But as Doug suggested, the main focus of philosophy of religion is about whether God exists, and not about whether Christianity is true or whether scripture is divinely inspired. So as long as they keep their personal Christian beliefs out of it, I guess their views about the existence of God can now be respected, whereas at an earlier time even their belief in God would have been considered irrational.
I agree. Even today you can’t believe half of what you read in the newspaper. So it would be a big mistake to try and judge the people of the past. I try and keep in mind that they were smart and if they did something it was for a reason. And like today, most of the time it had to do with money.