commitment or any religious commitment.

Authored books • The God Relationship: The Ethics for Inquiry about the DivineCambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017. ISBN 978-1-107-19534-9 • Understanding Religious ExperienceCambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming, 2019. • The Severity of God: Religion and Philosophy ReconceivedCambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. ISBN 978-1-107-61532-8 • The Evidence for God: Religious Knowledge ReexaminedCambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-521-73628-2 • The Elusive God: Reorienting Religious EpistemologyCambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 304 pages. ISBN 978-0-521-88903-2 Winner of the 2011 Alpha Sigma Nu (Honor Society of Jesuit Colleges and Universities) Book Award for Philosophy • The Theory of Knowledge: A Thematic Introduction (with D.H. Mulder and J.D. Trout)New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. 212 pages. Translated by Marcelo Brandao Cipolla as A Teoria Do Conhecimentio: Uma Introducao Tematica. Sao Paulo: Martins Fontes, 2004. 233 pages. • Philosophy After Objectivity: New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. 267 pages. Paperback edition, 1999. Electronic version published in NetLibrary, 2002. • Knowledge and EvidenceCambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Cambridge Studies in Philosophy Series (Series Editor: Sydney Shoemaker). 285 pages. Paperback edition, 1991. • Empirical JustificationBoston/Dordrecht: D. Reidel (Kluwer/Springer) Publishing Company, 1985. Philosophical Studies Series in Philosophy, Vol. 34 (Series Editors: Keith Lehrer and Wilfrid Sellars). 263 pages. Published also in Reidel's Pallas Paperback Series, 1985.