Synopses & Reviews
This textbook will give students a clear understanding of the connection between faith and reason. Illuminating Faith gives students a clear and accessible introduction to some of the major ways faith and the relationship between faith and reason have been understood within Western Christianity. In twenty-six short and easy to digest units it covers different accounts of faith beginning with Scripture, moving through the history of Christian thought, and ending with contemporary views. Along the way it explores some of the decisive theological and philosophy accounts of faith, such as faith seeking understanding, faith and supernatural virtue, faith and skepticism, and faith and science. Yet it also includes significant issues and movements not typically covered in introductory texts, such as documents from church councils, faith as knowledge, assent, and trust in the Protestant scholastics, faith and the heart in pietism, secularized accounts of faith, faith after Auschwitz, and faith and liberation. The goal of each unit is to introduce students to topical issues surrounding the nature of faith, to provide historical background for each topic, and to generate further discussion and reflection on the nature of faith. The result is a well balanced and unique introduction to various understandings of faith.
Designed specifically with classroom use in mind, Illuminating Faith includes a glossary of words, an update-to-date bibliography, and each chapter ends with questions for discussion as well as suggestions for relevant reading material.
About the Author
Francesca Aran Murphy is Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, USA.
Kenneth Oakes is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Notre Dame, USA.
Balázs Mezei is Professor of Philosophy at Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest, Hungary.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents Introduction
1. Faith and Scripture
2. Personal Faith: Saint Augustine
3. Ecclesial Faith
4. The Limits of Reason I: The Second Council of Orange
5. Systematic Faith: Thomas Aquinas
6. Faith and Supernatural Virtue: Catholic and Reformation Views
7. Faith, Trust, and the Freedom to Serve: Martin Luther
8. Faith as Knowledge, Assent, and Trust: The Protestant Scholastics
9. Faith and Heartfelt Passion: Pietism
10. Faith as Opinion: Skeptics, Deists, and Freethinkers
11. Reasonable Faith and Practical Reason: Immanuel Kant
12. Faith and Feeling: Friedrich Schleiermacher
13. Synthetic Faith: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
14. Faith and Paradox: Søren Kierkegaard
15. The Limits of Reason II: Vatican I
16. Faith and the Faithfulness of God: Karl Barth
17. Faith and Unbelief: Paul Tillich
18. Kenotic Faith: Hans Urs von Balthasar
19. Anonymous Faith: Karl Rahner
20. Faith After Auschwitz and the Death of God
21. Faith and Science
22. Secularized Faith: Philosophical Appropriations
23. Faith and Liberation
24. The Phenomenology of Faith:
Fides et Ratio 25. The Reasons of Faith: Reformed Epistemology
26. Conclusion: What is Faith?
Glossary
Bibliography
Index