Review of Christianity and Secular Reason: Classical Themes and Modern Developments

Abstract

In recent years there has been a renewed focus on the relationship between faith and reason. This resurgence has been largely sparked by Charles Taylor's tome, A Secular Age (2007), and the fascinating exchange between Joseph Ratzinger and Jürgen Habermas (2007) on the pre-political foundations of society. Christianity and Secular Reason (2012) builds on these two works to explore the relationship between faith and reason; in particular secular reason. As the editor, Jeffrey Bloechl, explains, the volume "attends to the relation between Christianity and secular reason at points where each seems to contest the self-assurance of the other" and at another level it also illustrates that secular reason "is deeply troubling to both Christian thought and the philosophy often called 'continental'."