Customer Reviews

Philosophers Who Believe: The Spiritual Journeys of 11 Leading Thinkers

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Philosophers telling stories: that's what you get in this finework. Some of the story-tellers are quite well known, such as MortimerAdler and Richard Swinburne, that redoubtable defender of the existence of God. It's an act of humility and generosity for these men and women, who have spent their lives in debate, sometimes heated raucous, page to page combat, to step back, cook off, and tell why they believe in God and Christianity and how they came to believe. Few came to believe, it is interesting and of great importance to note, through academic philosophy. That's a point worth putting a lot of thought into. The stories they tell are deep, thought-provoking, sometimes inspiring, always fascinating. Plenty of arguments for faith are offered, but the thinkers are seldom harsh toward alternate viewpoints. I often thought as I was reading that this is how thinkers should talk about their ideas all the time. One suddenly realizes that all the academic blather that gets passed off as thought these days was and is of little importance in the lives of these people. Philosophers are people like us, thinking, hoping, searching, thinking again -- and again -- trying to get it right, hoping to get it right. One comes away from this book perhaps a little disturbed by all the disagreement floating around, but encouraged by all the faith, and faith gently and stirringly defended. Anyone interested in religion, Christianity, philosophy, theology, and the personal spiritual essay, which has become so popular in just the past three years, will find much to enjoy and profit from in this book. Hats off to the authors! By the way, there is a book that is very similar, somewhat better, and just as profound: "God and the Philosophers", edited by Tom Morris. The books are worth reading together. END

I have to admit a bias against, and consequent ignorance of, academic philosophy. I tend to think all human beings are philosophers by nature, but suspect professional philosophers may forget they are human beings. One measure of my ignorance is that, even though I've written a couple rather philosophical books on the truth of Christianity in relation to other religions, I had never heard of the authors of this book, aside from Plantinga, Adler, and Wolterstorff.

This book seems an ideal introduction to them for someone like me. (Or, yes, the intellectual but down-to-earth uncle you're looking for a present for.) Most of the autobios are genial and human, written with sometimes surprising honesty. Reason is not discarded as irrelevent to the spiritual quest, nor given a naive carte blanche, but seems to integrate naturally into the whollist ic engagement with reality that our spiritual lives, with their sometimes ambivalent attitude towards truth, tend to be.

Some of the stories are pretty far out; one or two a bit dull. Frederick Suppe seems to have lived his life on the edge, and made a wild story even more dramatic by his matter-of-fact style and repressed passion -- a lonely thrill-seeker spending a life trying to choose between God and sin, apparently doing top-notch philosophy (as both vocation and avocation) all the while. Wolterstorff's warmth and unabashed affirmation of his roots makes a good read. I noticed a lot of parallel's between Basil Mitchell's story and C. S. Lewis' growth, as described in Surprised by Joy, and enjoyed the story. I could also relate to Richard Swinburne's honest confession that he tended to be rather glad Christianity was a minority religion, "The more clever people there were to argue against, the better!" (It reminded me of the French general who, when reminded that his unit was surrounded, replied, "Great! Then we can attack in any direction!")

A book is a meeting of minds. An anthology arranging a common medium for that meeting to take place. At its best, this book takes on something of the atmosphere of a campfire on the last day of camp, with the stars overhead, darkness all around, a blaze before us, lending not only light, but warmth as well, as campers of the most thoughtful possible kind through pine cones on the fire and share what they learned over the weekend.

author, Jesus and the Religions of Man

I am grateful to these eleven men and women for the testimonies of their commitment to Christian faith and philosophical truth. I especially appreciate the fact that each philosopher conscientiously responds from the convictions of his or her Christian background(s), whether Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed, Wesleyan, or Quaker. As a Christian myself, I am amazed that these individuals can so rigorously analyze philosophical considerations on the nature of science, the certainty (or no) of epistemologies, or that of various metaphysical speculations, all within the contexts of broadly Christian testimonies. I especially enjoyed reading Nicholas Wolterstorff's reminiscences of his Reformed childhood (so full of image and texture) and Frederick Suppe's eminently reasonable assertion that Catholics also recognize and receive the unmerited favors of God the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ (a point that I, as a Protestant, must continually remember). The other essays provide their own distinct rewards. Anyone interested in the interplay of faith and intellect must read this volume.

Like _God and the Philosophers_, this book is *not* a book of apologetics. It is, rather, an insightful look into the personal lives and thoughts of some of the worlds top philosophers who are also Christians. It is very successful in that task. The contributors list is a veritable Who's Who of philosophy and it is not as provincial as the Library Journal review above would have you beleive:

Thomas Morris
William P. Alston (Episcopal)
Peter van Inwagen (Episcipal-Anglo-Catholic)
Michael J. Murray
William J. Wainwritght
Merold Westphal
C. Stephen Layman (Episcopal)
Jerry Walls
Robert C. Roberts
Jeff Jordan
Marilyn McCord Adams (Episcopal)
Brian Leftow (Episcopal/Ango-Catholic)
George Mavrodes
Eleonore Stump (Catholic)

This book will challenge the discerning reader from both the rationalistic Christian perspective as well as the skeptic who is reading attentively. Very highly recommended.

I very much agree with the above comments on this book and want to add only this: this book is excellent for readers of all academic/intellectual levels and interests. What is so amazing about these stories is not only the candor of the authors but the genuine desire to communicate with the reader -- it is not difficult to see that these men and women are teachers on at least that level. Their personal warmth and humility may lead one to believe that this is not a scholarly work -- but that simply isn't true. This book could easily serve as a stepping stone from their aggressive works (very much like lectures) to their personal understanding (as we might find in office hours). "I was struck by the enormous variety of intellectual and spiritual opinion at Harvard, and spent a great deal of time arguing about whether there was such a person as God...I began to wonder whether what I had always believed could really be true...On the one hand I began to think is questionable that what I had been taught and had always believed could be right given that there were all these others who thought so differently (and were so much more intellectually accomplished than I). On the other hand, I thought to myself...Do these objections really have much by way of substance? And if, as I strongly suspected, not, why should their taking the views they did be relevant to what *I* thought?" (Plantinga, pg. 51)

Philosophers telling stories: that's what you get in this fine work. Some of them are quite well known, such as Mortimer Adler and Richard Swinburne. It's an act of humility and generosity for these men and women, who have spent their lives in debate, sometimes heated raucous, debate, to step back, cook off, and tell why they believe in God and Christianity and how they came to believe. (Few came to believe, it is interesting and of great importance to note, through academic philosophy.) The stories they tell are deep, thought-provoking, sometimes inspiring, always fascinating. Plenty of arguments for faith are offered, but the thinkers add little harshness. I often thought as I was reading that this is how thinkers should talk about their ideas all the time. One suddenly realizes that all the academic blather that gets passed off as thought these days was and is of little importance in the lives of these people. Philosophers are people like us, thinking, hoping, searching, thinking again -- and again -- trying to get it right, hoping to get it right. One comes away from this book perhaps a little disturbed by all the disagreement floating around, but encouraged by all the faith, and faith gently and stirringly defended. Anyone interested in religion, Christianity, philosophy, theology, and the personal essay will find much to enjoy and profit from in this book. Hats off to the authors!

What is the motivation behind the lives of contemporary christian philosophers. To read this, you will get to know them in a certain way. They had their own reasons, they have their own questions, and even though there are differences in their ways of thinking in this book it doesn't seem to matter. A beautiful book of hopefully good models for young christian students of philosophy

Cornelis van Putten student philosophy, tilburg, the netherlands

When I was in college I was introduced to Mortimer Adler's useful book aptly named,"How to Read a Book." I found Mr. Adler's thinking and writing very interesting and practical. The book opened up new worlds for me and in many ways I felt I was reading for the first time.

Consequently I became facinated with Mr. Adler thoughts on philosophy. I found a book in the library by him named "How to Think About God." If God did exist, Adler opined, here's what he would be like. Although he hadn't made the leap to faith in God (neither had I), he did open up the possibility that God existed and streched my thinking on the subject.

Years later after I had grown to know and love God and grown in my faith, I ran accross this book, "Philosophers Who Believe," which had a section on Mortimer Adler. I was pleased and astonished that he had come to faith much as I had. It seemed that we had shared a common journey through life and faith. Even though we never met personally, I will always be indebted to Adler for leading me in my personal development and my growth in my relationship with God.

The book outlines not just Adler's story but the story of other philosophers as well. If you are a searching soul, this book will show you how others with thoughtful lives have come to faith as well.

Philosophers who Believe contains spiritual autobiographies from some of today's top academic philosophers, including, Mortimer Adler, Stephen Davis, Basil Mitchell, Terence Penelhum, Alvin Plantinga, Nicholas Rescher, John Rist, Richard Swinburne, Frederick Suppe, Nicholas Wolterstorff, and Linda Zagzebski, all of whom are firmly committed to the Christian faith. This book contains some of the most poignant prose one could ever hope to read, which might be surprising coming from these tough-minded intellectuals. I recommend this book for (1) those who think academic rigor and religious faith are incompatible, both those from the atheist or agnostic academic side and those from the anti-intellectual religious side; (2) those Christian philosophers who for whatever reason feel the need to downplay the emotive side of their faith; and (3) anyone who seeks to be intellectually challenged and/or spiritually nourished.

This book gave me a deeper respect for those philosophers I already admire (Plantinga, Swinburne, Wolterstorff), gave me a new admiration for those philosophers I knew of but didn't know much about (Davis, Mitchell, Adler, etc), and introduced me to a few philosophers I did not know of previously (Penelhum, Zagzebski, etc). It was fascinating to read how the faith of these philosophers developed, which at times shows through in their various philosophical commitments, e.g., Plantinga and Wolterstorff's "Reformed epistemology" or Swinburne's internalist epistemology. Some of these philosophers grew up in the church and can't imagine what it would be like outside of Christian faith, while others strayed from the faith for a time and still others had no faith whatsoever for the majority of their life, e.g., Adler who came to faith at the ripe old age of 82! If it is possible to say that this book "advocates" anything, I would say it advocates a "mere Christianity." The contributors thus come from a diverse background within the Christian faith: Dutch Reformed, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, Anglican, etc. (Notably absent were any explicitly tied to Wesleyan or Anabaptist traditions, but we're working on changing that!)

These autobiographies included humor, philosophical and theological reflection, moving personal experiences, and much more. Well worth the read.

[For a fuller review, visit http://cramercomments.blogspot.com]

I found this to be generally interesting, but not exactly what the title had led me to expect. I was expecting a more philosophical/intellectual discussion of belief - i.e., why these scholars find Christian theology convincing notwithstanding their training in philosophy. Instead, this might just as easily be "Lawyers Who Believe" or "Accountants Who Believe." In other words, the contributors' descriptions of how they came to their beliefs and how they maintain them in an academic environment generally struck me as no more (or less) profound or well-thought-out than you might get from any group of reasonably intelligent Christians. The essays are well-written, candid and diverse, but overall the book seemed to convey no deeper message than: "See, not all academics regard Christianity as nonsense." I thus had the feeling that the book might be aimed primarily at college-age readers rather than those of us who have struggled with our beliefs at least as much as these folks and were hoping for something meatier. Too often, I was left wondering: "So precisely why, having been steeped in philosophy, are you a Christian? Can you explain it a little more deeply?" I give this four stars because I did enjoy all of the essays and found them to be generally worthwhile, albeit not what I was expecting from "11 leading thinkers." I also appreciated the fact that the book has no particular agenda, except to demonstrate that belief isn't incompatible with a high level of intelligence and academic training; the contributors' beliefs seem to range across a wide spectrum of Christianity. (Be forewarned that some of these essays are VERY candid: One contributor discusses his promiscuous homosexuality and struggles with masturbation at greater length than we perhaps needed in order to get the picture. On the other hand, it's admirable of him and the others that they were willing to be this honest, because a dishonest spiritual autobiography would be pretty useless.)