Overview
Among all the great transitions that have marked Western history, only one—the triumph of Christianity—can be called in the fullest sense a “revolution” In this provocative book one of the most brilliant scholars of religion today dismantles distorted religious “histories” offered up by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and other contemporary critics of religion and advocates of atheism. David Bentley Hart provides a bold correction of the New Atheists’s misrepresentations of the Christian past, countering their polemics with a brilliant account of Christianity and its message of human charity as the most revolutionary movement in all of Western history. Hart outlines how Christianity transformed the ancient world in ways we may have forgotten: bringing liberation from fatalism, conferring great dignity on human beings, subverting the cruelest aspects of pagan society, and elevating charity above all virtues. He then argues that what we term the “Age of Reason” was in fact the beginning of the eclipse of reason’s authority as a cultural value. Hart closes the book in the present, delineating the ominous consequences of the decline of Christendom in a culture that is built upon its moral and spiritual values.
Full Product Details
Author: David Bentley Hart
Publisher: Yale University Press
Imprint: Yale University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.60cm
, Height: 0.20cm
, Length: 23.50cm
Weight: 0.454kg
ISBN: 9780300164299
ISBN 10: 0300164297
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 23 February 2010
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
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Reviews
'Few things are so delightful as watching someone who has taken the time to acquire a lot of learning casually, even effortlessly, dismantle the claims of lazy grandstanders - Hart isn't making a bid for wealth, fame, or cocktail-party acceptance: he knows whereof he speaks.' Stefan Beck, New Criterion 'Anyone interested in taking the debate about God to the next level should read and reflect on Hart's spirited brief on behalf of Christian truth.' Damon Linker, New Republic
An unanswerable and frequently hilarious demolition of the shoddy thinking and historical illiteracy of the so-called New Atheists. -Michael Robbins, Commonweal -- Michael Robbins Commonweal
An unanswerable and frequently hilarious demolition of the shoddy thinking and historical illiteracy of the so-called New Atheists. -Michael Robbins, Commonweal -- Michael Robbins * Commonweal *
Author Information
David Bentley Hart is the author of several books, including In the Aftermath: Provocations and Laments and The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth.
