Book Review: The Logic of the Heart (James R Peters)

James Peters' The Logic of the Heart: Augustine, Pascal and the Rationality of Faith is a profound exploration of what it means to believe in God. I've been struggling with the tension between reason and faith for many years and have found few answers that were satisfying. Enlightenment rationalism which refuses to accept the legitimacy of any belief without empirical evidence, radical postmodernist relativism which promotes the idea that all truth is merely the construction of human culture(s) and the rejection of any form of meta-narrative (other than its own), and the blind faith of the fundamentalist theist who firmly shoves their head in the sand and denies the legitimacy of modern scientific understandings of the cosmos - all of these just don't stand up to rigorous scrutiny - at least not for me. What a breath of fresh air, then, to come across James Peters' thorough, in-depth, nuanced discussion of these matters.

The book is essentially a Socratic "dialogue" between the ideas of Augustine, Pascal and Hume. Intriguingly, Peters describes the similarities between Hume (one of the most famous a-theists) and Augustine's and Pascal's critique of the possibility of human rationalism/empiricism in the pursuit of truth. There is a deep desire in humans to inquire and discover with a paradoxical human limitation in succeeding at that pursuit. So Peters passionately affirms the legitimacy of much that Hume writes about the limits of reason.

Just as passionately, Peters shows how Hume, when he comes to discuss Christianity, seems to argue inconsistently with his own understanding. Peters ultimately shows how an Augustinian and, in particular, Pascalian approach to reason and faith is more holistic than Hume's.

One of the strongest features of this book is a sustained analysis of radical postmodernism and, in particular, a great analysis of Richard Rorty's thinking - a telling critique highlighting the self-referentially undermining nature of his approach.

So, what is the essential point of The Logic of the Heart? I hesitate because I know I'm not going to do justice to the ideas and argument in this book. It is that there are some things we need to commit to in order to know the truth of them. One example is trust in another person. When we first meet someone we need to commit ourselves to trusting them before we can enter into a relationship to test their trustworthiness. For Peters, it is the same with belief in God. In order to know of God's existence it is necessary to take a leap of faith in order to know of God's existence through direct experience.

Now this is a paltry statement of the essential point of the book. Peters has a broad and deep knowledge of philosophical literature and demonstrates the rationality of such a position though extended discussion, argument and dialogue with a host of "interlocutors" past and present. His perspective offers a midway between Enlightenment "worship" of reason and postmodernist emphasis on freedom and self-rule.

Who should read this book? The first criteria is that the reader needs to be familiar with general philosophical concepts related to epistemology and, in particular, the debates that arise from the dialogue between empiricists and postmodernists over epistemology. Apart from that, you need to be prepared for a dense, challenging read. Peters' argument is sustained and rich and it's most definitely not a book you can read in a few hours. There is much to chew over. In my opinion, every well educated Christian and atheist would benefit from this book. Peters provides a view worth considering for those who are unhappy with so-called new atheist perspectives and naive fundamentalist evangelicalism. And for Christians who are constantly berated for believing in in the irrational it is a rigorous argument demonstrating that faith can be a rational act of believing.

To finish: a quote from the book (p 22):

I have written this book out of the conviction that the basic Augustinian and Pascalian position on faith and understanding is well suited for a post-modern age disillusioned with the idols of hard facts, passionless reason, absolute foundations,mand the amoral rhetoric of consumerism and materialism. Augusrine’s and Pascal’s conception of a situated and dialectical reason, of a reason dependent on the heart, of a reason nurtured and transformed by God’s love, provides a viable middle ground between the Enlightenment idolatry of reason and the radical postmodernist’s idolatry of autonomy and its call for the end of traditional philosophy and theology as unwarranted and oppressive metanarratives. Both Hume and Pascal tried in their own ways to caution us against the pretensions of philosophers who insist that we live by reason alone. I shall attempt in what follows to place these two dialectical opponents against each other. In the end, whether we opt for Hume’s or Pascal’s position on the merits of Christian faith depends on a question at the core of our human nature: “What are people for?"

For a refreshingly challenging read go get this book!

Book details: James R Peters (2009), The Logic of the Heart: Augustine, Pascal, and the Rationality of Faith. Baker Academic.

 

Book Review: The Reason Driven Life

The moment I began reading Rick Warren's book The Purpose Driven Life I didn’t like it. It was immature, simplistic, theologically inadequate, and ripped biblical verses from their context. But I have come to dislike it even more now I have read Robert M Price’s The Reason Driven Life: What Am I Here On Earth For? Price’s book is a brilliant critique of fundamentalist Christianity as illustrated by Warren’s book. And while Price is responding specifically to Warren, one doesn’t need to have read Warren’s book.

Price is an intriguing character. He has been a fundamentalist evangelical, a pastor of a liberal Baptist church, and came to eventually reject theism altogether. Reading his life story, as described in the introduction to the book, one can see he was a very committed fundamentalist Christian practicing as one would expect of a Christian in this tradition — attending church, having daily “quiet time”, training for Campus Crusade for Christ, president of InverVarsity Christian Fellowship, and so on. He has doctorates in theology and New Testament. He describes himself as a humanist and is currently, I believe, a member of the Episcopal Church. Price is also a fellow of the in(famous) Jesus Seminar and sometimes describes himself as a Christian atheist. He has also authored a number of books on the historicity of Jesus which he questions.

I recently heard Price speaking on a podcast addressing atheists who, in his view, disrespect the Biblical documents in the way they dismiss them. He argued that atheists need to at least treat the biblical documents with the same regard they treat other great classics of literature such as The Iliad. Instead, because of narrow-mindedness, many of them are blind to the Bible’s beauty and wisdom, even if they do not take it literally or accept the absolute claims made for it by fundamentalist Christians.

Hearing how Price spoke in such respectful language regarding the Bible and the deep scholarship and expertise he clearly had prompted me to buy The Reason Driven Life and have a read. And what a read!

Price’s essential message is that fundamentalist Christianity is narrow-minded, immature, and unthinking. In forty short chapters (emulating Warren’s book) Price explores the characteristics of fundamentalist Christianity and suggests that they:

• are obsessively focused on continual religious activity to the exclusion of living life to the full
• place people in a double bind of valuing the self and denying the self
• deny scientific discoveries and understandings of human nature and existence
• confuse and equate limited human perspectives and interpretations of the Bible with the very voice of God
• take an immature approach to living life and making decisions and, instead, place this responsibility on a god who is constantly intervening even though it makes no sense to do so
• constantly experience anxiety and depression at not measuring up to what is understood to be God’s standards for living and behaviour
• discourage thinking and promote the need to adopt the absolute truth as understood by the denomination or church
• require conformity to the group rather than development of individuality and uniqueness
• construe as heretical any position that does not conform to denominational creeds and reject independent thinking
• use friendships and other relationships for evangelising rather than experiencing these for their own value
• and much more…

Price most definitely has a point! Anyone who has grown up in, or lived in, any religious group that leans towards a fundamentalist milieu will have experienced many of these things. Thinking — real, genuine, independent, critical thinking — is not high on the agenda. And many fundamentalist Christians, under the guise of faith in God, live lives of egocentric wish fulfilment. For many, God is more interested in them getting a car park or finding their keys than rescuing the millions of men, women, and children who suffer natural or moral disasters around the globe. Or God is mostly concerned about correct belief, defined by them, than about genuine loving of others.

There is an enormous amount of benefit in reading Price’s book. One of the most liberating paragraphs is found in the introduction where he says that he

…does not much care what you end up believing, partly because you should not jump to conclusions. Part of living the reason-driven life is that you no longer feel the false urgency to make up your mind right now what you believe. You realize you are not under any deadline. Nor are you likely ever to arrive at some definitive truth. Your thinking about the meaning of life will be an ongoing project, its own reward. And the conclusions you do reach will be tentative and always open to revision in light of new insights you may encounter.

This is, indeed, a liberating position to take in life. One of the features of fundamentalism is a constant need to be certain. The degree of certainty one feels is often made a matter of life and death. But with maturity comes an approach to living that does not require certainty about everything. Living with uncertainty and adopting one’s right to think for oneself rather than being told what to think is sometimes painful but always liberating.

For some Christians reading Price’s book, there will be many things unacceptable. For example, Price denies the historicity of Jesus and the reality of a personal God. In his view, there is inadequate evidence for either. He deeply respects people’s right to believe in either or both and he associates with Christians, even to worshiping with them and identifying himself as an Episcopalian. At times, he has accepted the term ‘Christian atheist’ to describe his perspective although he prefers to be called a humanist.

The Reason Driven Life is a fascinating book by a fascinating author. His essential critique of fundamentalist Christianity (his primary target) is often apt and accurate. Despite different readers probably rejecting some parts of the book and some of his ideas, it’s a good wakeup call to fundamentalist Christians to start thinking more seriously about their religion and their faith.

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"I don't know" - the most important thing to be able to say

Sir John Houghton is a physicist considered to be one of the world's experts in global warming. He was Professor in Atmospheric Physics at Oxford University. He has won a number of awards including Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. He is also a Christian. Have a listen to this interview with PBS's Bill Moyers on the program Faith & Reason where he discusses his views on science and faith. He concludes with the assertion that one of the most important things a believer needs to be prepared to say is, 'I don't know'.