Since the Renaissance of the 14th through 17th centuries, and particularly since the Enlightenment of the 18th century, the ancient creeds of faith have been under serious fire, and the struggle has not gone well for popular religion in America. The rapid advances made by the physical sciences in the 19th and 20th centuries and the corresponding reliance on scientific accomplishments in American life have been matched by the growing influence of reason in the way Americans think about religion. Except for pockets of resistance, these developments have negatively influenced the practical role of traditional religion in American life. These essays-published over a twenty-year period as newspaper editorials addressed to the general public-confront popular beliefs and morals with the challenge of human reason. At issue in this meeting of faith and reason is nothing less than the nature of religion in the twenty-first century. Will faith embrace reason to create a House where both dwell in harmony or will faith ignore the claims of reason and continue to live in an Enchanted Forest? Each essay, written in the practical language of the streets, attempts to dialogue with the general reader and gently provoke critical thinking on sensitive issues of belief.
Оглавление
Charles W. Hedrick Jr.. House of Faith or Enchanted Forest?
House of Faith or Enchanted Forest?
Preface
Introduction
1. God in the American Streets
2. The Bible in American Culture
3. Religion, Self, and Life in America
4. Does Absolute Truth Exist?
5. Superstition, Magic, and Modern Faith
6. Death and Dying
7. Holy Days and Religious Feasts
8. Postscript: Reason and Faith
Endnotes
Glossary
Selected Bibliography
Отрывок из книги
American Popular Belief in an Age of Reason
Charles W. Hedrick
.....
This brief allegory, a thinly disguised caricature, reflects the general views of Judeo-Christian religion in America today. The following essays address aspects of America’s enchanted forest, but only in an indirect and conversational way.
I personally do not like this alternative and hope that affairs in my life are part of some benevolent design for the universe. Yet I am a little dubious when someone tells me God spends time counting the hairs in my drain and marking the demise of individual sparrows. Such micromanagement will not work in large organizations—and the universe, if anything, is large. Effective management gives priority to the more significant. In a global crisis, I don’t want God worrying about minutiae, like the welfare of my wife’s tomato plants. Micromanagement may be why we have natural disasters, like floods, earthquakes, or epidemics. Other disasters, like war for example, are inevitably the result of human contrivance.
