Customer Reviews

Meaning and Mystery: What It Means To Believe in God

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

 

 

Instead of reducing faith to a pathology, David Holley's book Meaning and Mystery explains, through rigorous research and accessible prose, why human beings need a life-orienting story - a guiding script (primarily written with the ink of faith) - to experience our lives in a fulfilling way. The book is timely for our disenchanted age. Long ago, Modernism boldly dragged God into the court-room, examined and cross-examined him into a fine powder, then left us with a Winter of Facts. Holley has a keen understanding of this historical phenomenon, but his book is in no way a one-dimensional apology for faith, but instead reminds us that without a life-orienting story, we perhaps choose a more dubious path. The book is a rare achievement because it transcends the fog of the culture wars and treats the individual reader in the most compassionate way possible: by addressing her often bewildered interior life.

David Holley has written one of the most important books in recent years. I was going to say 'one of the most important books on the topic in years' but since the topic is of first importance, the larger claim is warranted. What is so important about the book? First and perhaps most crucially, Holley distinguishes the third-person and theoreticsl metaphysical question of God's existence and the practical question of whether a particular religous tradition, with its more detailed and personal conception of God, its laws and its ethics, provides the best life-orienting story-line. Although not without value, much of the history of classical philosophy of religion and apologetics has erroneously treated the question in the third-person mode. So the book is of the greatest value as a corrective to thinkers of that tradition. But Holley is also constructing an alternative approach which evokes Jamesian pragmatism, Kierkegaardian fideism and Pascal's wager, but never falls into their excesses. This is another remarkable aspect of the book: after decades of thought and experience in the matter, Holley brings to bear an impressive knowledge of the contours of religious thought and many a sagacioua insight into their nature. Holley's analysis of what make good reasons for belief will be of great personal value for all those on a serious quest for a meaningful life-story.

Given the profundity of the subject and Holley's uniquely impressive contribution to it, I was surprised to find an earlier review focussed primarily on how much easier the book should have been. This was especially surprising since the print is no smaller than is typical for this kind of work, 220 pages is not longer than is typical, the writing is clear and accessible for the educated reader, suggested reading is typical of this genre, and an educated reader will be able to handle a nine-page introduction.