Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate (The Terry Lectures Series) - Softcover

Eagleton, Terry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 030016453X ISBN 13: 9780300164534

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2010

Synopsis

One of our most influential literary critics challenges those who too easily dismiss religion and faith

Terry Eagleton’s witty and polemical Reason, Faith, and Revolution is bound to cause a stir among scientists, theologians, people of faith and people of no faith, as well as general readers eager to understand the God Debate. On the one hand, Eagleton demolishes what he calls the “superstitious” view of God held by most atheists and agnostics and offers in its place a revolutionary account of the Christian Gospel. On the other hand, he launches a stinging assault on the betrayal of this revolution by institutional Christianity.

There is little joy here, then, either for the anti-God brigade—Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens in particular—nor for many conventional believers. Instead, Eagleton offers his own vibrant account of religion and politics in a book that ranges from the Holy Spirit to the recent history of the Middle East, from Thomas Aquinas to the Twin Towers.

About this title

About the Author

Terry Eagleton is Distinguished Professor of English Literature at the University of Lancaster, England, and Professor of Cultural Theory at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He is also Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Notre Dame. Eagleton is also the author of On Evil, published by Yale University Press.

Review

"Eagleton...is a powerful and engaging writer, perhaps no more so than when, with bursts of comic vituperation which recall Kenneth Tynan at his best, he is seeing off those he regards as second-rate opponents. But probably more relevant is the sense among many readers and critics that Eagleton is providing a welcome antidote to the rather simple-minded conception of religion that Dawkins and Hitchens selected for their demolition jobs. He is rather like a wise old schoolmaster explaining to two eager young students that the significance of "Hamlet" is hardly exhausted by describing it as 'a revenge drama'."--Laurie Taylor, "New Humanist Magazine"
--Laurie Taylor"New Humanist Magazine" (07/01/2009)

"Eagleton writes with lucidity, wit and panache and, though an atheist himself, successfully shreds what the conflated Ditchkins say in their books."--Piers Paul Read"Spectator" (11/14/2009)

"Erudite, but often entertaining volume." --Rich Barlow, "Boston Globe"--Rich Barlow "Boston Globe "

Eagleton''s book "meets the challenge of the New Atheists with a sense of playfulness (for example, he melds the two leading lights of the movement, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, into one signifier, "Ditchkins"), and a dogged refusal to let Oxbridge-trained rhetoric stand in for actual reason. The result is a work bathed in wit and punctuated with soaring prose that, while sympathetic to religious truth-claims, ends with a flourish on his Marxist hopes for an embrace of "tragic humanism.""--Lyndon Shakespeare, "Anglican Theological Review"--Lyndon Shakespeare "Anglican Theological Review "

."..[a] gloriously rumbustious counter-blast to Dawkinsite atheism...paradoxes sparkle throughout this coruscatingly brilliant polemic.... Eagleton is stronger on reason than Ditchkins, for he thinks carefully about what his opponents say.... This is, then, a demolition job which is both logically devastating and a magnificently whirling philippic.... It is easy to see why a lot of people will not be happy with this book. Much of what it says is too true."--Paul Vallely, "The Independent"
--Paul Vallely"The Independent" (07/17/2009)

"[B]etter than any previous book of its kind."--James Wood, "The New Yorker"--James Wood"The New Yorker" (08/31/2009)

'A boisterous polemic ... Eagleton yields to none in his denunciation of institutional Christianity and a punitive, vengeful God as a betrayal of Jesus's championing of the poor and rejected.'--Jonathan Benthall"Times Literary Supplement" (12/11/2009)

"Brisk, funny, and challenging . . . . One of the most fascinating, most original and prickliest works of philosophy to emerge from the post-9/11 era."--Andrew O'Hehir, "Salon"

--Andrew O'Hehir"Salon" (04/01/2009)

"Eagleton''s book is a brisk and welcome contribution to the ongoing discussion about the place of religion in the world today. Readers will find plenty to challenge them in this brief snapshot of today''s ''God Debate.''"--;i>Association for Mormon Letters
"--Blair Dee Hodges "Association for Mormon Letters "

''Eagleton is one of Britain''s leading literary critics and writes with verve and humour.'' -- Paul Goodliff, Baptist Times--Paul Goodliff"Baptist Times" (06/18/2010)

Edition details

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 030016453X
• ISBN 13: 9780300164534
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208