The late Cornelius Ernst once said that Aquinas' 'Five Ways' were 'an attempt to show how we may go on speaking of God in the ordinary world'. Nicholas Lash shows how the main contours of the Christian doctrine of God may be mapped onto principal features of our culture and its predicaments. After an introductory chapter on 'the question of God today', Nicholas Lash considers - in chapters entitled 'globalisation and holiness', 'cacophony and conversation' and 'attending to silence' - three dimensions of our contemporary predicament: globalisation, a crisis of language, and the pain and darkness of the world, in relation to the doctrine of God as Spirit, Word, and Father.

What is the subject of theology? These fourteen essays argue against the view that "religion" is the name of one particular territory that we may consider or ignore if we feel so inclined. That "religion" is a subject quite different from others, such as politics, art, science, law and economics, is peculiar to modern Western culture. But Professor Lash states that the "modern" world is ending, and in the consequent confusion is the possibility of discovering new forms of ancient wisdom that the "modern" world obscured from view. Part I explores the dialogue between Christianity and Hinduism. Those essays in Part II (six were published between 1988 and 1994, and five are unpublished) consider relations between theology and science, the secularity of Western culture and questions of Christian hope or eschatology.

A classical, contemporary example of the theological mind at its clearest is Nicholas Lash's Easter in Ordinary. This complex, distilled, but deeply affecting study of William James, Newman, von Hugel, and Buber, among others, is the choice product of the believing theologian's art. Tradition rebottled with an awareness of postmodern needs but not necessarily with the mass-market tastes in mind. Demanding, uncommon, quenching. -Commonweal

This brief interpretation of the Apostles' Creed enables readers to thoroughly understand the Creed, structurally and theologically, in the face of widespread contemporary misreading.

Nicholas Lash's new collection of essays exposes the crisis in our thinking about God which is at the root of our misunderstandings and mistakes about science and politics, ethics and economics, life and death. Opening with a devastating critique of Richard Dawkins, he goes on to discuss the `impossibility of atheism', disentangle faith and reason, retrieve the legacy of the Second Vatican Council, and - amongst many other delights - offer sparkling insights into Diderot and Joseph Conrad. Theology for Pilgrims exhibits Nicholas Lash's characteristic exuberance, combativeness and wit, and shows again his unrivalled ability to make the reader `come to see the point about Jesus'.

This classic of Christian apologetics seeks to persuade the skeptic that there are good reasons to believe in God even though it si impossible to understand the Deity fully. First written over a century ago, the "Grammar of Assent "speaks as powerfully to us today as it did to its first readers. Because of the informal, non-technical character of Newman's work, it still retains its immediacy as an invaluable guide to the nature of religious belief. An introduction by Nicholas Lash reviews the background of the "Grammar, "highlights its principal themes, and evaluates its philosophical originality.

This brief interpretation of the Apostles' Creed enables readers to thoroughly understand the Creed, structurally and theologically, in the face of widespread contemporary misreading.

A classical, contemporary example of the theological mind at its clearest is Nicholas Lash's Easter in Ordinary. This complex, distilled, but deeply affecting study of William James, Newman, von Hugel, and Buber, among others, is the choice product of the believing theologian's art. Tradition rebottled with an awareness of postmodern needs but not necessarily with the mass-market tastes in mind. Demanding, uncommon, quenching. -Commonweal