Synopses & Reviews
There is an essential change taking place in what it means to be religious today. Religious people are more interested in ethical guidelines and spiritual disciplines than in doctrines. The result is a universal trend away from hierarchical, regional, patriarchal, and institutional religion. As these changes gain momentum, they evoke an almost point-for-point fundamentalist reaction. Fundamentalism, Cox argues, is on graphic display around the globe because it is dying.
Once suffocated by creeds, hierarchies, and the disastrous merger of the church with the Roman Empire, faith--rather than belief--is once again becoming Christianity's defining quality. This recent move away from dogmatic religion is best explained against the backdrop of three distinct periods of church history:
The Age of Faith: the first three centuries of Christianity, when the early church was more concerned with following Jesus's teachings than enforcing what to believe about Jesus
The Age of Belief: marking a significant shift between the fourth and twentieth centuries when the church focused on orthodoxy and correct doctrine
The Age of the Spirit: a trend that began fifty years ago and is increasingly directing the church of tomorrow whereby Christians are ignoring dogma and breaking down barriers between different religions--spirituality is replacing formal religion
The Future of Faith is a major statement and a hopeful look at a movement that is surfacing within Christianity and other religious traditions by one of the most revered theologians today.
Review
“At this crucial turning point in history, Harvey Cox reminds us of essential religious values and imperatives . . . A timely and prophetic book” Karen Armstrong, author of A History of God
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“The Future of Faith is a tour de force. As passionate and challenging as his classic, The Secular City, Coxs new book invites the faithful, the skeptical, and the fearful into a spirit-filled vision of Christianity that can renew a hurting world.” Diana Butler Bass, author of A People's History of Christianity
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“Celebrated religious scholar Cox argues that we are witnessing the dawn of a third epoch in Christian history . . . Coxs work is intriguing, and there is certainly truth in his observations about global Christianity and the rise of Pentecostalism and liberation theology.” Kirkus Reviews
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“A lucid and congenial book . . . [Cox] is not alone, but he is most cogent, in thinking that the content of Christian faith is becoming more like that of the early church . . . A book full of good news.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Review
“With its overarching themes, Coxs new book can be viewed as the culmination of his lifes scholarship.” Boston Globe
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“The Future of Faith is insightful, provocative, and inspiringI even found myself uttering a hearty evangelical “Amen” at many points!” Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Theological Seminary and author of Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport
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“This important book has not only helped me understand the past, present, and future of this amazing phenomenon called Christianity ... it has also motivated me to keep working to help make actual the possible future Cox envisions.”
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“With typical brilliance and lively insight, Cox explores questions in a dazzling blend of memoir, church history and theological commentary . . . Cox remains our most thoughtful commentator on the religious scene, and his spirited portrait of our religious landscape challenges us to think in new ways about faith.” Publishers Weekly
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"Harvey Cox has been a voice of both reason and faith in our cynical times. Now, he offers
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“For the last four decades, Harvey Cox has been the leading trend spotter in American religion.” Stephen Prothero, author of Religious Literacy
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“Harvey Cox has been a voice of both reason and faith in our cynical times. Now, he offers
Synopsis
A beautiful book and a Cox classic .Readers will be grateful that they joined him on his journey. E.J. Dionne Jr., author of Souled Out
Insightful, provocative, and inspiring I even found myself uttering a hearty evangelical Amen Richard Mouw, President, Fuller Theological Seminary, and author of Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport
The Future of Faith is Harvard religion scholar Harvey Cox s landmark exploration of why Christian dogmatism is giving way to a grassroots Christianity rooted in social justice and spirituality. Cox laid the groundwork for modern religious writing with his 1965 classic, The Secular City, paving the way for writers like Diana Butler Bass, Karen Armstrong, Stephen Prothero, and Deepak Chopra, who calls The Future of Faith a fresh vision for the resurrection of a new global Christianity. "
Synopsis
In The Future of Faith, legendary theologian Harvey Cox proposes a new interpretation of the history and future of Christianity -- one that explains why Christian beliefs and dogma are giving way to new grassroots movements rooted in social justice and spiritual experience. Cox identifies three fundamental shifts over the last 2000 years of Church history: the Age of Faith, when the early Church was more concerned with following Jesus's teachings than enforcing what to believe about Jesus; the Age of Belief, when the Church focused on orthodoxy and enforcing correct beliefs; and the Age of the Spirit, which is currently shaping not just Christianity but other religious traditions today, in which spirituality replaces formal religion. The Future of Faith is a major statement by one of the most revered and respected religious scholars today.
Harvey Cox is the Hollis Research Professor of Divinity at Harvard University, where he has been teaching since 1965, both at Harvard Divinity School and in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. An American Baptist minister, he was the Protestant chaplain at Temple University and the director of religious activities at Oberlin College; an ecumenical fraternal worker in Berlin; and a professor at Andover Newton Theological School. His book Secular City, published in 1965, became an international bestseller and was selected by the University of Marburg as one of the most influential books of Protestant theology in the twentieth century.
"With its overarching themes, Cox's new book can be viewed as the culmination of his life's scholarship." -- Boston Globe
--Karen Armstrong, author of A History of God
Synopsis
Legendary Harvard religion scholar Harvey Cox offers up a new interpretation of the history and future of religion. Cox identifies three fundamental shifts over the last 2,000 years of church history:
The Age of Faith was when the early church was more concerned with following Jesus' teachings than enforcing what to believe about Jesus.
The Age of Belief marks a significant shift-between the fourth and twentieth centuries-when the church focused on orthodoxy and right beliefs.
The Age of the Spirit, that began in the 1960s and is shaping not just Christianity but other religious traditions today, is ignoring dogma and breaking down barriers between different religions. Spirituality is replacing formal religion.
Reflecting on how his own faith journey mirrors these three historical shifts, Cox personalizes the material in a compelling, practical ways. The Future of Faith is a major statement by one of the most revered theologians today.
Synopsis
“A beautiful book and a Cox classic….Readers will be grateful that they joined him on his journey.” —E.J. Dionne Jr., author of
Souled Out“Insightful, provocative, and inspiring—I even found myself uttering a hearty evangelical ‘Amen!” —Richard Mouw, President, Fuller Theological Seminary, and author of Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport
The Future of Faith is Harvard religion scholar Harvey Coxs landmark exploration of why Christian dogmatism is giving way to a grassroots Christianity rooted in social justice and spirituality. Cox laid the groundwork for modern religious writing with his 1965 classic, The Secular City, paving the way for writers like Diana Butler Bass, Karen Armstrong, Stephen Prothero, and Deepak Chopra, who calls The Future of Faith “a fresh vision for the resurrection of a new global Christianity.”
About the Author
Harvey Cox is the Hollis Research Professor of Divinity at Harvard, where he has taught since 1965, both at Harvard Divinity School and in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. His book The Secular City, published in 1965, became an international bestseller and is widely regarded as one of the twentieth centurys most influential books of Protestant theology.