God, Jesus & Belief: The Legacy of Theism

What way forward is there for Christianity? To reject traditional faith wholesale is to squander a precious legacy; to defend it against the light of reason is intellectual cowardice. In this lively and compelling book, Professor Sutherland combines philosophy and theology to outline a personal creed that is both radical and revisionary. It may infuriate you or inspire you but it cannot fail to make you think. Most theology begins with the idea of a personal God and rapidly comes up against the problem of how a God who is good can allow evil and suffering in the world. Professor Sutherland starts instead from the incontrovertible fact of evil and explores its implications for our view of God. This leads, him through near-agnosticism to a view of the deity which avoids the anthropomorphic language that has obscured traditional theology. Eschewing mystification, he sees theology as the articulation of the possible and demonstrates the powerful effect on human affairs of cultivating an awareness of the eternal. His discussion culminates in a clear-sighted analysis of the significance of the Jesus of history and the Jesus of faith. The argument as a whole affords a stimulating glimpse of a Christian way which preserves much of the traditional legacy while satisfying the demands of the intellect. Stewart R. Sutherland is Professor of the History and Philosophy of Religion at King’s College, London and author of Atheism and the Rejection of God (1977) and Faith and Ambiguity (1984).