Portrait of Alvin Plantinga

Birthday profile

Alvin Plantinga

Alvin Plantinga, American philosopher, author, and academic

Born
November 15, 1932
Age in 2026
94
Zodiac sign
Scorpio
Birth year
1932

About Alvin Plantinga

Alvin Carl Plantinga (born November 15, 1932) is an American analytic philosopher and theologian who is a leading figure in the Reformed epistemology movement. He is the John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame and a professor emeritus of philosophy at Calvin University. After earning his doctorate in philosophy from Yale University, Plantinga became a professor at Wayne State University in 1958, taught at Calvin College from 1963 to 1982, and co-founded the Society of Christian Philosophers in 1983. A prominent Christian philosopher, he is best known for his contributions to the philosophy of religion, metaphysics of modalities, and epistemology. He was described by Time magazine in 1980 as "America's leading Protestant philosopher of God". Plantinga's most influential works include God and Other Minds (1967), The Nature of Necessity (1974), and a trilogy of books on epistemology, culminating in Warranted Christian Belief (2000) and simplified in Knowledge and Christian Belief (2015). He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1975, received the Nicholas Rescher Prize for Systematic Philosophy in 2012, and was awarded the Templeton Prize in 2017. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was awarded the Templeton Prize in 2017. He applied to Harvard and was awarded a scholarship. He retired from the University of Notre Dame in 2010 and returned to Calvin University, where he holds the first William Harry Jellema Chair in Philosophy.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Alvin Plantinga timeline

  1. He retired from the University of Notre Dame in 2010 and returned to Calvin University, where he holds the first William Harry Jellema Chair in Philosophy.
  2. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was awarded the Templeton Prize in 2017.

The world when Alvin Plantinga was born

Alvin Plantinga was born in 1932. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1932

  • #1 song"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"
  • Top movieGrand Hotel
  • Best-selling bookBrave New World – Aldous Huxley

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentBabe Ruth's "called shot" in the World Series
  • Top headlineFDR elected in a landslide during the Great Depression
  • Technology milestoneAmelia Earhart becomes first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic
  • Defining fadMonopoly board game (unofficial versions)
  • Notable inventionPolaroid filters
  • World population2.14 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderHerbert Hoover
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • U.S. population124.8M

1932 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Alvin Plantinga's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19322026
Gas$0.18$3.45/gal
Average home$5,000$435,000
Average income$2,600$67,500
Movie ticket$0.20$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population124.8M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.