Reason Within the Bounds of Religion

Rating:
Summary: Great Critique of Foundationalism
Review: It took me a long time to get around to reading this widely cited and seminal work, but it was well worth it and it motivated mt to begin reading more Wolterstorff.

This book is small and fairly readable, but is packed with astute philosophical content. Wolterstorff meticulously attacks the concept of foundationalism and goes on to argue, in explicit oppositon to Kant (as indicated by the title) that a Christian's "authentic commitment" (I take this to mean core affirmations of the Christian faith) should serve as control beliefs for reasoning and theorizing.

Wolterstorff applies this notion of the control belief to the relation between theology and science in particular. He shows how the overwhelming response of theologians to the challange of modernistic science has been the of harmonization, or as Wolterstorff more rightly namesthe tendency, "conformism." Wolterstoff's notion of religious committment functioning as a control beleif rather than say, science or "first philosophy" throws the whole typical relationship between science and theology into question in ways that I think are very interesting and helpful.

Another helpful feature of this book is the way that Wolterstorff portrays the idea of the Christian scholar. His concern for linking theory with praxis was laudable. In particular, his argument that all Christian scholarship must serve the biblical vision of "justice in shalom" was excellent.

While this book is a bit hard to read at times, being weighty philosophical writing, it is well worth the effort and should recieve a wide reading.