Reasonable Faith [Paperback]

In this awaited follow up to his book Faithful Reason, the well-known philosopher and Catholic thinker John Haldane brings his unrivalled insight to bear on questions of the existence of God and the nature and destiny of the human soul. His arguments weave elements drawn from philosophy of mind, epistemology and aesthetics, together with recurrent features of human experience to create a structure that simultaneously frames and supports ideas such as that the cosmos is a creation, human beings transcend their material composition, and that human fulfilment lies beyond death. As in many of his other writings this volume blends themes from Aquinas with insights drawn from analytical philosophy and further establishes John Haldane as the leading 'analytical thomist'.

Preface.  Acknowledgements  Part 1: Reason, Faith and God  1. Introduction: The Prospects for Religious Philosophy  2. A Thomist Metaphysics  3. Metaphysics, Common Sense, and the Existence of God  4. Meditations, Wagers and Existential Issues  5. The Restless Heart: Philosophy and the Meaning of Theism  6. Finding God in Nature: Beauty, Revulsion and Art  Part 2: Reason, faith and the soul  7. The Very Idea of Spiritual Values  8. Reason, Truth and Sacred History  9. Rational and Other Animals  10. Aquinas on Ensoulment  11. The Examined Death  12. Philosophy, Death and Immortality  13. Causes, Reasons and Grace.  Index

'Carefully argued and engagingly written, John Haldane's essays are examples of genuinely humane philosophy. Unlike much of the work currently being produced in the anglophone philosophical world, they are informed by a broad historical understanding, and display  a clear moral vision of the role of philosophy and its place in our intellectulS(