Knowing God: Restoring Reason in an Age of Doubt

This title was first published in 2002. Knowing God presents an innovative analysis of one of the most difficult and intractable philosophical questions of the past 350 years: the problem of knowledge, and specifically knowledge of God and the transcendental principles of value. This book situates the problem within the context of current social and political struggles, as well as within the contemporary search for meaning and value. Mansueto revisits ancient debates regarding the agent intellect, intentional being, and connatural knowledge, while drawing on recent discussions in neuropsychology (Luria and Damasio), cognitive development theory (Piaget and Luria), and the sociology of knowledge or "ideological criticism" (especially Durkheim, Lukacs, and Gramsci). Including a chapter on forms of religious knowledge and concluding with a ’guide for the perplexed’ intended to help overcome nihilism and despair, Knowing God reconciles epistemological and metaphysical realism with a recognition of the role of social structure in shaping knowledge.

Anthony Mansueto is the founding Director of the Seeking Wisdom Project: Public Dialogues Regarding Fundamental Questions of Meaning and Value and teaches philosophy, religious studies, and western civilization at the University of New Mexico - Gallup. In addition to Knowing God: Restoring Reason in an Age of Doubt, he is the author of Religion and Dialectics and Towards Synergism: The Cosmic Significance of the Human Civilizational Project (both published by University Press of America). He edits Dialectic, Cosmos, and Society, an award-winning international electronic journal of philosophy, religion, and politics (www.geocities.com/diacosmos) and has served as an advisor to senior political and religious leaders and to nongovernmental organizations at the local, national, and international levels.