Reason to Believe: Why Faith Makes Sense

This is the 35th anniversary edition, second printing of a book first published by Eerdmans in 1974. How does this revised and expanded version compare with the original? Joseph Tremblay wrote in a review of the new edition at "Permanent Things in a Bookcase": "Richard Purtill writes with a lucidity reminiscent of Frank Sheed....As Sheed walked the common man through theology, so Purtill guides us through a philosophical reasoning of faith." The first thing one might ask is "Who is Frank Sheed?" The answer to that comes in the second appendix in this new edition, "Chesterton, the Wards, the Sheeds, and the Catholic Revival". The revival referred to took place in Britain, and led to his life-long interest in the philosophy of religion, as Purtill notes in this autobiographical essay. The first appendix, "Justice, Mercy, and Atonement" is a revised version of a paper read at Notre Dame University, which a search of the Internet shows is one of the author's most cited and quoted from essays. There's also a new preface, updated bibliography-- the sort of revisions that characterize a second edition. How does this book differ from the numerous "answers to Dawkins" sort of books published recently? Even in the first edition, this wasn't your basic apologetics book, "apologetics" being taken to mean "a defense of belief". In the preface, the author says it's the third book he wrote, the other two being philosophy textbooks, and the first on "the philosophy of religion". Philosophy in this sense is not concerned with the truth of a proposition, but the validity of the links in the argument for or against it. Not what to think, but how to think. The book is divided into three sections, "Objections", "Reasons", and Revelation" (plus appendices). Purtill has a get in and get out style, which may leave readers wanting more (hence the bibliography). Rather than beginning with traditional "proofs" for the existence of God, as one might expect, he jumps right in as a devil's advocate, with arguments against it. The five objections considered are: nonsense; wishful thinking; credulity; immorality; and "the empirical bogey". Although penned some thirty years ago, this book answers many of the objections posed by Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion. The second section, "Reasons", considers the nature of faith, the universe, morality, happiness, and the World with God in it. While these seem like nebulous topics on which an author could endlessly ruminate, Purtill instead poses the perennial philosophical questions, considering possible answers. He considers happiness, for instance: "A man may be said to be happy in three senses: a. If he has no unsatisfied desires; b. If he is actively enjoying some good thing; c. If he is doing what he wants to be doing." This reminded me of a part in the Pensees (Thoughts) by the seventeenth century writer, Pascal, in which he considers "The misery of man without God". Simplifying the big questions in this way helps readers