This is an eminently sensible and sound study. To write dispassionately and yet with insight and conviction upon religious topics is at best a difficult task but one which in the present instance is admirably successful. Setting as his major theme that “we cannot construct a religion for ourselves out of merely philosophical elements, and that the attempt to provide some philosophical or similar substitute for religion … is misconceived,” Professor Lewis is concerned with the explication of our religious beliefs (...) in the many forms which they take in the patterns of our religious experience. (shrink)

This book is an interesting excursion into the realm of what the author designates as ‘reflective theology’, a phrase which could equally well be identified with ‘philosophical theology’ or ‘philosophy of religion’. Like many excursions the book roams far and wide yet fails to achieve any substantial purpose. The author terms his approach ‘somewhat historical and person-centered’. He believes that certain contemporary issues can be better understood if we have a sense of their history. Certain philosophical figures are singled out (...) for this purpose, namely Anselm, Descartes, Hume, Hegel, Wittgenstein, Eliade and Sartre. Stating his purpose more specifically the author declares: ‘This book has been written in the belief that a personal encounter with these men, even in a restricted way, can prove to be for us a bona fide self-revelation. They help us to formulate our questions and to be particular about the malaise that religious thinkers suggest as the cause of contemporary man’s psychosis’. (shrink)