Here’s a doctoral dissertation that Southern Seminary has made available titled “An Argument from Sublime Literature: How Language, Beauty, and Literature Point Toward the Existence of God.” This is a treat for those into apologetics! The dissertation was written by Daniel Blackaby and was completed on November 7th, 2018. Its neat to see his dissertation is available online for free.
Here’s an abstract:
The thesis of this dissertation is that there is no feasible pathway from Darwinian evolution to the creation of mankind’s great literature. Conversely, the Christian worldview and biblical theology offer a far more satisfying and coherent answer by providing a foundation for the creation of sublime literature precisely where Darwinism falls apart. The argument unfolds in two stages. The first provides a critique of the Darwinian explanation for literature. The goal is to level the playing field, push back against the stranglehold evolutionists have held on the subject, and expose the need to reconsider alternative solutions. The argument—that there is no clear path from Darwinian evolution to man’s great achievement of sublime literature—is approached as a cumulative case argument. Darwinism cannot account for the existence of sublime literature because it cannot sufficiently account for any of the three major aspects of great literature—aesthetics, language, and literary meaning. The second stage makes a case that the Christian worldview and biblical theology provide a better, more consistent, and accurate explanation for the phenomenon. The argument in the second stage presents the Christian worldview’s explanation for each of the three major aspects of great literature, and then demonstrate how the explanations are supported by the current research in aesthetic philosophy, linguistics, and literary criticism. Chapter 2 provides a brief discussion on and definition of literature. Chapter 3 examines the question of the origin of language by providing a brief survey and critique of the major historical and modern theories given out of a naturalistic worldview. Chapter 4 examines the aesthetic problem by demonstrating the shortcomings of the major Darwinian theories regarding beauty and aesthetics. Chapter 5 deals with the topic of literary meaning by examining a collection of issues are discussed, including a critique of Literary Darwinism, as well as the materialist problem of consciousness. Chapter 6 provides an argument for the Christian worldview as a more viable account for literature, by demonstrating its superior explanatory power in each of the areas where the Darwinian account falls short.
Thanks for that, Jim!
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
Thanks for the reblog of this free PDF!
My pleasure Brother!
This looks fascinating, thank you brother!
We just got what you sent us in the mail! The girls at first thought it was real! They are amazed at the artifact and they do love things dinosaurs’ after our homeschooling lessons earlier this year. I guess you can say they thought it was Dino-mite…haha. So thank you from our family to yours!
Hahaha Dino-mite 😂
I like the premise, brother, but this would be way over my Theology 101 head! 😵
I understand. I am glad that doctoral dissertations are available for free! This would be good for those into apologetics. How is your day going today?
My day went well, thanks, but it was busy and I couldn’t get to WordPress much. I finished the last of the leaves, which I’ll be posting about today. 12.5K steps because of the leaves. Then, yesterday evening, my wife asked me to watch a movie with her called “The Book of Eli” with Denzel Washington. It was another one of those post-apocalyptic flicks and had a connection to the Bible. Not bad. I hope your Saturday went well!
Thanks for making this great resource available to us. Blessings.
Reblogged this on Reformed Calvinist..
I nominated you for the real neat blog award
Downloaded. This is amazing thanks for sharing this. God`s existence is not trivial. Atheists thinking atheism is the rational starting point for everything doesn’t hold water when you consider how they see all of reality is nonrational, accidental and unimportant.
Love this. Thank you.
Thanks, I’m enjoying so far, very creative! Hadn’t seen the transcendental argument applied to literature before.
I have never seen this before too, usually its applied to things more with abstract things like laws of logic and math
[…] 6.) Free PDF Apologetics’ Dissertation: How Language, Beauty, and Literature Point Toward the Existenc… […]
This got my curiosity!
Grateful this is free
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Downloaded this!
Grateful for the many PDF books you have on here