Faith and Reason (Oxford Readers)

Book Overview

The philosophy of religion is an intrinsic part of the richness of Western philosophy. Faith and Reason displays in historical perspective some of the rich dialogue between religion and philosophy over two millennia, beginning with Greek reflections about God and the gods and ending with twentieth-century debate about faith in a world that tends to reserve its reverence for science. Paul Helm uses as a case study the question of whether the world is eternal or whether it was created out of nothing, following this theme from Plato through medieval thought to modern scientific speculation about the beginnings of the universe. This Oxford Reader also includes discussion of many other fundamental issues raised by the juxtaposition of faith and reason, including arguments for and against the existence of God, the relationship between religion and ethics, the contrast between reason and revelation as sources of knowledge, and the implications of religious belief for freedom of the will.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0192892908
• ISBN13: 9780192892904
• Release Date: March 1999
• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent

Paul Helm is a Reformed theologian and philosopher. I haven't read any of his works, but this collection of writings he edited on the question of faith and reason is certainly top-shelf. Many collections in the philosophy of religion focus on strictly philosophical writings. So while you might get an excerpt by Aquinas, you probably won't get any from Luther or Calvin. Prof. Helm's reader includes these theologians as well as Benjamin Warfield, Karl Barth, and others. He also includes social thinkers such as Freud, Marx and Durkheim. This book also has the merit of anthologizing works not included in other collections. The only draw back is that the excerpts are relatively short. Given the selections are arranged chronologically (from the Bible to the present), it functions best as a historical introduction. If you want to study the key ideas in the philosophy of religion in more detail, you will want to supplement this with other anthologies.