An Intelligent Person's Guide to Religion

by JohnHaldane (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $3.40

  What use is religion in the modern world? Since the Enlightenment philosophers have stripped faith of its claim to being part of human knowledge. But since the dismantling of religion, the ancient and enduring questions about the meaning of our existence - questions that haunt all of us at some point during our life - have never been adequately answered. Drawing on many aspects of human culture, John Haldane offers a defence of religion as not only credible but necessary. He explores the place of religion in relation to science, in making sense of evil, in understanding history and in explaining value. He also looks at religion's impact on art and its complex relationship with death. An Intelligent Person's Guide to Religion makes a compelling argument for the necessity of faith in modern society.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2003

  $3.40

  We live, allegedly, in a 'post-modern' age: modernity cast aside the narrative fantasies of the pre-modern era, and now it has itself been exposed as a cruel illusion. Reason is a myth, and science is a threat. If post-modernity represents the final abandonment of all 'grand theories', how stands religion? It is viewed as a particularly unbelievable form of explanation. Yet its power to effect social and political change is undeniable. Religion as a form of challenge to established order is acceptable; religion as a Divine instrument of salvation is regarded as outmoded. Against this backdrop, the author argues that religion without God is like a car without an engine: it isn't going anywhere. Drawing on many aspects of human culture he offers a defence of religion as not only credible but necessary.