Customer Reviews

Christianity and Western Thought Hb (v. 1)

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The reviewer below gives a pretty good summary of the book's contents, so I'll just add my two bits about its quality. C&WT is well-done, balanced, and readable. The author relates the ideas of leading Christian and non-Christian thinkers in a clear style, interjecting his own thoughtful viewpoint with about the right frequency. He treats readers with respect, but has mercy on those of us who find a lot of philosophical discourse a bit esoteric by explaining terms and concepts. None of the book is boring, (to me) because Brown engages his subjects with respect and interest -- this is not an archeological dig in quaint DWM thought. Nor is the book a long editorial. When the author gives his opinion, he sets it clearly apart, and it is cogent and reasonable. Brown not only shows the awesome breadth of knowledge that such an undertaking requires -- charting the ideas of great and famous thinkers from 500 B. C. to 1800 in a single complex story -- he also demonstrates good taste and judgement in dealing with thinkers of such widely differing views and personalities. I appreciated, for example, his rehabilitation of Descartes, the brackets he puts around Hume, his discussion of Pascal, and so on. It seems to me he deals with them all pretty fairly, though of course this book is no substitute for the originals. I hope volume II is as good.

It would be unfair to complain that the book is too narrow in scope. But it may encourage an attitude among Western Christians that I think is. Brown seems to envision "the West" almost hermetically sealed fomm the rest of the world. (As do so many Christians.) For instance, Brown seems to go along with the convention that the Greeks started philosophy too readily. But weren't the Pythagoreans roughly a school of Advetic thought beamed over from India? And don't the Vedas, the Hundred Schools of Zhou-era China, and so on, also have claims to originating philosophy? Or more pertinently -- how about the Wisdomm literature of the Old Testament? What is needed now that Christianity is no longer primarily a Western religion is to connect Christian thought to its roots in world rather than Western (Greek) tradition alone. Can we hope for a volume three in the series?

author, Jesus and the Religions of Man

Christianity & Western Thought Vol. 1 is an excellent overview of philosophy up to the 1800's.As the title suggests the emphasis is from a Christian perspective, with what the particular person taught,and how his philosophy impacted christianity, good and bad.Its a very easy read considering the topic,as some of the more abstract concepts talked about can be hard to follow,but Brown does a good job overall in explaining them.I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about philosophy(like me) and how that philosophy effects their everyday walk with the Lord.