Rationality and Religious Theism (Ashgate Philosophy of Religion Series)

Rating:
Summary: A new defense of the rationality of the religious life
Review: Joshua Golding offers a carefully wrought explanation of how it can be rational for someone to live a religious life, in particular (but not necessarily only), a traditional Jewish life. His basic strategy is similar to that of Pascal's famous wager, while making a number of crucial improvements which address both the more technical (e.g., the notion of an infinite good) and spiritually substantive (the role of belief and of community in religious life) shortcomings of Pascal's argument. However, this book is far more than a mere up-dating of Pascal; it is an important and strikingly original work of religious philosophy in its own right. It should be especially appealing to adherents of traditional faiths (especially Judaism) who are grappling with the challenges of reason. (...)

Rating:
Summary: A new defense of the rationality of the religious life
Review: Joshua Golding offers a carefully wrought explanation of how it can be rational for someone to live a religious life, in particular (but not necessarily only), a traditional Jewish life. His basic strategy is similar to that of Pascal's famous wager, while making a number of crucial improvements which address both the more technical (e.g., the notion of an infinite good) and spiritually substantive (the role of belief and of community in religious life) shortcomings of Pascal's argument. However, this book is far more than a mere up-dating of Pascal; it is an important and strikingly original work of religious philosophy in its own right. It should be especially appealing to adherents of traditional faiths (especially Judaism) who are grappling with the challenges of reason. (...)