Reddit reviews The Analytic Theist: An Alvin Plantinga Reader
We found 4 Reddit comments about The Analytic Theist: An Alvin Plantinga Reader. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
ISBN13: 9780802842299Condition: NewNotes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Logic admittedly isn't my area of expertise, but the logic class I took several years ago used this, which does a pretty good job of breaking down basic types of logical arguments, so that would probably be helpful. The Little Logic Book would also be a great and accessible guide for learning how arguments work, and how to both construct good arguments while recognizing bad ones. Beyond that, I'd say read good philosophers, especially analytic philosophers, since they have a tendency to be a bit more clear and organized with their thoughts. I learned a lot from reading Plantinga when I was first finding my footing, and I'm sure a thread made requesting good examples of clear and accessible instances of analytic philosophy would yield many more results. I might also check out Thomas Aquinas or Descartes, since they both write in a fairly clear style that uses fairly basic and clear instances of argument to build their ideas and express them clearly, and there will be shelves upon shelves of secondary material on them to help you see all the little subtleties going on in their work. Hope this helps.
Plantinga has an essay where he argues that naturalism makes more sense given the existence of God, as well as some other essays here. I wrote an essay on his reformed epistemology a couple years ago, which I actually find more interesting then any arguments for God (even if less convincing) which can also be found there.
It's also perhaps worth noting that much of Plantinga's response can be read as a response to logical positivism, which was rather prevalent around the time he was a student. Since much of what the positivists were doing was trying to outline what could and couldn't be discussed reasonably, he is in many ways trying to wrestle with those themes from a Christian perspective. The OP might benefit from some of Plantinga's essays, which are shorter and a bit more accessible than a whole book, and can also give a broader overview of his thought.
Plantinga is an old-school academic philosopher, so the best way to get familiar with his ideas is his published works (Amazon links below):
Plantinga is also on the editorial board of Faith and Philosophy, the journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers, and he's contributed several articles over the years. There are even more published articles written by his students and colleagues about his ideas.