[377.2] REASON AND COMPASSION

Amazon inform me that people who have expressed interest in The God Who May Be: The Hermeneutics of Religion (Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion) by Richard Kearney - a book I have found very stimulating - have also ordered Faith, Reason and Compassion: A Philosophy of the Christian Faith by James A. Gilman. For once I'm inclined to take their advice. (Last time they told me that people who read Rowan Williams enjoyed watching Shrek. Hmnnn...). A few years ago, Gilman wrote a very good book called Fidelity of Heart: An Ethic of Christian Virtue, which I consumed as part of a growing interest in the whole 'virtue ethics' discussion. It was more than enough to convince me to buy his latest, which was published last week, along with David J. Bartholemew's Uncertain Belief: Is It Rational To Be A Christian. (The answer is 'yes', but a good deal of unhealthy certainty-mongering masquerading as fidelity is rightly dispatched on the way.) The synopsis for Faith, Reason and Compassion: A Philosophy of the Christian Faith: "What is the relationship between faith and reason? How should faith and reason situate themselves in relation to each other? These are the chief questions that James Gilman seeks to address in this new title. An innovative new book in philosophy of religion, it treats the problems typical of the discipline in an untypical way, with a methodology that presupposes a particular religious tradition, in this case Christianity, and that re-enfranchises emotions (e.g., compassion) as crucial to shaping solutions to philosophical problems."

Comment on this post: FaithInSociety