Transcending Vision: Christian Theology in an Age of Empiricism by Don McIntosh

Christian writer Don McIntosh effectively demonstrates how Christianity is relevant for all people and for all times, despite the modern, scientific and humanist tendency to downplay its eternal truths in Transcending Vision: Christian Theology in an Age of Empiricism.

The author speaks of the opposition of empiricism (that proof must come from experience) and foundationalism (that proof can be, and often is, accepted on faith). Faith, or fideism, is a virtue precisely because it offers no evidence. Jesus did not ask for intellectual understanding. The God of Christianity wants us to vest our hopes in Him, acknowledging that our expectation for a life free of sin is impossible. Through God’s omnipotence, righteousness and glory, everyone can be saved irrespective of human failings. God knows who has faith in Him.

McIntosh holds a degree in Theology and though he protests that he is not a scholar, his dense, well-organized prose suggests an undeniable academic bent. He examines not only the personality of God/Jesus, but the many ways in which the church through the ages has weathered many subtle heresies – Gnosticism, Unitarianism, and Darwinism – for a far-reaching and persuasive take on the the topic.

A strong proponent of Christian proselytization, McIntosh offers much food for thought, targeted to skeptics as well as to his fellow Christians in this well-considered, informative volume.

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