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54 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Faith and Justice and the Christian Future, September 12, 2009
Harvey Cox recently retired from Harvard in September 2009 as the ninth person to hold the Hollis Chair of Divinity which, established in 1727, is the oldest endowed professorship in American higher education. Dr Cox has been interested in religion, culture and politics throughout his career. His 1965 book, The Secular City sold a million copies. That book painted the church as a people of faith and action, not an institution. The Future of Faith, a 256 page essay, builds on the concept of church as a people. The church as entering a totally new era now, Dr Cox proclaims, which is the Age of the Spirit. In this exciting new time, different cultural backgrounds will add new life to the church; a prophetic vision of social justice will challenge structures of power and oppression. Christian people of faith and action are once again on the verge of something new. Like the early church, where different languages, cultures and backgrounds co-existed in radical groups that lived Jesus' good news in different ways and under different kinds of structure, this new era will encompass many different Christian paths: liberation theology, Pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, and the cultures of the East and the sub-European South. Dr Cox reminds us that in 1900 90% of Christians lived either in Europe of in The USA but today 60 percent live in Asia, Africa, or Latin America. As Dr Cox puts it "Since the vast majority of people in this "new Christendom" are neither white nor well-off, their theological questions center less on the existence or nonexistence of God or the metaphysical nature of Christ than on why poverty and hunger still stalk God's world. It is little wonder that liberation theology, the most creative theological movement of the twentieth century, did not originate in Marburg or Yale, but in the tar-paper shacks of Brazil and the slums of South Korea." Dr Cox's newest book, like his others, When Jesus Came to Harvard: Making Moral Choices Today; The feast of fools: A theological essay on festivity and fantasy (Perennial library,) is no dry history with glances toward the future. While Dr Cox does describe past eras of Christian experience, his call is to help us see the rapidly approaching future and the moving Spirit. This new era will move us toward the fullest potential of our Earth, and, as St Paul says, we won't see this "as in a dark mirror ... but face to face." If you are interested in the synthesis of politics and history, of culture and religion, this is a book worth reading. If you are discouraged at where we human beings seem to be right now, this book is, like a good sermon, something that will lift you up.
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Secular Faith, Globalization and Ecumenism, November 18, 2009
In his new book, The Future of Faith, Cox argues that Christianity is moving from an 'Age of Belief' dominated by creeds and church hierarchies to an 'Age of Spirit', where spirituality is replacing formal religion." Daniel Burke Faith and belief: Cox thinks of belief as having a kind of mental assent to be subordinated to ideas or doctrines. Whereas faith to him is far more deeply rooted in life orientation, the confusion of faith as loyalty as adherence to ideas is a misconception. Cox years of careful observation of religious movements in America and around the world convinced him that more and more people return to think Christianity is about abundant living. Cox' Development of Faith: Harvey Cox provocative book, The Secular City, asserting the religious outcome of the post modern secular world, changed forever the way theologians and preachers approached their apologetic tasks in late twentieth century. His books: Many Mansions (on world religions), Fire from Heaven (Pentecostalism), and Religion in the Secular City (fundamentalism and liberation theology) have continued to provide a serial commentary on the changing aspects of American religion. Cox virtually predicted the spiritual search that many Western religious seekers started to join in the decades that produced the cold war uncertainties, yielding the trend which he is now extrapolating to locate the orientation and future of faith. The Future of Faith: Harvey Cox reflects on the history of faith and speculates on its future, that we are entering into what he calls the age of the Spirit, having gone through ages of empirical faith and traditional belief. He conforms Hans Kung's findings in his recent book 'The beginning of all Things', that "a confrontational model for the relationship between science and theology is out of date, whether put forward by fundamentalist believers and theologians or by rationalistic scientists and philosophers." The two have quite different, if complementary visions, one concerning its empirical description, the other its values and meaning. Biblical literalists, who cannot perceive Origen's allegorical interpretations of the book of Genesis, struggle to reduce it to a treatise in Creation cosmology, astronomy, and the Big bang. "Otherwise thoughtful people still mistakenly view the world as divided between believers and nonbelievers. But that era of human consciousness is almost over. We are witnessing the emergence of a different vocabulary, one that is closer to the original sense of the word faith before its debasement." [F.O.F., pp. 182 -183]
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22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awe becomes faith only as it ascribes meaning to the mystery, September 21, 2009
"Faith starts with awe. It begins with a mixture of wonder and fear all human beings feel toward the mystery that envelops us. But awe becomes faith only as it ascribes some meaning to that mystery." Harvey Cox What shape faith is taking in the 21st century? Recently I listened attentively to Professor Harvey Cox as he discussed The Future of the Christian Faith, while he examines the status of other world beliefs, on the PBR. Parallel to his fine book, he traced the evolutionary development of the faith through two phases, 'The Age of Faith' and 'The Age of Belief.' In his book, Cox argues that Christianity is entering an age of more experience applicable mode. One basic focus is on social justice, led by South American theologians. World's great religions are undergoing reformative evolution, which he discussed in the last chapter of his book, where he tabulates few examples in Buddhism, Judaism, and Islam. Cox comments on the 'emerging church movement' and its influence on mainstream churches in America, simply as, "religious people are becoming less dogmatic and more practicing more aware of ethical issues and spiritual guidelines than in religious Dogma." He looks more optimistic than his early time of 'The secular City,' wishful that the future of faith is forward expansive, transparent, and hopeful. The Age of the Spirit: The faith of the early Christians was knitted around the hope for the new kingdom of peace that Jesus preached and practiced. As their Jewish ancestors, early Christians emphasized community rather than creeds or rituals. The pre Constantine Christianity demonstrated a religious faith variety, with charity and fellowship, against an imperial Roman pagan character. "The Age of Belief," as Cox calls it, from the fourth to the twentieth century, faith became entangled with rituals, liturgies and creeds, orthodox theology replaced personal religion, which resulted in the glorification of clergy and a history of mundane Church corruption. According to Cox, following WW II, "The Age of the Spirit," began, half a century ago, and continues to shake the foundations of patriarchal corporate religion. The prophetic author, gives examples of the last gasps of the old model. He has little sympathy for this outdated conservatism, even he wrote against the remaining part of it, clinging to petrified beliefs. In the midst of fast paced globalization and facing an apparent revival of fundamentalism, Cox ponders the de-Hellenization of Christianity, the growth of the interfaith movement, the surge of Pentecostalism, and the just cause of liberation theology. Harvey G. Cox: This eminent Harvard theologian sees Christian faith as focused by Christ on the new order which he called "the kingdom of God." Cox says that it was "the heartbeat of his life, his constant concern and preoccupation," well presented by many books including The Secular City, 1965, an international bestseller. His most recent work "The Future of Faith" is released to coincide with Cox's retirement.
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