Customer Reviews

Finding Faith: A Search for What Makes Sense

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While I agree with the reviewer below that the book would have been better packaged along with its companion, let me recomomend this first book as an outstanding contribution to exploring the big questions of life. It really does make sense!

The text is easily accessible; it's not a detailed analysis meant for specialists in philosophy of religion (like me). I plan to require it for my university students, but I think it will work especially well in my general theology courses aimed at adults who are not tightly connected with the Church.

My only substantive criticisms are that 1) I wish Brian had openly embraced evolutionary theory as compatible with belief in God. His general position in this book and others seems especially compatible with theistic evolution. Perhaps he wanted to side-step the complexities of the evolution controversy, but I think the book would have been stronger had he explored the issues directly. (He did mentioned that he enjoys the work of theistic evolutionist John Haught.)

I also think that 2) Brian's general position on the God-world relationship is a version of pan-en-theism (not pantheism). He doesn't address that possibility in the book -- again probably because it's aimed at a broad audience.

Having mentioned these minor criticisms, I should come clean and acknowledge that I'm willing to look past just about any differences of opinion upon learning that Brian likes listening to Bruce Cockburn! : ) (p. 117)

Thomas Jay Oord

If you've read Brian Mclaren's Finding Faith you've already read this book. It is a repackaging of Finding Faith into two separate books. I did like Finding Faith which I would have rated 5 stars. I give this book only 1 star not for the content but for misleading me into buying what I thought was a different book. Save yourself some $ and buy Finding Faith. A Search For What Makes Sense & A Search For What Is Real rolled into one book.

I don't think it's fair to lower a books rate just because you didn't read the back cover (another review here). It clearly says that it's a version of book that was split in two. Specially when that book is a good one.