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.