A philosophical masterpiece and a "Theological Time Bomb"
581862
The Theology of the Body is comparable in depth of thought to the works of Augustine and Aquinas.
The writings speak to a reader at numerous levels: the personal, the organizational, global, sacramental, familial, paternal, maternal, fraternal, vocational, scriptural, anthropological and many others. The beauty is the integration of teachings at and across each level!
The teachings encapsulated within this work synthesize many truths about humanity and Catholic Christianity.
The book's writings shed light on the fullness of Truth revealed in and over the fullness of time. What was implied in the truth of the Gospel is revealed in a more explicit way in the Pope's analysis.
Topics of interest include: the dignity of the human person, the human body in art versus pornography, the intended relationship between man and woman from the beginning - in the present - and future, what the physical human body reveals about the nature of the person and God, the call to Chastity and Modesty, the universal call to holiness, the mystery of Body of Christ, the mystery of the priesthood, celibacy, and the mystery of the Eucharist and much, much more.
The book is a difficult read if you are not familiar with the Pope's method... but well worth it!!
2827301
Rosen opens the book with a long introduction surveying the history of Philosophy. He begins by citing Aristole's famous 'All men desire to know' and relates the philosophical quest to a comprehensive effort on the part of human beings to understand both for understanding's sake alone, and in order to bring blessedness and happiness to life. He concludes the survey by somewhat surprisingly indicating that the philosophical enterprise has come to an end in our own day. He speaks about Heidegger as having presented a vast metaphysical system only to have retreated from its conclusions, and end his life writing mystical poetic meditations. He speaks too of Wittgenstein as representing a philosophical coda, and not inspiration to new and great understanding.. Rosen connects this all with the rise of Science and he in fact devotes one whole section of the book to essays on the History of Science including the famous Thomas Kuhn essay on Scientific Paradigms. The selections from the great philosophers do provide an overall sense of what the philosophical enterprise has been about through the centuries. But Rosen's belief that we have reached a point where no one can even begin to offer a comprehensive political or moral philosophy seems to me to underestimate the human capacity for surprise in creation which as I understand it is God's great gift to us. i.e. The Philosophy which in understanding the world recreates it, in understanding human nature also recreates this will bring forth new names, perhaps even new systems for comprehending our worlds and worlds beyond our world in ways we cannot understand now.
1619273
"The Big Picture" is a deeply rewarding book.  Time and again, we read wonderful treatises by theoretical physicists who describe the cosmos in terms the layperson can grasp.  Brian Greene's masterworks come to mind.  But they all stop short of answering the questions that spring readily from their pages.  How, for example, should string theory, quantum mechanics and the multiverse interrelate to influence our thinking on the possibility of God's existence?  Perhaps for fear of offending potential readers, perhaps on account of intellectual humility and uncertainty, most authors shy away from attempting to expound on these bottom-line, ontological issues.  They often default to making the rote assertion that science and religion occupy distinct realms that do not overlap, that discussion of the former need not influence thinking on the latter.

Sean Carroll, the author of "The Big Picture," does away with all that.  He ably (and courageously) steers his sturdy intellectual vessel through the roiling waters where the currents of science and religion do, in fact, intersect.  Carroll readily admits science cannot now provide all of the answers to life's mysteries, but he says its trajectory is moving inexorably and quickly in that direction.  In the end, Carroll unambiguously and methodically attempts to deconstruct the foundation for a belief in the existence of God or anything else that science cannot see, observe or study.  The second law of thermodynamics (entropy) and the arrow of time created at the Big Bang, not an omnipotent designer, are what explain the existence of stars, planets and life.  The mathematics of string theory teach that our universe could be merely one among many, and, therefore, we should not be too impressed that the laws of physics seem finely and improbably calibrated to accommodate our existence.  There is nothing magical about consciousness; it can be readily understood as neurons firing in the brain, the end product of hundreds of millions of years of evolution.

In making these assertions, Carroll is careful to recognize his conclusions about "naturalism" could be wrong, that scientific study or observable phenomenon could one day put theists back on a sounder footing.  But, ever the true Bayesian, Carroll is quick to impress upon us his belief that the odds of that day ever coming are slim at best.

I found the last part of the book the least satisfying.  It is there where Carroll tries to convince the reader that the absence of a God or an afterlife should not meaningfully impact our ability to find purpose in life.  Would that it were true.  Yes, as Carroll claims, we should revel in man's unique place in the cosmos, in our mastery of its hidden details, in our relationships.  But these admonishments are thin emotional gruel and do not fully sate our hunger for meaning, our psychological need to cope with the black expanse of death.  In suggesting otherwise, Carroll over-intellectualizes, falsely claiming that we can think our way out of primal existential despair.  Thus, Carroll unfortunately caps his intellectually rigorous book with a large dollop of new age froth.
602911
Ben Myers renders clear the obscure. Rowan Williams is a complex and, for many, a confusing modern theologian. Add to that the fact that he has for the last decade or so been embroiled in controversy over contentious issues in the Anglican communion. Myers offers a deep and sympathetic, but also critical, reading of Williams' theology.

Myers lays bare the intellectual and spiritual roots of Williams' theology. Specifically, he shows the way in which William's thought has been shaped by sustained engagements with Wittgenstein, MacKinnon, Augustine, Russian Orthodox theology, Freud, Gillian Rose's Hegelianism, and various forms of ascetic practice. This provides an interpretive framework for understanding Williams' sometimes difficult writings, and illuminates the theological background to some of his more controversial decisions (e.g., his positions on Sharia law and homosexuality, respectively).

The book is not heavy-handed or polemical. Myers often lets Williams' positions speak for themselves. This charitable approach makes this an ideal book for readers sympathetic or critical to Williams. If one is already positively disposed towards Williams, this book will be eminently helpful in showing the way his thought has been formed over the decades. The reader with sharp disagreements will discover where the disagreement truly originates.

While Myers seems sympathetic towards much of Williams' thought, this does not turn the book into iconography. Myers demonstrates a patient and loving listening to the thought of Williams. While the book is not without celebrations and criticisms, for the most part the reader is left to make up her own mind with regard to the legitimacy and import of Williams' thought.

The charitable approach taken in the book is combined with a lovely writing style that is colourful and concise. The book makes a compelling case in the space of 132 pages, and does so as a real "page-turner". This is a rare feat, especially for a theological book. As such it is a wonderful example of theological writing.
1352885
This is STILL Alvin Plantinga's most impressive book to date.

A philosophical masterpiece that excels in modal logic.

Plantinga does a great job with his version of the Ontological Argument.  In perfect being theology, God is defined as "A Maximally Great Being" which means that God possesses all great-making, properties such as love, knowledge, and power, and possesses each in a maximal way.

Alvin Plantinga swings around Kant's object by showing how necessity is a property, and that Existence is not. Necessity does not entail existence. Necessity just means that if something exists, it exists in all possible worlds. Numbers have this property.

It is perfectly within the laws of modal logic for a property (which is not a perfection) to entail its negation.

While the Ontological Argument from Anselm has been restored by the likes of Stephen T Davis, now it clearly shows that the Ontological Argument is indeed the most powerful argument for God's existence.  While the layman will have a lot of trouble understanding why, this does nothing to the argument itself.

Robert Maydole speaks about this book a lot in his writings of the Modal Perfection Argument, and rightly so.  This book should is NECESSARY for everyone who is into philosophical theology.
4755619
"Critique of Intelligent Design" by John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark and Richard York presents an outstanding intellectual history of the materialist critique of creationism, spanning from nearly 2,500 years ago to the present day. The impressive collaboration, combining the talents of three professors from leading U.S. universities, results in a tightly argued, persuasive and liberating book. In a succinct but precise manner, the authors offer us a fascinating and important perspective on the development of the Western mind; importantly, the book is no less uncompromising in its defense of rationality over superstition.

The authors begin by comparing and contrasting the current debate over intelligent design with the Scopes Trial of 1925, finding both events to be spurred by reactionary religious fundamentalists who sought to push back against recent gains made by science on the public consciousness. Interestingly, the authors trace the apostasy of materialism back to Epicurus, who is credited with making the first significant contribution to founding a materialist philosophy in ancient Greece; Epicurus' groundbreaking work subsequently provided inspiration to a long line of progressive thinkers including Marx, Darwin and Freud who are each discussed at length. By deconstructing the discourse between the materialists and the fundamentalists over the centuries, we come to understand that the heart of the matter is a desire to control human consciousness: on the one hand, in service to a religion that typically affirms the status quo; and on the other hand, of a materialism that tends to embrace human agency, ingenuity and freedom.

On this point, the authors suggest that if science and reason pose a revolutionary challenge to the social order, then organized religion has routinely engaged in counterrevolutionary strategies; this has included the enlistment of pseudo-intellectual believers whose task has generally been to confuse and obfuscate, thereby hoping to create the unknowable space necessary for religion to survive. Such noteworthy proponents of religious ideology have included William Paley, C S Lewis and Michael Behe, to name just a few. The authors help us understand the specific issues that have obssessed such defenders of religion at different moments in time, allowing us to gain deep insight and perspective on the matter.

Ultimately, the reader gains the insight that if humanity wishes to evolve and live in peace with each other and in harmony with the planet, ignorance must give way to rationality; we can not allow the illusion that is religion to impede humanity's moral responsibility to care for society and nature. To that end, this important book arms us with the knowledge we need to champion the way forward.

I highly recommend this enlightening book to everyone.
286306
Reviving and updating the literary genre of the dialogue, Worlds in Conflict considers the answers provided by different intellectual traditions - Christianity, Judaism, Atheism - to foundational theological and philosophical questions.  It is free-wheeling and far-reaching, examining in turn the notion of the "Chosenness" of Jews, the veracity of Holy Scripture, the sources of anti-semitism, Jewish ties to the Holy Land, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the theological proposition that Christianity supplanted Judaism (as bearers of the Novum Testamentum), the internal contradictions of atheism and secular humanism and much, much more.

Written with verve, Worlds in Conflict is a fascinating product of a passionate and agile scholar who thinks as deeply as he does broadly.  It is wildly original as well; I've never read anything quite like it!
4710239
Perhaps the best book I've read on Calvinism in conjunction with a serious study in biblical theology is Tom Schreiner and A.B. Caneday's The Race Set Before Us. This is a carefully reasoned and trenchantly argued book that is perhaps the best in print on the subject of perseverance and assurance from the Calvinist perspective. The meticulous attention paid to different viewpoints, the thorough exegesis, and the pastoral sensitivity make it a "must read" for anyone in search of real and weighty answers to the vexing problems listed above. The authors do not make the error in the argument from grace that so many Calvinists do in that they treat the sanctification and the perseverance of the chosen believer true to compatibilist terms that dignify his or her responsibility in salvation.

In summary, the book's argument seeks to make sense of the biblical warnings against falling away (see Rom 8:13; 11:17-24; I Cor 9:27; Gal 5:4; Col 1:23; I Thess 3:5; I Tim 1:19-20; II Tim 2:17-18; Heb 6:4-6; 10:26-31; Jas 5:19-20; II Pet 2:20-22), and criticizes three popular views of perseverance and assurance common among Christians as well as a fourth that is idiosyncratic to certain thinkers in the scholarly world. The first of which they repudiate is the simple "loss of salvation" view, which means what it says: genuine believers are able to lose their salvation by failing to persevere. Second is the "loss of rewards" view, which simply entails the loss of certain benefits in heaven, though not salvation, if one walks away from the faith. Third is the "test of genuineness" view which is the view of John Owen where a believer devises a system of biblical "tests" that looks for true signs of faithfulness. Falling away proves one never was genuinely regenerated in the first place. The fourth view is the so-called "hypothetical view" that only imagines the idea of a believer falling away, yet maintains the reality of which an impossibility.

Schreiner and Caneday give serious arguments demonstrating flaws in each of these views, if not dismantling them entirely, and present their own view of the warnings: the "means of salvation view" (pp. 38-40). In this view the warnings are the means of eliciting faith in God's promises, and do not imply the possibility of having salvation and falling away from it. No true believer will fail to heed the warnings, thus rendering them compatible with God's sovereign election and human responsibility. The warnings, then, function as a means of God's grace to the elect that only the elect are able to heed via the sovereign grace of God. The solution is ingenious because it directs the believer and unbeliever to the promises of God through the warning passages and honors the responsibility of the believer to persevere in believing them.

While I did not come to agreement with the authors in the end, I am thankful for their work. It had the profound effect of giving me pastoral comfort in a time introspection and anxiety. Their's is a book that ought to be read and read again for a mature look at what the New Testament says about perseverance and assurance.
4334951
Any person considering this book would do well to carefully read Thomas Fletcher's review here.  In addition to being perceptive and thorough, it gives potential readers a good sense of the level at which Griffin's arguments proceed.  However, Fletcher concludes his review by stating "No student of philosophy would fail to benefit greatly from reading this book."  This is undoubtedly true, to be sure, but I also believe all serious laypersons (of whom I am one, with a background in science) who are willing to put some time and effort into this book would find those efforts very well rewarded. In particular, If you are a person who has ever: (1) found traditional Christian orthodoxy to be an inadequate basis for a serious intellectual life; (2) found forced and unconvincing the attempts of scientists like John Polkinghorne, Francis Collins, or Kenneth Miller to insist that supernaturalism must continue to fill the remaining gaps of their experiences; (3) found the writings of people like Sam Harris, Jerry Coyne, and Christopher Hitchens largely convincing, as far as they go, but deficient in providing a broader base from which to view the entire human condition; in short, if you are searching for a world view that has a rational, defensible metaphysical base but that can also do justice to all aspects of our humanly experienced reality, may I suggest you do the following.  Griffin has written two previous books that lead directly to this one: "Religion and Scientific Naturalism" and "Reenchantment Without Supernaturalism."  Both are very valuable, but if you do not own it already, beg, borrow, or steal a copy of the first of these and turn to the Epilogue.  There you will find, in (literally) less than half a page, the complexities of the broad sweep of Western history clearly laid out and interpreted at a level beyond what you might encounter in a half-dozen heavy tomes.  If you are intrigued (as, dare I say it, we all should be), then buy this present book.

I call attention here to just a few of the very important issues Griffin discusses: a clear analysis of the Enlightenment, modernism, and postmodernism; the absolutely essential distinction between hard-core and soft-core common sense; the very critical "genus-species" distinction in discussions of theism; the convincing demonstration that what is often called "the modern scientific world view" is itself based on an unacknowledged and deficient 17th c. Christian world view; and the defense of the reality of the flow of time and the possibility of a universal "now."  Griffin includes a very insightful analysis of special relativity, with support from top-drawer physicists for his views.  Fletcher's review, again, will provide more details, but the richness and relevance of this material for an understanding of our present world is very impressive.

Perhaps it should also be pointed out that neither Whitehead nor Griffin has ever claimed finality for any of their conclusions.  Both have insisted that further revision of their thought is not only inevitable but essential.  Nevertheless, a move is afoot today that is pointing in the direction of a genuinely unified world view, one that can provide us with a place to stand while addressing ALL aspects of reality, internal as well as external, scientific as well as religious.  Griffin's writings are on the cutting edge of these developments that, he argues persuasively, can provide a way forward through the five major conundrums that bedevil the modern intellectual world, and this book is perhaps the finest available exemplar of this emerging perspective.  The topic could not be more important, and studying and digesting this material could be life-changing.
3050448
In the Author's Preface to this 1982 book, David Wolfe wrote, "The basic outline of this book began to take shape about ten years ago when I agreed to teach a course in religious epistemology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. After teaching it several times there, it received a new embodiment at Gordon College as an undergraduate course."

He states, "many thinkers have held that it is self-evident that all of our perceptions are private events occurring in the interior of the mind, that physical objects are logical fictions constructed out of such sense experiences. The realm of religious experience is an even more dramatic confusion. Every religion, primitive or worldwide, has its visions, changed lives and conversions. Each has its representatives who with serene confidence or rabid fervor appeal to their personal experiences which validate their religious claims." (Pg. 24)

He cautions, "Overcoming these difficulties involves swallowing two hard mental lumps. The first lump is a proposal I will make about criteria for evaluating interpretive schemes. If such criteria are not achievable, then relativism is unavoidable and beliefs cannot be warranted. The other lump will be to see warrant itself in a new way. To overcome the problems with verification we will have to take our old view of what a justified belief is and virtually turn it inside out." (Pg. 41)

He states, "I do not have it in for relativism. In many respects I find it a fascinating, even attractive, alternative. It engenders epistemological humility, defeats an arrogant pomposity of belief, even promotes a sort of democratic ideal in matters of knowledge. Perhaps its most comforting feature is that it requires no hard work at all in the matter of justifying beliefs." (Pg. 43)

He suggests, "Given that at a particular time more then one interpretive scheme may APPEAR adequate, I would like to suggest a strategy for this situation. Start where you are. Continue with ... the interpretive scheme which is personally most important or interesting to you and pursue it as long as it does not succumb to active criticism. There is a genuinely subjective element here. Why not go with the scheme that seems to you to offer the richest view, the greatest hope, the most powerful values? Why not search out the warrant of a subjectively interesting and momentous interpretive scheme before going on to less interesting ones? And if it withstands criticism, it could be profoundly important." (Pg. 68)

This is an excellent introduction to the subject from an evangelical perspective.
365389
This slim volume is one of my favorites from Father Maloney, as it succinctly describes the theological rationale behind the Greek Fathers' theology of grace, which for them (and the Eastern Orthodox tradition) is the means by which humanity is united to divinity. Before you discount this as hokey pop-spirituality/transcendental meditation from the drug-laced 1960s, consider that for the Christian East the whole concept of salvation has always had at its root this sharing in the life of the Holy Trinity owing to the Incarnation, resurrection and sending of the Holy Spirit. This is what all dogma is fundamentally about: salvation as union with God in Christ (and the key to St. Paul's soteriology by the way). At a time when so many people are looking to eastern religions to fill the gap of spirituality that is missing in their lives, the rediscovery on a wider scale of the Orthodox tradition is sorely needed.

The author masterfully traces the theology of grace that has at its heart the incarnation and resurrection. Based upon this historical reality, the patristic notion of the unknowability of God is discussed as a revealed unknowing, not a mere agnostic acquiescence to a logical conundrum. Why this unknowing? Because God reveals Himself as unknowable. Yet by the very grace of God, the uncreated energies of God, we are able to participate in the Divine life, not as new members of the Trinity, but as humans redeemed in Christ, who deifies our nature as a new creation. The implications of this doctrine of grace extend into a renewed ecological awareness as well, placing humans as the bridge between God and the created world with a vocation of care and responsibility.

This book is not light reading, but it is the single best introduction to the Orthodox teaching of grace as participation in the life of God.

For a more detailed study, please see Vladimir Lossky's monumental&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Mystical-Theology-of-the-Eastern-Church/dp/0913836311/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church</a>.
741935
Wolfhart Pannenberg (b. 1928) is a German theologian, who since 1968 has been Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Munich.

The three volumes of Pannenberg's Systematic Theology were published in 1988, 1991, and 1993, so this "Introduction" was actually published at the same time as the second volume.  It is a short (69 pages) work, consisting of four lectures: "The Need for Systematic Theology"; "Problems of a Christian Doctrine of God"; "The Doctrine of Creation in an Age of Scientific Cosmology"; and "Christology within a Systematic Framework."

He states in the first lecture, "Here we are at the core of our subject, the need for systematic theology, because it all depends on the question of truth: If we suppose that the God of Israel and of Jesus is the one and only true God, then and only then is there a sufficient reason for believing in that God, even if one is not a Jew."  He adds, "The task of theology is not only to investigate the origin and the original content of the Christian faith and of the doctrine of the church, or the changes they underwent in the course of history, but also to determine the truth which is contained in that tradition." (Pg. 6-7)

In the second lecture, he asserts that "the theologian should not rely too heavily on a particular philosophical system, but she or he should criticallly participate in the dialog of contemporary philosoophy with the metaphysical tradition ... The rejection of 'natural theology' has served as an excuse for not entering seriously at all into the dialog with philosophy." (Pgs. 24-25)

In the third lecture, he states, "The human mind, then, is a phenomenon of heightened life.  In this sense, all intellectual life is in need of inspiration, an inspiration that in a certain sense lifts up the creature beyond the limitations of finite existence." (Pg. 44)

In the final lecture, he summarizes, "Before I conclude this chapter, it seems appropriate to offer some reflection on the systematic character of the argument presented thus far.  It sketches out a systematic interpretation of Jesus' person and ministry as well as a reinterpretation of traditional christological categories.  The key concept in the proposed scheme is the traditional category of eternal Sonship....  The Son of God is still considered the second person of the trinity, but while the Son became incarnate only in Jesus of Nazareth, he is conceived at the same time as being at work in the whole creation and especially in the life of human beings created in the image of God." (Pg. 65)

This book will certainly not take the place of reading the whole of Pannenberg's Systematic Theology; nor is it necessarily even the best "introduction" to it (the Prefaces to the individual volumes are perhaps better for that purpose).  But it is certainly a worthy volume to be read in conjunction with the entire work.
3624492
A refreshing, Biblical treatment of a recently controversial topic - God's  Eternity, as it relates to Omniscience, Foreknowledge, Aseity, Infiniteness  and other Scriptural attributes.  Our era is on the threshhold of  potentially unravelling the Biblical portrait of our Whole God (He is  greater than the sum of His attributes) into a 'Reader's Digest' abridged  version of a 'kinder, gentler, user friendly god made in man's image'. What  with process thought, free-will theists and other hybrid theories partially  or radically jettisoning the historical, evangelical exegesis approach to  systematic theology, we seem to have a 'free-will free-for-all'.  This  volume is an invaluable resource to marshal against unbiblical,  neo-evangelical encroachments on the Scriptural understanding of the Person  of God. While His many attributes can be distinguished, they cannot be  detached from each other or His Personhood. Any 'fresh rethinking' of any  one attribute, such as Omniscience (Can God know the future free actions of  created agents as anything but open possibilities?)has involuntary  unforeseen ripple/domino effects on each of the other attributes such as  Omnipresence, etc.  For example, if God cannot know a free-will future as  definite in advance in toto, micro, subatomic level, exhaustively, without  exception, then by definition, God cannot be truly Omnipresent in  space/time reality. God is not only Omniwhere, but Omniwhen; Omnithere and  Omnithen; Omnihere and Omninow. By ruling out God's exhaustive definite  foreknowledge of all future free-will activity, His Omnipresence is in  direct proportion downgraded to Multipresence, Penultimacy,  Quasi-Eternal,Finite. Thus, we have a 'whole new god', not the Bible's  Whole God. Sage, seeker, skeptic, saint - all will be challenged to  re-evaluate just what God is believed in by careful consideration of this  excellent volume. See also Millard Erickson's God the Father Almighty;  Evangelical Left; Norman Geisler's Making God in Man's Image and C.S. Lewis  Mere Christianity.
2772752
It is hard for me to imagine anything more presumptuous than my doing a review of LWs Philosophical Investigations.  As a general reader who lacks the background in Russell/Frege/Moore, et al. to contextualize LWs thought, I can hopefully speak for the interested amateurs out there who are considering buying the book.

First, this is a scholarly edition.  It presents the German text and the English translation on facing pages.  The copy text, if you will, for the translation is that of G.E.M. Anscombe, but it is revised by P.M.S. Hacker and Joachim Schulte.  Wittgensteinians study LWs writings word by word, and some of the translation choices have been disputed.  The book also contains endnotes and a substantial index.  Considering the accumulated elements of apparatus and the density of the text, the price is a bargain.  This is, after all, one of the most important books of 20thc philosophy.

It is, of course, quite skeptical of the philosophic enterprise.  LW believed that the problems of philosophy were essentially self-created and result from the constraints posed by language.  That which we cannot speak of, LW argued, was what was truly important.  The rest was a series of muddles.  The book consists of two parts, the second renamed Philosophy of Psychology  A Fragment.  The first consists (crudely speaking) of an extensive set of observations on language and communication, the second on perception and behavior.  These observations are stated with great lucidity though we can feel the weight of reflection that stands behind them.  We can also feel the weight of previous philosophic opinion, though LW is very sparing in his mention of other philosophers.  His immediate predecessors are mentioned and he cites both Plato and Augustine (quoting the latter in Latin).  He mentions William James, but on his predecessors he tends to remain silent.  When he reflects on causality, e.g., he does not engage directly with Hume, though it is clear that Hume is in his thoughts.  He anticipates much contemporary neuroscience, in, e.g., his discussion of the problems of consciousness, but he does not provide extensive references.

At a number of points (a very small number of points) he states his aims and his conclusions with great specificity:

Philosophy is a struggle against the bewitchment of our understanding by the resources of our language (#109).

What I want to teach is: to pass from unobvious nonsense to obvious nonsense (#464).

A whole cloud of philosophy condenses into a drop of grammar (#315).

And quintessentially:

What is your aim in philosophy?  To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle (#309).

He is (expectedly) hard on psychology:

The confusion and barrenness of psychology is not to be explained by its being a young science; its state is not comparable with that of physics, for instance, in its beginnings . . . . For in psychology, there are experimental methods and conceptual confusion. . . .  The existence of the experimental method makes us think that we have the means of getting rid of the problems which trouble us; but problem and method pass one another by (II, #371).

There are other memorable passages which I will allow the reader to discover for him- or herself.

I would describe this book as a necessary read for anyone interested in the history of philosophy and the course of modern thought.  Even if one is not prepared to dissect it in detail, it is a pleasure to watch a brilliant mind at work, tracing an outline of thought that has been immensely influential.
1174571
This book demonstrates why Mensch should undoubtedly be considered one of the foremost exponents of phenomenology today. Radical readings of Levinas, Freud, and Lacan, along with other major figures in the history of philosophy, lead Mensch to the conclusion that the existential Other is, in fact, the unconscious element of our Self. Teasing out the way in which this part of the Self shows itself to be without ever giving itself as explicit, Mensch meditates on the implications of this reading within political philosophy and weak theology. Stunningly original and yet grounded in the philosophical tradition, this is a masterpiece in the nascent canon of the 21st century.
4321298
I originally picked up this book with the best of intentions: to read all nine (or eleven) volumes, in belated "revenge" for not having majored in philosophy.  Those intentions are now being stretched over a longer period of time.

I have no doubt that this is the "academic standard" in the history of philosophy.  You can tell, because Father Copleston makes a habit of citing foreign languages without translation.  This used to be (and still may be) the distinguishing mark of an academic: just put it down in French, German, Latin, or Greek, and if the unwashed masses don't get it, tough.  In particular, I would highly recommend that you learn the Greek alphabet before embarking on this adventure.  Not the Greek language, mind you, but just enough of the alphabet to spell out all the Greek words which Copleston throws at you.

The book is a major accomplishment; the fruit of a titanic intellectual effort.  Still, there is competition in this rather small niche, most obviously Bertrand Russell's "History of Western Philosophy" (in one volume!) and Anthony Gottlieb's "The Dream of Reason."  Quite frankly, for readers who are not professional philosophers (or students of philosophy) I might recommend one of those two books.  Bertrand Russell's book gives you a bonus, in including huge swathes of real history to put his philosophical history in context, while Gottlieb is smart, diverting, and original.

Father Copleston (a Jesuit) is smart as a tack, but had no intention of being diverting or original.  It is really an advantage that Copleston's bias is openly declared: he is a Catholic who holds that the true philosophy is the Scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages --- properly modernized, of course.  So you won't expect him to dwell on people like Pseudo-Dionysius.  And his essay on Plato's "Doctrine of the Forms" is, indeed, a major intellectual undertaking.  It is so good that the acute reader can spot Plato's errors all over the place, such as Plato's assumption that the only real knowledge was of things that are eternally true and unchanging.  That, if you stop to think about it, is a whale of an assumption. To take a trivial example, we all generalize from the frogs we have seen to an "Ideal Frog" --- it's part of recognizing reality.  But it really plays havoc when we try to understand evolution, and must realize that there is no "Ideal Frog," or recognize that the "Ideal Frog" is constantly changing, over a period of time which we may not be able to comprehend.  So Plato made it hard for humankind to understand evolution.

And then, later on, in the chapter on "The State," you understand it when Copleston enthusiastically joins Plato's demands for censorship of the arts, and the rule of the Philosopher-King.  After all, I am not the first person to have seen the Catholic Index of Prohibited Books --- and the Papacy --- as attempts to bring Plato's ideas about the state to fruition.

I guess, in the end, I would like to describe a choice for the reader who is interested in the history of philosophy.

Choice A would be Lord Bertie, who squeezes it all into one magisterial volume:&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/A-History-of-Western-Philosophy/dp/0671201581/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">A History of Western Philosophy</a>.

Choice B would be Anthony Gottlieb:<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Dream-of-Reason-A-History-of-Philosophy-from-the-Greeks-to-the-Renaissance/dp/039332365X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Dream of Reason: A History of Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance</a>.  The drawback here is that Gottlieb is only half-done.

Choice C would be to go whole hog and get the entire set by Copleston.  You are not required to read every word, but the whole vast and detailed panorama is at your fingertips.  If you're on a budget, you could always buy one volume a month, or something like that.  :-)

Good luck, and happy reading!
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Delivered from the Elements of the World is a brilliant volume of theology that examines how the work of Jesus on the cross changed the course of history. In a fresh and creative way that is undergirded throughout by extended reflection upon a vast range of biblical, sociological, philosophical, and historical scholarship, Leithart tells how the death of Jesus Christ redeemed humanity and conquered the power of sin and death . Leithart explains how the death of Jesus Christ is the hinge of all history, not only giving birth to a new age, but a new people who have been freed from the corruption of "flesh" and empowered and indwelled by the Holy Spirit. This book challenges conventional ways of understanding the atonement, opens a window into the ancient world, and offers social implications for the work of Christ that are insightful, helpful, and compelling. Properly understood, I believe Leithart's argument is a wake up call to modern Christianity, and has the power to awaken our ecclesial imaginations as we come to appreciate anew the full significance of the atonement.