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Rating: 
Summary: Understanding 'Credo ut Intelligam'
Review: Paul Helm's work, Faith & Understanding, is a study of the 'faith-seeking-understanding' program. The book is broken into two parts. The first part begins by exploring various views of what faith is and how it has been thought to relate to reason; also, how should such a program relate to natural theology? Such views that are taken into consideration are Augustine, Anselm, one interpretation of Aquinas, and more contemporary thinkers as Norman Kretzmann, Dewey Hoitenga, and D.Z. Phillips. The second part of the book is a five-case study of how the faith-seeking-understanding program has been put into action. The five cases regard Augustine's view of time, Anselm's ontological argument and his explanation of the atonement of Christ, Jonathan Edwards' response to the 'great objection' (regarding original sin), and lastly, Plantinga's explanation of the sensus divinitatis as it relates to externalism and rationality. Overall, I think Helm has done a great job explaining the various views. He is fairly clear and detailed. The only reason that I did not give his book a five star rating is due to the number of grammatical errors in the book; there are far too many. Otherwise, I really liked this book and recommend it or understanding this rich Augustinian tradition.
Rating:
Summary: Understanding 'Credo ut Intelligam'
Review: Paul Helm's work, Faith & Understanding, is a study of the 'faith-seeking-understanding' program. The book is broken into two parts. The first part begins by exploring various views of what faith is and how it has been thought to relate to reason; also, how should such a program relate to natural theology? Such views that are taken into consideration are Augustine, Anselm, one interpretation of Aquinas, and more contemporary thinkers as Norman Kretzmann, Dewey Hoitenga, and D.Z. Phillips. The second part of the book is a five-case study of how the faith-seeking-understanding program has been put into action. The five cases regard Augustine's view of time, Anselm's ontological argument and his explanation of the atonement of Christ, Jonathan Edwards' response to the 'great objection' (regarding original sin), and lastly, Plantinga's explanation of the sensus divinitatis as it relates to externalism and rationality. Overall, I think Helm has done a great job explaining the various views. He is fairly clear and detailed. The only reason that I did not give his book a five star rating is due to the number of grammatical errors in the book; there are far too many. Otherwise, I really liked this book and recommend it or understanding this rich Augustinian tradition.
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