Product Description

What happens to faith when the creeds and confessions can no longer be squared with historical and empirical evidence? Most critical scholars have wrestled with this question. Some have found ways to reconcile their personal religious belief with the scholarship they practice. Others have chosen to reconstruct their view of religious meaning in light of what they have learned. But most have tended not to share those views in a public forum. And that brings up a second question: at what point does the discrepancy between what I know, or think I know, and what I am willing to say publicly become so acute that my personal integrity is at stake? Being honest about what one thinks has always mattered in critical scholarship. In the pages of When Faith Meets Reason, thirteen scholars take up the challenge to speak candidly about how they negotiate the conflicting claims of faith and reason, in hopes that their journeys will inspire others to engage in their own search for meaning.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59064 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Review
I love this book! It would be great value just for the quality and extent of the scholarship that it offers. However the personal testimonies about the respective journeys of faith of these talented writers give the book a perspective and a dimension that would not be found in most scholarly books. . . . A wonderful book for study groups, personal retreats or family discussions over the dinner table. --Fred C. Plumer, President, The Center for Progressive Christianity

In a slender book rich with large and profound ideas, Hedrick collects 13 essays solicited from scholars in religion (including himself) that answer the broad question of how faith is understood when it conflicts with reason, science, or scholarship. Their answers are remarkably varied, painfully honest, and profoundly respectful of Christian tradition and newer truths alike. --Graham Christian - Library Journal

The great thing about this book is that it is not trying to convert you to anything. Here you'll find a group of scholars letting us in on some of their most precious and private convictions. . . . This book could lead to a dangerous epidemic of honesty among religious thinkers: It is saying to us, From where I now stand, this is what I see. What's the view like where you are? --Richard Holloway, Bishop of Edinburgh and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church retired

Customer Reviews

Searching for meaning through Christianity
I wish this book had appeared fifty years ago. It would have spoken to the needs of a young seeker stuggling with traditional religious instruction while studying academic philosophy and science. Today at 75 years of age it is nuturing to discover that my journey overlapped the quest of many others who wrestle with doubt in the stuggle to find some kind of fath.

Bit of a downer
There's a lot of reason and a lot less faith in these narratives. 13 members of the Jesus Seminar talk about their beliefs and how they got there. I found that most of them are left with a faith that, in my opinion, doesn't have a lot to offer.

On the other hand, I thought most of their arguments were pretty convincing. This left me uneasy. If they're presenting the next step in the faith journey of a progressive Christian, I'm not sure I want to go there.

I haven't engaged as much with a book in a long time. It's worth reading just because it makes you think about your own beliefs.

It's about time!
How refreshing it is to see serious religious scholars who have spent most of their lives in the search to understand scriptural and theological meaning have the courage and candor to lay out their own spiritual journeys in a way that is forthright and open to the average interested person!

The mainstream church has spent a good deal of time trying to interpret and
preserve a tradition that in many cases has been distorted and twisted by subjective personal and political screening and circumstance. If there is any absolute requirement for relevant religion it is authenticity, honesty, candor and the recognition that all see reality through their own experiential filters. If it is authentic, owning this takes nothing away from meaning or the growth we share as we share our journeys.

Bravo to these scholars, who care, for sharing what they really feel and believe (at this point!). It is freeing and affirming to see committed diversity in public print.