This work gives a philosophical and theological account of the belief that Scripture enables people to encounter the life-giving reality of God. The authors examine the biblical foundations for this belief as given in a variety of witnesses from both Testaments and explain the philosophical and theological underpinnings of Christian exegesis. The book sums up and makes accessible the teaching of revered senior scholar and teacher Francis Martin and is aimed squarely at students, assuming no advanced training in philosophy or theology. It includes a foreword by Robert Sokolowski.

How is it that Christian faith can be said to be in accordance with reason and at the same time to transcend reason? On the one hand, the concordance of faith with reason appears to reduce faith to rational thinking and to natural human experience; on the other hand, the difference between faith and reason seems to make belief unreasonable and arbitrary. In The God of Faith and Reason, Robert Sokolowski treats this theological difficulty not by speaking directly about faith and reason, but through an examination of the Christian understanding of God that focuses on God the creator and the world as created. In so doing, he demonstrates how the Christian concept of God preserves both the integrity of reason and the distinctiveness of faith. Sokolowski begins with a statement of the Christian understanding of God developed in terms provided by St. Anselm, in whose writings the issue of faith and reason surfaces in an historically significant way. He next brings to light the special character of the Christian understanding of God by contrasting it with the pagan understanding of the divine. While pagan and other natural religions see god as the most powerful part of the world, Christianity understands God to be separate from the world, not added to in any way by the act of creating it. This understanding of God and the world lies behind the belief in Creation, and is shown to provide the context for the other Christian mysteries, such as the Incarnation, Redemption, the Church, grace, and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. The author also shows how the Christian understanding of God and the world helps clarify the difference between natural human virtues and the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. In an appendix, he deals with the relationship between political philosophy and Christian revelation, and, through a discussion of the ideas of Leo Strauss, speaks of the place of politics and political reason in Christian belief. Throughout the book Sokolowski employs a method of theology based on phenomenology in order to show how the things of Christian faith differentiate themselves from the phenomena given to natural experience. With its insightful, straightforward arguments, The God of Faith and Reason is ideal for use in both introductory and advanced courses in natural theology, fundamental theology, Christian philosophy, philosophy of God, philosophy of religion, and metaphysics.

The language he employs is almost wholly accessible to thinkers of the most disparate disciplines, and when technical terms are introduced, they are coupled with intelligible definitions. Indeed, it is precisely because of these two facets of his work that Sokolowski's insightful descriptions and subsequent analyses can be the subject of debate and a foundation for future investigations into moral philosophy.

In this collection of essays, renowned philosopher Robert Sokolowski illustrates how Christian faith is not an alternative to reason, but rather an enhancement of it. Reflecting on the mysteries of Creation, the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Eucharist, he examines in his distinctive lucid style the ways in which Christian faith contributes to the understanding of the human person. The book is divided into four sections. The first directly addresses the relation between faith and understanding, showing how philosophy has an autonomy within Christian theology even as it acknowledges that revelation makes known truths that could not have been reached by reason alone. It also explains how central the doctrine of Creation is to the relation between faith and reason. The rest of the book illustrates particular ways in which reason and faith interact in Christianity. The second section deals with the mysteries of the Holy Trinity, the Church, and the Eucharist. It shows that Christ is the primary minister of the Eucharist because his words are quoted in its celebration, and it offers a contemporary interpretation of the meaning of transubstantiation. This section also discusses the episcopal teaching office in the Church, and it shows how Christ's words in the gospels, his use of the first-person pronoun, serve to manifest the Holy Trinity. The third section discusses the human person in the light of Christian faith, exploring what is meant by the human soul, natural law, and personal relationships, as well as the place of political philosophy within revelation. The fourth and final section turns to the relationship between faith and practical reasoning. It discusses Christian aspects in the art and science of medicine, psychoanalysis, and the professions, as well as issues in Catholic higher education, including the place of philosophy in seminary formation.

One of the major contributions of Husserl's phenomenology has been to show that things present themselves to us in strikingly different ways. There are various kinds of presentations and something like logical structures in them that allow the truth of things to appear. Being pictured is different from being named, and also different from being distinguished from something else. The fourteen essays in this volume provide concrete and colorful examples of strategic forms of presentation, and they also shed light on us as persons who exercise our intelligence when we let things appear in these various ways. Even our moral conduct takes place because something appears to us as to be done or to be avoided in a situation that calls for action. When we quote what someone has said, for example, we express things as they have been expressed by someone else, and we invoke the authority of that other speaker. In measurement, we either bring external units, such as inches or yards, to determine the "how much" of things; or we engage in "internal measurement" and use one part of the object to determine the size of the whole. In moral action, the deep core of what we do involves either benevolence or malevolence, and in such conduct we shape or confirm ourselves as good or bad. Even the timing of things, the measurement of their motions and the determination of their before and after, in both clock and calendar time, cannot take place without the involvement of the person's own interwoven perceptions, remembrances, and anticipations, all held together by the underlying flow of personal as well as worldly temporality. The essays in this book are an attempt to blend the philosophical approaches of Aristotle and Husserl, the classical and the modern, to help us appreciate what Aristotle called "being as the true," and to show how the human person is involved in this enterprise.

A collection of papers meant to illustrate the richness of Edmund Husserl's own work and the tradition he began.

In this book, Robert Sokolowski argues that being a person means to be involved with truth. He shows that human reason is established by syntactic composition in language, pictures, and actions and that we understand things when they are presented to us through syntax. Sokolowski highlights the role of the spoken word in human reason and examines the bodily and neurological basis for human experience. Drawing on Husserl and Aristotle, as well as Aquinas and Henry James, Sokolowski here employs phenomenology in a highly original way in order to clarify what we are as human agents.

In this book, Robert Sokolowski argues that being a person means to be involved with truth. He shows that human reason is established by syntactic composition in language, pictures, and actions and that we understand things when they are presented to us through syntax. Sokolowski highlights the role of the spoken word in human reason and examines the bodily and neurological basis for human experience. Drawing on Husserl and Aristotle, as well as Aquinas and Henry James, Sokolowski here employs phenomenology in a highly original way in order to clarify what we are as human agents.

This book presents the major philosophical doctrines of phenomenology in a clear, lively style with an abundance of examples. The book examines such phenomena as perception, pictures, imagination, memory, language, and reference, and shows how human thinking arises from experience. It also studies personal identity as established through time and discusses the nature of philosophy. In addition to providing a new interpretation of the correspondence theory of truth, the author also explains how phenomenology differs from both modern and postmodern forms of thinking.

This book presents the major philosophical doctrines of phenomenology in a clear, lively style with an abundance of examples. The book examines such phenomena as perception, pictures, imagination, memory, language, and reference, and shows how human thinking arises from experience. It also studies personal identity as established through time and discusses the nature of philosophy. In addition to providing a new interpretation of the correspondence theory of truth, the author also explains how phenomenology differs from both modern and postmodern forms of thinking.

The structure and key elements of Husserl's philosophy are analyzed in this chronological examination of his doctrines. Bibliogs.

"Presence and Absence is a book of importance for all who are actively engaged in the philosophical enterprise, whatever their differing persuasions. It shows philosophy to be flourishing in the midst of its own self-proclaimed signs of morbidity." - The Review of Metaphysics "A splendid, provocative and profound work, this book explores the manifold ways in which the contrast of presence and absence operate to establish the possibility of human discourse and truthfulnessbelongs in every philosophy collection." - Choice "Quite simply a superb book, which deserves more than one careful reading. A fresh, unified treatment of a grand philosophical theme, the theme of the connections between thought, truth, and being." - Man and World "A thoughtful book about thoughtfulness and truthfulness and their ontological conditions. Simply put, this is a book that will reward its careful reader a hundredfold, for Sokolowski is a speaker who says things in ways that are provocative, exciting, and invariably insightful." - Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology "Has few peers in phenomenological literature." - International Philosophical Quarterly "[Sokolowski is] an original thinker of the first rank, who has significantly furthered the path of phenomenological philosophy. As well as being an exciting synthesis, a thinking of the previously unthought in predecessors, and a ground-breaking movement, this work is written with a sensitivity to language and its graceful use that one would hope for from one exploring its richness and power." - Human Studies