Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate Eagleton, Terry

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Eagleton (English literature, Univ. of Lancaster; Holy Terror) is one of our era's most renowned literary theorists. For the 2008 Dwight H. Terry lectures at Yale University, which support a humanist approach to religious studies, Eagleton adopts the sobriquet "Ditchkins" to conflate the arguments of two formidable atheists: polemicist Christopher Hitchens and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. Divining the specific sources of Eagleton's complaint against the two, however, proves a puzzle. Verdict: While Eagleton matches his antagonists' reputation for rancor, he lacks their popular appeal. His erudite and esoteric humor may play well to his Yale audience, but they are unlikely to rally general readers looking for allowance for the intellectual validity of faith. An easy acquisition for academic libraries; less well-funded public libraries may pass.-Scott H. Silverman, Bryn Mawr Coll., PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

God talk is now a flourishing theme in the publishing world. Here is yet another book--this time by a keen, no-nonsense literary critic. Eagleton (English literature, Univ. Lancaster, England) doesn't take sides with religionists or with religion-bashers. He is fed up with both parties. Religionists have misinterpreted and misapplied the true genius of religion (Christianity for him): "Christianity has become the nauseating cant of lying politicians, corrupt bankers, and fanatical neocons as well as an immensely profitable industry in its own right." Religion bashers have failed to understand the essence of religion: "Like Dawkins ... he (Hitchens) is like an incompetent literary critic who rips the sleepwalking scene in Macbeth from the whole intricate context of the drama and asks us exasperatingly whether on earth it is probable." He decries the tragic humanism of Ditchkins (Dawkins plus Hitchens) and pleads for a liberal humanism that, while rejecting the untenable in religious beliefs, condemns the ugly accretions of pristine Christianity over the centuries, and especially in modern times. This delightful, thought-provoking slim volume offers a good deal of literary charm, biting wit, and sweeping generalizations that will make readers applaud or squirm, depending on their biases. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above; general readers. V. V. Raman emeritus, Rochester Institute of Technology

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Takes one to know one, they say, and Eagleton knows one of the new atheism's dynamic duo, Christopher Hitchens, rather well, for in Hitchens' socialist days, Eagleton was a comrade. Still a Marxist and, hence, an atheist, Eagleton scores Hitchens along with his biologist sidekick, Richard Dawkins (sometimes as the composite new atheist Ditchkins ), for unconscionably misrepresenting theology generally and Christianity, in particular, and for adhering to the shallow liberal belief in progress. He does so from a perspective he says is Marxist but that resembles the classical Greek tragic view that human actions inevitably have both good and bad effects. Thus the Enlightenment, seedbed of modern atheism, the liberal state, and economic individualism virtually all that is progressive has always been its own worst enemy. Far better the communitarian, sometimes communal ethic, which Eagleton sees as the orthodox kernel of Christianity and says Ditchkins ignores, than the surveillance state, wars for corporate profit, degenerate entertainment, and managed news that progress has brought us. Eagleton is that rarity, a non-ideological Marxist with a keen understanding of and sympathy for the human condition, not to mention an informed as well as sharp sense of humor. Serious Christians may be his most appreciative readers.--Olson, Ray Copyright 2009 Booklist