Understanding Faith : Historical and Contemporary Readings

This new collection of classic and contemporary readings explores questions about the nature, value, and rationality of faith. From the Ancient Greeks to present-day intellectuals, it reveals the variety of answers that thinkers and traditions have offered throughout the ages.

Selecting texts from a diverse range of traditions and perspectives, both secular and religious, it introduces the role and function that faith plays in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Organized thematically around four parts, this one-of-a-kind reader brings together a collection of profound writings from philosophy, religious studies, theology, classics and psychology. Each Part has its own specialized introduction and suggestions for further reading.

Excerpts are taken from core prayers, creeds, teachings and songs. Stretching beyond academic reflections, texts cover the treatment of faith in the media and literature. Noteworthy and hard-to-find selections include:

- The poetry and commentary of a celebrated mystic
- First-hand accounts of the experience of faith and doubt from two women canonized as saints in the Catholic Church
- Historically influential accounts of the nature of faith from Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, and Calvin.

Offering a critical look at the relationship between faith and reason, the forms it takes and the ways in which it can be misplaced, here is everything you need to understand the place of faith in the twenty-first century.