RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28257, 20 April 1957, Page 3

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

[.Reviewed by L.G.W.] Faith and Logic. Edited by Basil ' Mitchell. Allen and Unwin. 222 pp. The eight essays in this book are concerned with the relation of the philosophy called logical analysis to theology. These analyst philosphers “ask the sort of questions about theological statements as they do about statements of other kinds, viz. How are they verified? What sort of arguments or observations tend to confirm or refute them? In short, what is their logic?” This book is an attempt to answer these questions. In the first essay S. Austin Farrer tries to find a starting point for the philosophical examination of theological belief. He suggests that this point is found in the fact that God makes claims upon us through our fellow men and is taken to be their maker and redeemer. Mr I. M. Crombie deals with possibility of theological statements. These are declared to be meaningful because they indicate the imperfections in our experience, and seek by the use of such statements to remove them. In essay 111, S. Farrer gives an account of what the Christian means by revelation. In the next essay, Mr G. C. Stead explains how theologians reason. The next essay by Mr J. K. Lucas writes on the Soul and gives a telling criticism of Professor Kyle’s famous book, “The Concept of Mind ” In essay VI, Mr Basil Mitchell explains what Christianity understands by the “Grace of God.” In the next essay, Mr R. M. Hare argues that it is possible that without belief in a divine order there could be no belief in matters of fact or in real objects. The concluding essay, by Mr M. B. Foster, is entitled “ ‘We’ in Modern Philosophy.” It is his contention that atheistic humanism is a theology, and if Christian theology is meaningless, so also, is an atheistic one. It is quite impossible to summarize in the. spa,ce at our disposal, the arguments of this admirable book. Its arguments are too closely reasoned to be abbreviated. We can but commend it to our readers. The Book of Revelation. Translated by J.- B. Phillips. Geoffrey Bles. 55 pp. Mr Phillips has completed his welcome translations of the books of the New Testament by producing an English version of the Book of Revelation. He has divided the text by a r series of sub-titles which will help the reader to understand this mysterious work. There is a useful preface in which the “oddness” of St. John’s Greek is explained by the surmise that he was reluctant to alter or improve the messages he wrote down in ecstasy. «.