Finding God at Harvard: Spiritual Journeys of Christian Thinkers [Hardcover]

Kelly Monroe (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1996

This book presents the moving testimonies of 42 prominent intellectuals. It contradicts the popular assumption that intellectuals are thoroughgoing secularists and addresses directly the relativism and emptiness haunting modern universitites.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Their search for truth led these forty-two men and women to God Ari Goldman's best-selling book, The Search for God at Harvard, chronicled his search for signs of genuine religious faith at Harvard Divinity School. The New York Times reporter concluded that God was not very evident at the prestigious Ivy League campus. Kelly Monroe reveals another picture of Christian faith in a secular intellectual setting. In Finding God at Harvard, she presents the compelling testimonies of forty-two faculty members, former students, and distinguished orators at Harvard. Their candid reflections explode the myth that Christian faith cannot survive a rigorous intellectual atmosphere. Finding God at Harvard speaks to the emptiness that haunts college campuses across the country - an emptiness that only Truth can fill. As Monroe's contributors so vividly show, that Truth is available to everyone.

". . . a wonderfully reasoned defense that ultimately points to the One who is the source of all truth." - Charles Colson, Prison Fellowship Ministries

"These compelling stories demonstrate that faith in search of understanding, and understanding in search of faith, go on in the most unlikely of places." - Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, Editor-in-Chief, First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Author

Kelly Monroe has served as a chaplain to graduate students at Harvard for eight years. She began the Harvard Veritas Forum to bring together people from diverse cultures and disciplines who want to explore Truth¾Veritas¾as understood by the founders of Harvard. She lives in Cambridge, Massachussetts --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (April 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310405602
• ISBN-13: 978-0310405603
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,428,406 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful essays for every mood., November 11, 2000

By 

David Marshall - See all my reviews

This review is from: Finding God at Harvard (Paperback)

This book is composed of forty-three bite-sized essays by various persons who have had some relation to Harvard U. (Taken classes, guest-lectured, fed a squirrel on campus.) Not all are brilliant or profound, but many are, and most of the others are worth reading. My favorites were the Solzhenitsyn and Robert Coles essays, that I had read elsewhere, Nicholas Woltershorff's classy biographical essay, Krisher Sairsingh's story of conversion to Christianity from Hinduism (he is the cousin of Rabi Maharaj, author of Death of Guru), Poh Lian Lim's essay on sexual dignity, Robert Massie's funny experience as a monk in business school, Charles Thaxton on the Christian roots of science, (his book on the subject, The Soul of Science, is great!) and John Rankin on "Power and Gender at the Divinity School," which is also autobiographical and funny. (Sorry. I meant to end that sentence sooner, but kept remembering other good essays.) The story by the student who later died of cancer is also moving. As you can see, the book is diverse, even a bit scattered; but you don't have to read them all at once, or even read them all at all. Read one per cup of hot chocolate and donut, and call your pastor in the morning.

Having myself passed through years of Humanist, Marxist and skeptical indoctrination in school, I see no need to rely on independant thought to come to materialistic conclusions; skepticism has poured in on me all my life from the ether, like background radiation. The reason I am a Christian is that I found this "ancient means of describing how the world works" does in fact describe it better than modern skeptics and other anti-Christian writers. (Of whom I have read a fair number.) Many of the authors of these essays, at one point in their careers, shared the same blind prejudices against Christianity as this skeptic. It was often learning to think for themselves that pulled them out of it. The California lawyer is undoubtedly right when he implies that not everyone who goes to Harvard is open to truth. (Whether or not that makes them "morons" is another question.) But here you can read the story of some who I think were.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Spiritual Journey Through Academia, May 19, 2000

By 

Candice Covak - See all my reviews

This review is from: Finding God at Harvard (Paperback)

Who says those of us in academia cannot think as intellectuals without feeling as Christians? To me, the two are not mutually exclusive; apparently, neither are they to editor Kelly Monroe or to the dozens of the book's essayists, including Elizabeth Dole, Paul Wylie, and Mother Teresa. This collection of essays encourages any Christian valuing the mind as much as the spirit to take heart--amazing moves of God happen everywhere, even in the highest institutions of academia. A definite must-read for the intellectual Christian!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book to help intellectual Atheists and non-believers, January 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Finding God at Harvard (Paperback)

For those of you who know an Atheist or non-believer who is searching for some meaning in their life, this book is for them. This collection of essays is carefully constructed and comes from an intellectual point of view. The contributing authors are made up of; scientists, Pulitzer prize winning authors, physicians, professors, politicians and scholars. Many of these people are well known within the secular community and their names along with the respect that they command will certainly grab the attention of any thinking person. The essays always come back to one central theme, there is a God and He can be known through Christ our Lord. "Finding God at Harvard" can help any intellectual find the truth about God wherever they are in life!