Reason, Faith and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate
Brianna Marecki
June 1, 2009
Filed under Fine Arts, Reviews
Very much in the forefront in these current times, God’s name seems poised on everyone’s lips— whether agnostic, Jewish, Muslim, or Catholic — and one author has taken notice. In his book Reason, Faith and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate, Terry Eagleton, a professor of English literature at the University of Lancaster and the Naitonal University of Ireland, explores the answer to why this is happening.
Eagleton breaks down the cliché-thinking of what atheists and agnostics believe about God and replaces it by making God into a real being, giving an account of the gospel. Going against the arrogance of his fellow colleagues on the issue of religion, he even reasons that without God, men like Richard Dawkins would be out of a job.
Despite this, you would not want to have this author as a spiritual guide by any means, but it is refreshing that he at least understands that Dawkins, Hitchens and other atheists are not playing fair in the “God debate.”
Eagleton points out that these atheists and others tend to argue with many of the least persuasive views of Christianity, rather than grappling with the richest thought of the Christian tradition. In doing so, they comfortably place themselves in arguments in which they easily appear as the victors.
Though Eagleton criticizes religion, he respects those who believe in it. However, don’t let his “sweet talk,” fool you. Although he writes against the atheists, his own views on God and Christianity are actually not in line with the truth of the Word.