Customer Reviews

The Plain Sense of Things: The Fate of Religion in an Age of Normal Nihilism

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This book was written by my professor and advisor in Philosophy. He is an amazing teacher, and much this comes across in this book. The subject of the book is a relevant one, and the perspective he offers is refreshing. His book largely deals with the question, "How do we give our lives meaning in an age where religion has lost its POWER?" He examines how this loss of power has come about in broad terms, and sees our society as one in which beliefs about the world are all devalued and convenient, available to anyone to pick and choose like clothes in a shopping mall. Dr. Edwards does not put up with philosophical talk that does not have real meaning or relevance to one's life. He speaks plainly, and he will make you think.

A rare, relevant, perhaps even urgent, achievement. Edwards skillfully and lucidly negotiates the complexities of, elicits the subtle kinships amongst, several philosophical diagnosticians of western culture, among whom Nietzsche, Heidegger and Kierkegaard figure most prominently. Edwards' ambition and ability far exceeds the merely expository. He weaves a compelling tale, drawn from various threads of the West's philosophical heritage, of how we -- a powerfully invitational 'we' whose reach proves to be remarkably broad -- came to our present state of reflective malaise which seems to aggravate our obdurate hankering for the ineffable, under the shadow of which stands much of contemporary "unbelief," however robust. With canny persistence, Edwards pursues several important consequences of this situation, exposes their risks, and elegantly conjures, from what he has gleaned from his philosophical forebears, a vision of rigor, of the piety that inspires rigor, divested of those commitments which no longer survive the imperatives of truthfulness.

I was introduced to this text in a class taught by Richard Rorty from whom James Edwards draws much of his discourse. The book was almost revelatory in its effect on me. It eloquently (though sometimes difficultly) expressed feelings and thoughts I'd had my entire life but could never fully express. He writes to "End of Century Western Intellectuals" which refers to all those who have intuitvely searched for some sort of "meaning" or "truth" but who have likely found most ostensible sources of such meaning to be hollow and weak. You will not find truth here either but you might find the explanation as to why that might be OK.

Before reading James C. Edwards new book, the closest I had come to "Fear and Trembling" was some occasional fear and loathing. Okay, a lifetime of fear and loathing. Then halfway through "The Plain Sense of Things" I realized that I knew more about country music than I did Soren Kierkegarde. So off I went to the public library, where no one had even heard of Soren Kierkegarde. Somehow, we figured out how to spell his name. So I checked out "Fear and Trembling." No wonder I had never read this book! In summary, any book that can make somebody go to the public library, knowing full well that he or she will end up paying some ridiculous fine because they are constitutionally incapable of returning the book on time, to check out and actually try to read something by Soren Kierkegarde, and I'm not talking about "the light side of Soren Kierkegarde" either, is one hell of a provocative read !