Reason, Faith, & Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate
One of our most influential literary critics challenges those who too easily dismiss religion and faith
Terry Eagleton's witty and polemical Reason, Faith, and Revolution is bound to cause a stir among scientists, theologians, people of faith and people of no faith, as well as general readers eager to understand the God Debate. On the one hand, Eagleton demolishes what he calls the "superstitious" view of God held by most atheists and agnostics and offers in its place a revolutionary account of the Christian Gospel. On the other hand, he launches a stinging assault on the betrayal of this revolution by institutional Christianity.There is little joy here, then, either for the anti-God brigade--Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens in particular--nor for many conventional believers. Instead, Eagleton offers his own vibrant account of religion and politics in a book that ranges from the Holy Spirit to the recent history of the Middle East, from Thomas Aquinas to the Twin Towers.
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Become an affiliateTerry Eagleton is Distinguished Professor of English Literature at the University of Lancaster, England, and Professor of Cultural Theory at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He is also Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Notre Dame. Eagleton is also the author of On Evil, published by Yale University Press.
--Laurie Taylor"New Humanist Magazine" (07/01/2009)
"[B]etter than any previous book of its kind."--James Wood, "The New Yorker"--James Wood"The New Yorker" (08/31/2009)
"Eagleton writes with lucidity, wit and panache and, though an atheist himself, successfully shreds what the conflated Ditchkins say in their books."--Piers Paul Read"Spectator" (11/14/2009)
'A boisterous polemic ... Eagleton yields to none in his denunciation of institutional Christianity and a punitive, vengeful God as a betrayal of Jesus's championing of the poor and rejected.'--Jonathan Benthall"Times Literary Supplement" (12/11/2009)
"Brisk, funny, and challenging . . . . One of the most fascinating, most original and prickliest works of philosophy to emerge from the post-9/11 era."--Andrew O'Hehir, "Salon"
--Andrew O'Hehir"Salon" (04/01/2009)
"Eagleton''s book is a brisk and welcome contribution to the ongoing discussion about the place of religion in the world today. Readers will find plenty to challenge them in this brief snapshot of today''s ''God Debate.''"--;i>Association for Mormon Letters
"--Blair Dee Hodges "Association for Mormon Letters "
''Eagleton is one of Britain''s leading literary critics and writes with verve and humour.'' -- Paul Goodliff, Baptist Times--Paul Goodliff"Baptist Times" (06/18/2010)
"Eagleton is an unconventional and entertaining thinker. His book is as much about capitalism, politics, and literary criticism as it is about religion." --Kurt Kleiner, "The Globe and Mail"--Kurt Kleiner "The Globe and Mail "
"Erudite, but often entertaining volume." --Rich Barlow, "Boston Globe"--Rich Barlow "Boston Globe "
Eagleton''s book "meets the challenge of the New Atheists with a sense of playfulness (for example, he melds the two leading lights of the movement, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, into one signifier, "Ditchkins"), and a dogged refusal to let Oxbridge-trained rhetoric stand in for actual reason. The result is a work bathed in wit and punctuated with soaring prose that, while sympathetic to religious truth-claims, ends with a flourish on his Marxist hopes for an embrace of "tragic humanism.""--Lyndon Shakespeare, "Anglican Theological Review"--Lyndon Shakespeare "Anglican Theological Review "
"Terry Eagleton is at his best as a critic, and much of the book, which is really a series of lectures delivered at Yale University, is devoted to incisive and angry analyses of what is wrong with our world in the twenty-first century."--Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, "Metapsychology Online Reviews"--Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi"Metapsychology" (12/01/2009)
."..[a] gloriously rumbustious counter-blast to Dawkinsite atheism...paradoxes sparkle throughout this coruscatingly brilliant polemic.... Eagleton is stronger on reason than Ditchkins, for he thinks carefully about what his opponents say.... This is, then, a demolition job which is both logically devastating and a magnificently whirling philippic.... It is easy to see why a lot of people will not be happy with this book. Much of what it says is too true."--Paul Vallely, "The Independent"
--Paul Vallely"The Independent" (07/17/2009)
"[Eagleton''s] gleeful, often satirical, piercing of the chinks in the armor of modern atheist apologetics is beneficial to any reader interested in the ''God Debate.''" --James Heiser, "thenewamerican.com"--James Heiser "thenewamerican.com "
"There is a great deal here that readers from different backgrounds will find informative. It is a polemical book, but the deeper sense of the polemic is the subtle and multi-formed argument that what is at stake here, in the distinction between religious and secularist values, is actually a way of being alive. As Eagleton powerfully states, faith is never about the superficial use of reason."--Oliver Davies, "Scottish Bulletin on Evangelical Theory"--Oliver Davies"Scottish Bulletin on Evangelical Theory" (05/01/2011)
"Terry Eagleton has a deserved reputation as one of the most influential of British literary critics and cultural commentators who has developed over his many publications a highly effective communicative style. This book is no exception."--Oliver Davies, "Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theory"--Oliver Davies "Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theory "
"There are plenty of things in this book to anger all sorts of people, and few will not find something in it with which to disagree strongly. And that's just fine. This is an exceptional contribution to recent debates around faith, religion, and atheism."--Dale B. Martin, Yale University--Dale B. Martin
""Reason, Faith, and Revolution" is a challenging, feisty contribution to the current public debate about God and religion. It is poetic, wise, and clear. Eagleton proves he is more than a literary critic; he's also an exceptional preacher." --Kurt Armstrong, "Christian Week"--Kurt Armstrong "Christian Week "
"Eagleton's book began as a series of lectures delivered at Yale University. They must have been a riot.... He's fantastically rude all round, about 'Ditchkins, ' about religion itself, which 'has wrought untold misery in human affairs'.... It's terrific polemic."--Melanie McDonagh, "Evening Standard"
--Melanie McDonagh"Evening Standard" (07/16/2009)
"This is a good and stimulating reading for theologians, and invites in a provocative way to think about theology's identity and mission in times of deep changes and challenges." --Lluis Oviedo, "Religion & Theology"--Lluis Oviedo "Religion & Theology "
Eagleton's book "meets the challenge of the New Atheists with a sense of playfulness (for example, he melds the two leading lights of the movement, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, into one signifier, "Ditchkins"), and a dogged refusal to let Oxbridge-trained rhetoric stand in for actual reason. The result is a work bathed in wit and punctuated with soaring prose that, while sympathetic to religious truth-claims, ends with a flourish on his Marxist hopes for an embrace of "tragic humanism.""--Lyndon Shakespeare, "Anglican Theological Review"--Lyndon Shakespeare "Anglican Theological Review "
'Eagleton is one of Britain's leading literary critics and writes with verve and humour.' -- Paul Goodliff, Baptist Times--Paul Goodliff"Baptist Times" (06/18/2010)
"Eagleton's book is a brisk and welcome contribution to the ongoing discussion about the place of religion in the world today. Readers will find plenty to challenge them in this brief snapshot of today's 'God Debate.'"--;i>Association for Mormon Letters
"--Blair Dee Hodges "Association for Mormon Letters "
"[Eagleton's] gleeful, often satirical, piercing of the chinks in the armor of modern atheist apologetics is beneficial to any reader interested in the 'God Debate.'" --James Heiser, "thenewamerican.com"--James Heiser "thenewamerican.com "