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“Aquinas: A Beginner’s Guide”

Aquinas: A Beginner’s Guide by Edward Feser Oneworld Publications, 224 pages, $14.95   Do not let the subtitle deter you. While Aquinas is “a beginner’s guide,” it is rigorous and accessible philosophy at its best. Even seasoned Thomists will benefit from Edward Feser’s analytic precision in interpreting and presenting Thomas’ philosophy. Placing Thomas in conversation with modern thinkers, Feser explains how so many worthies have gotten Thomas wrong and thus done battle... Read More

“Miracles”

Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts by Craig S. Keener Baker Academic, 1,172 pages, 2011   On October 13, 1917, seventy thousand Portuguese witnessed the sun dancing in the sky at Fátima, the conclusion of a series of visitations of the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children. In 1964, a teenage woman evangelizing in the Dominican Republic fainted from shock when she healed an elderly man’s shriveled hand through prayer. In 1994, a friend recounted to me the healing... Read More

“The Language of God”

The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis S. Collins Free Press, 304 pages, $26   "Today we are learning the language in which God created life." With these words, President Clinton announced one of the great feats of modern science, the mapping of the human genome. Standing next to him in the East Room of the White House was the leader of the Human Genome Project, Francis S. Collins. Collins has now written a book, The Language of God, but it is not... Read More

“Unweaving the Rainbow”

Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder by Richard Dawkins Houghton Mifflin , 352 pages, 1998   In reading Richard Dawkins I am reminded of an anecdote told by Werner Heisenberg. Heisenberg and several other great physicists were sitting around one evening talking about God and religion. The discussion ended up being dominated by Paul Dirac, who went into a long diatribe declaring religion to be the opiate of the masses. At the end of the evening someone... Read More

“Life After Death: The Evidence”

Life After Death: The Evidence by Dinesh D’Souza Regnery, 256 pages, $27.95   While much apologetic effort has been spent arguing for the existence of God, relatively little has been spent defending the reasonableness of belief in an afterlife and the resurrection of the body, despite the fact that these are among the hardest doctrines of biblical religion for many modern people to accept. D’Souza brings to the task his renowned forensic skills. (By all accounts, he has bested... Read More

“The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ”

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ By Philip Pullman Canongate, 256 pages, $24   Teenage sex will save the world—teenage sex, in all its precocious power, in all its precious emotion, in all its self-confirming belief that, because something is felt so deeply, it must be a deeply meaningful thing. If that seems a somewhat prurient thought for a middle-aged author, it is nonetheless the final revelation of the His Dark Materials trilogy, the set of children’s books written... Read More

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