Faith in the Age of Reason: The Enlightenment from Galileo to Kant (IVP Histories) [Paperback]

Jonathan Hill (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0830823603 | ISBN-13: 978-0830823604 | Publication Date: September 3, 2004

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.So begins Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities. And without doubt the Age of Reason--the Enlightenment--was a period unlike any other. In many respects it was during this time that the modern world was forged.It was a time when worldviews clashed and new ways of seeing and understanding emerged. And it was in the arena of religion, above all, that this clash took place. Our modern ideas of religion, our modern ideas of science, and our perspectives on the interaction between religion and science were developed as the Enlightenment gathered momentum and encountered opposition.In this volume, part of the IVP Histories series, Jonathan Hill examines the Age of Reason, spanning the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He begins by describing how the Middle Ages came to an end with the Renaissance and the Reformation, setting the scene for the Enlightenment. He then takes you on a fascinating tour of the central themes and characters of this turbulent period. Themes covered include: the churches, the new science, the new philosophy, the question of authority, politices and society, God, humanity and the world, the reaction and the legacy. Key figures you'll encounter include Samuel Johnson, Galileo, Newton, Descartes, Hume, Voltaire, Pascal, Locke, Diderot, Rousseau and Kant.Packed with centuries worth of fascinating prose and beautiful four-color art yet small enough to fit in your pocket, Faith in the Age of Reason offers a wonderfully rich and enjoyable exploration of one of great perioed of human history.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jonathan Hill has a first class degree in Philosophy and Theology (top of year) from Oxford University and an MPhil in Theology, also from Oxford. He has worked in a freelance editorial and writing capacity since leaving Oxford in 1997, and is currently working on Sky News. He is the author of The History of Christian Thought (Lion 2003). --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: IVP Books (September 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830823603
• ISBN-13: 978-0830823604
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,265,717 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jonathan has a first class degree in Philosophy and Theology from Oxford University and an MPhil in Theology (also from Oxford). He has worked in publishing and broadcasting since leaving Oxford in 1997 and is author of The History of Christian Thought (Lion 2003).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Introduction to an Important Era, June 9, 2011

By 

Brent Barnard (Garland, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Faith in the Age of Reason (Lion Histories) (Hardcover)

They say that we're still living in both the Age of Enlightenment and the Age of Romanticism; our understanding of the material world is largely rational, while our view of religion and values is largely emotional (and do note that things were not always thus; see Nancy Pearcey's book Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning for more details.) This book chronicles the rise of the former in a very approachable way. Obviously the reading level is high - at about the college level - but I think it would be accessible to high school students as well. Highly recommended.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Clear, concise presentation of the Enlightenment, February 19, 2005

By 

M. B. Trapp (Louisville, Kentucky United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Faith in the Age of Reason: The Enlightenment from Galileo to Kant (IVP Histories) (Paperback)

This book was required reading for my class on "Christianity and the Enlightenment" at seminary, and although I found it to be informative, I also found that I forgot much of the material soon after I read it. I'm not sure what to attribute this fact to, but I'm guessing that it has something to do either with the author's style or just to the fact that this was a short book on a broad topic. I doubt that the latter is the cause, however, since I usually enjoy overview books of this sort. Aside from the fact that I immediately forgot a large amount of the material, however, Hill manages to give a good account of Enlightenment ideas and history, if you can handle the machinegun speed at which he introduces new people, ideas, and movements.