Customer Reviews

Faith and Reason (Oxford Readers)

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Paul Helm is a Reformed theologian and philosopher. I haven't read any of his works, but this collection of writings he edited on the question of faith and reason is certainly top-shelf.

Many collections in the philosophy of religion focus on strictly philosophical writings. So while you might get an excerpt by Aquinas, you probably won't get any from Luther or Calvin. Prof. Helm's reader includes these theologians as well as Benjamin Warfield, Karl Barth, and others. He also includes social thinkers such as Freud, Marx and Durkheim.

This book also has the merit of anthologizing works not included in other collections. The only draw back is that the excerpts are relatively short. Given the selections are arranged chronologically (from the Bible to the present), it functions best as a historical introduction. If you want to study the key ideas in the philosophy of religion in more detail, you will want to supplement this with other anthologies.