Product Description

Gilkey’s latest work takes the measure of the current American religious and cultural crisis, assesses recent theological responses to it, and shows how these illumine our understanding of the ongoing creationism controversy. Throughout, Gilkey articulates a faith-stance responsive to the contemporary world of radical pluralism and moral uncertainty—without retreating to simplistic dogmatism.

Gilkey gauges the legacy of such key figures as Paul Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Karl Barth for our current situation. Long a crusader against creationism, "creation science," and the Religious Right, Gilkey shows plainly how the latter is neither religious nor right but is symptomatic of larger unanswered challenges of modernity.

Gilkey’s vision of a "blue twilight," in which light fights with dark in religion and culture, stands as a stark reminder of what is at stake in the future of American religious life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1444974 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 196 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Prolific author Gilkey, "retired" in 1989 from the University of Chicago Divinity School, continues to speak and publish in his area of interest and expertise: American religious life and contemporary theology. His has long been a reasonable voice in cultural arenas where science and religion intersect, so when he speaks, people listen. The trouble is, we've heard all this before literally. Lectures given over the past 18 years have been sloppily compiled into this volume, with little coherence or thematic unity. Material is repeated and recycled not only subject matter, but syntax. Chapter six appears to be an abridgment of chapter five, with complete sentences cut and pasted. His take on recent theological figures (Tillich, Niebuhr) and developments (fundamentalism, pluralism, eco-theology) is more survey than sustained argument. And his assessment of the creation-science controversy, while astute, is marred by a simplistic equating of the "religious right" with fundamentalists, and by an alarmist view of their engagement in politics, as he persistently compares them to Nazis and Communists. The book's title refers to a "Blue Twilight" a "place where light fights with dark in religion and culture." This volume contains a discussion of religion, culture, light and dark, and there may even be a good book somewhere in view, but in the twilight, one can't quite make it out.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Retired University of Chicago theologian Gilkey here gathers 13 papers he presented to various audiences over the last two decades. His key interests are all here: reflections on the enduring value of his teachers, Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich; his opposition to creation science and the religious right; and suggestions for theologies of nature (which is "a mirror, a sign, or a symbol of God") and of religious pluralism (which requires a commitment to the "relative absoluteness" of one's own tradition). Unfortunately, these essays offer nothing new. Gilkey's readers have met these reflections in his books On Niebuhr (LJ 4/1/01) and Gilkey on Tillich (Wipf & Stock, 2000. reprint); in Creationism on Trial (LJ 3/1/86), about the Arkansas court case; and in his previous collection, Nature, Reality, and the Sacred (Augsburg, 1993). An editor's red pencil should have eliminated the repeated anecdotes and redundant passages. Nevertheless, this new collection offers an accessible introduction to Gilkey's thoughts and perspective minus scholarly complexity and apparatus. Recommended for public and academic libraries. Steve Young, Montclair State Univ., Upper Montclair, NJ
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Langdon Gilkey is Professor of Theology Emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School and author of more than a dozen books, including Shantung Compound (1966), Naming the Whirlwind (1969), Reaping the Whirlwind (1976), and Nature, Reality, and the Sacred (Fortress Press, 1993).

Customer Reviews

The Latest Word from Gilkey
Wonderfully thought-provoking, yet easily read. The scholar, the seeker, and the inquirer will be greatly enriched by this collection of Gilkey's thoughts.