Reason and the Reasons of Faith (THEOLOGY FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0567028305 ISBN 13: 9780567028303

Publisher: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2005

Synopsis

Faith and reason are presently in crisis. This judgment, albeit controversial, constitutes the foundations of this project. The central danger of this crisis does not so much consist in the denial as in the banalization of God, whether as a fundamentally irrational claim of faith or at best as a purely regulative idea of reason. However, offering an account of the hope that is in us, and hence of the faith that gives rise to hope, requires on the part of Christian theology a rigorous intellectual effort, in short, the unfettered use of reason for the sake of faith in the God who is always greater than anything that can be thought. The point of such rigorous intellectual effort is not to offer a theological legitimization of reason as such, but rather to put reason to work theologically so that it comes genuinely to itself in realizing that God is and remains greater than anything that can be thought. Moreover, recognizing the limits and weaknesses of reason is possible only from a vantage point that deepens, broadens, and at the same time questions reason's horizon. Such a deepening, broadening, and questioning, however, always and only occurs reasonably, that is, through reason's own action.

The program of the present volume is to inquire into the reasons of faith in order to offer theological resources to constructively address the double crisis of faith in reason and reason in faith. We inquire, first, into the theological constitution of reason; second, into reason as one specific faculty of human being; third, into the significance of the philosophical shifts of modernity for theology; and fourth, into the importance of philosophy for theological inquiry.

Contributors: Alan J. Torrance; Bruce D. Marshall; Colin Gunton and Robert Jenson; Lois Malcolm; Mark McIntosh; Paul J. Griffiths; Reinhard Hütter; Ernstpeter Maurer; Carver T. Yu; Janet Martin Soskice; David Bentley Hart; Martin Bieler; Romanus Cessario; Charles Taylor

About this title

About the Author

Paul J. Griffiths is Schmitt Chair of Catholic Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago. He has published six books as sole author, most recently Lying: An Augustinian Theology of Duplicity.Reinhard Hütter is Associate Professor of Christian Theology , Duke University Divinity School. He has published four books as sole author, most recently Bound to be Free: Evangelical Catholic Engagements in Ecclesiology, Ethics and Ecumenism.

Review

"Is there a light of pure reason, or must the light of reason already anticipate the light of faith? Is faith an act of blind assent or is it a more intimate touching of the divine presence which fulfils, beyond mere argument, the aspirations of reason itself? Such questions concern the possibility of an integrated western culture, yet they are too seldom raised today. This book does raise them and boldly offers intricate and nuanced answers." -Catherine Pickstock, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge

"At the end of a brutal century some may find it odd that Christians, and in particular John Paul II in Fides et Ratio, are calling for the recovery of reason. But this excellent book makes clear that of all people, Christians have a stake in reclaiming a robust understanding of reason. Not as a supplement to theology, but because reason is constitutive of the work of theology." -Stanley Hauerwas

“ The contributors, all distinguished scholars, puncture inflated Enlightenment conceptions of autonomous reason by uncovering the fallibility of postlapsarian human cognition and showing how Christian doctrine and practice can restore reason's proper functioning. Strongly recommended for libraries at religious institutions and a useful purchase for all larger academic libraries.” –Library Journal, May 15, 2005 (Library Journal)

“Strongly recommended for libraries at religious institutions and a useful purchase for all larger academic libraries.” –Charles Seymour, Library Journal, May 2005 (Library Journal)

"...rich volume of quite remarkable and supremely intelligent essays. I rehearse this potted history of the neuralgic relationship between faith and reason for two reasons: to show how much the presentation of the Christian religion depends on getting their relationship right; and to highlight the importance of this book." - Commonweal¸ January 27, 2006 (Commonweal)

"informative" (Hugh Rayment-Pickard Church Times)

' fascinating essays' (Hans Boersma Expository Times)

-Mention. Theology Digest/ Vol.52 No. 3/ Fall 2005 (Theology Digest)

"It is rare to find a collection of essays in which authors so different in their starting points engage one another so well." - Joseph W. Koterski, S.J., The Thomist, January 2008 (Joseph W. Koterski S.J., Fordham University The Thomist)

“...rich volume of quite remarkable and supremely intelligent essays. I rehearse this potted history of the neuralgic relationship between faith and reason for two reasons: to show how much the presentation of the Christian religion depends on getting their relationship right; and to highlight the importance of this book.” - Commonweal¸ January 27, 2006 (Commonweal)

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury T&T Clark
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0567028305
• ISBN 13: 9780567028303
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384
• Editor: Griffiths Paul J., Hütter Reinhard