What Plantinga and Alston offer is a philosophical argument...

What Plantinga and Alston offer is a philosophical argument as to why religious belief may be considered warranted and rational, even in the absence of direct evidential support. Today's Christian theologians, however, are often unimpressed by the works of Christian philosophers such as those mentioned above.

These philosophers are primarily concerned with the issues of rationality and the justification or warrant that can or cannot be provided for assertions of the truth of various- religious claims. The theologians, on the other hand, often seem to be more interested in the effects in the lives of believers which are associated with adhering to various beliefs and participating in the Church. Religion is not a collection of truths about God, they insist, but a way to salvation.

Religious symbols are important for many contemporary Christian theologians not as they serve to disclose religious truths which might not be expressible in non symbolic language, but rather because they present a framework within which meaning for human life is to be found.[^22] Another reason Christian theologians have given for their antipathy toward philosophy is related to the problem of religious pluralism.

In the past, Christian theologians claimed that the doctrines of Christianity were true, and that all those doctrines inconsistent with Christian dogma were false. Among the dogmas of traditional Christianity is the claim that there is only one way to salvation for Catholics, the Church, and for Protestants, participation in Christ's redemption of sin by faith.

In short, traditional Christianity would exclude Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists from salvation and eternal felicity unless they would accept Christianity on learning of its gospel. As Christians are becoming increasingly aware that there are good people, even saintly people, who follow a path other than that of Christianity although they are familiar with the gospel, they are finding it difficult to accept the traditional dogma that would bar the non-Christian from paradise.

A number of Christian theologians are even beginning to take the view that Christian theology has been too preoccupied with the truth of dogma altogether.