Why Believe: Essays on Religion, Rationality and Belief

Why Believe: Essays on Religion, Rationality and Belief is a collection of essays on the role of interpretive reasoning in the formation and expression of religious beliefs. An influential form of discourse attempts to deny legitimacy to religious beliefs on the grounds that they cannot be justified using the formal experimental methods of the sciences. Why Believe will argue that this notion rests on a profound misunderstanding of reason as it functions both in the sciences and the humanities. Why Believe is intended for a general audience dissatisfied with Atheist or Christian fundamentalisms and seeking more nuance and insight on religion. It is not written with specialists in philosophy in mind. Accordingly, it avoids jargon as much as possible and pauses where necessary to explain fundamental issues and concepts that more specialized readers might take for granted. While not in any sense a textbook, Why Believe should prove useful to university students taking Philosophy or Religious Studies.