Faith, Reason, And Beyond Reason

It gives me particular pleasure to announce the latest audiobook, because I enjoyed it immensely, and because of the Ricochet connection. Faith, Reason, and Beyond Reason by Dr. Mark J. Boone (known to the Ricochet multitude as @SaintAugustine) is now available on Audible.

This volume updates nine previously published articles on faith and reason by a Christian philosopher who has been studying these matters for two decades, alongside one new essay and a philosophical dialogue. These articles explain and integrate key ideas on faith and reason, including Alvin Plantinga’s account of how Christian belief can be knowledge even without evidence; defenses of faith from Augustine and William James; accounts of empirical evidence for faith from different world religions; the distinction between faith and sight in the New Testament; the structure of the evidence for the authority of the Bible; the idea that faith transcends reason because some articles of faith are beyond human comprehension, even if we have evidence that they are true; and the nature of faith as a total commitment beyond what the evidence alone can guarantee.

I was particularly impressed with Dr. Mark's use of a famous rabbi and a prominent Muslim philosopher, along with the familiar Western commentators. I got a huge kick out of the last chapter, a Socratic dialog between Phil and Sophy. It's a good thing he didn't show me this manuscript in draft; I would have suggested changing the names to E. Pisto and Molly G.

This is good stuff for intellectual exercise if you feel like bench-pressing some philosophy. It's also very well-written and accessible.

Since it wasn't produced through my usual platform, I can't offer free review copies, but I can assure you that you will consider it a good use of an Audible credit.