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Reviewed by:
  • Faith and Reason: Their Roles in Religious and Secular Life
  • Jennifer G. Jesse
Faith and Reason: Their Roles in Religious and Secular Life. Donald A. Crosby. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2011. xi + 176 pp. $70 cloth. (Reviewed by Jennifer G. Jesse, Truman State University)

Most recent books published on faith and reason have focused on specific topics like establishing interreligious dialogue, scrutinizing (and usually supporting) theistic claims, and applying contemporary standards of rationality to various forms of Christian faith (both pro and con). In Faith and Reason, Donald A. Crosby invites us to take a step back and look at the big picture underlying all these various projects. He directs our attention to the dynamics of faith and reason at their most elemental levels and analyzes how their interactions enable us to live meaningful lives. He aims to correct misconceptions and inaccurate assumptions about both faith and reason—especially associating faith only with religious expressions and communities, and reason exclusively with secular life or scientific cultures. He argues that we must recognize and strive to maintain a reasonable faith (one that integrates rational criticism and experiential reflection) and a faithful reason (one that acknowledges that all reasoning processes are shaped by basic attitudes that are faithful in nature) in order “to find ways to live productively and meaningfully in the world” (4). By this he means aspiring with humility toward an open-minded and responsible way of life sensitive to the commitments of others and to the health of the natural world.

Readers familiar with Crosby know what they can expect: rigorous philosophical analyses through a wide range of scholarship, evenhanded pragmatic reflections, and a combination of passion and humility in just the right measure. Crosby’s own gracious and hospitable spirit comes through every page without in any way compromising the robust critical insights he applies to every position, including his own.

In the first chapter, Crosby explains he will support his conclusions by defining faith existentially: “By existential I mean that faith with this meaning underlies, shapes, and supports the distinctive quality of a person’s existence or life, its fundamental sense of purpose and direction, aim and orientation” (1; emphasis in original). He refers to this as “lived faith” rather than “announced faith” that can be expressed in discrete beliefs (1–2). It is inextricably bound up with our most essential reasoning and emotional processes and shapes the [End Page 171] practical choices we make every day. As such, all perspectives, whether religious or secular, partake of faith, though they exhibit many different types.

In chapter 2, he develops this definition by explicating six interrelated dimensions of faith—worldview, trust, devotion, hope, courage, and doubt. In the next chapter, he discusses “the knowledge aspect” of faith itself, and the indispensable role of faith in all forms of knowing, and then more particularly in scientific ways of knowing (chap. 4). He maintains that all knowing relies on basal commitments, purposes, and values that shape the ideas and practices of our various intellectual communities and endeavors. Crosby then applies the same kind of existential arguments in relation to the sphere of morality, showing the mutual interrelatedness between faith and ethical decision making and practice (chap. 5). Next, he analyzes the faithful nature of secular worldviews, focusing on various forms of secular humanism and scientism, in order to demonstrate how existential faith applies well beyond the bounds of religion (chap. 6). In the last two chapters, he draws on four examples of different kinds of faith crises to show how his scheme can help us work through such trials in a constructive and hopeful manner. He discusses Bart Ehrman, C. S. Lewis, Richard Rubenstein, and, in the final chapter, his own faith journey. These last two chapters are especially illuminating. For those in the midst of such crises—which inevitably overtake us at various times in our lives—discovering a way of accurately diagnosing the problem is the key to bringing structure out of chaos. These case studies provide practical rubrics for such diagnoses and exemplify a broad spectrum of possible responses. Crosby’s fascinating discussion of his own journey from conservative Presbyterianism to...

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