Logic of the Heart, The: Augustine, Pascal, and the Rationality of Faith
The Logic of the Heart sets forth a case for the rationality of the Christian faith. As such, it is a unique exercise in philosophical apologetics and an ambitious project to restore passionate reason to Christianity. To accomplish his aim, philosopher James Peters carefully analyzes the thought of Augustine and Blaise Pascal. Even more interesting, he employs the writings of skeptic David Hume as a backdrop to this analysis to show the importance of harmonizing the head and the heart in...
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Philosopher James R. Peters defends the reasonableness of the Christian faith in The Logic of the Heart. He paves a middle road between the Enlightenment's worship of reason and postmodernism's emphasis on freedom and self-rule. He delves into the thought of theologian St. Augustine and philosopher-mathematician Blaise Pascal and engages the skeptic David Hume, who argued against the possibility of miracles. Throughout this process, Peters provides an alternative to postmodern thought as well as the widespread New Atheism. This work is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students pursuing studies in philosophy of religion and historical theology. Since Peters writes in nontechnical language, readers interested in the relationship between faith and reason will also benefit from The Logic of the Heart.
Acknowledgments 9Introduction: Augustine, Pascal, and Hume on the "Embeddedness" of Reason 131 Augustine, Pascal, and Hume for the Postmodern World? 23Skeptics of Modernity: Embedded Rationality versus Rational Autonomy 25Embedded Reason in Augustine, Pascal, and Plantinga 36Augustine, Pascal, and Hume as Socratic Apologists: Human Wisdom as Passionate Self-Knowledge 43Hume, Pascal, and the Humility of Reason 962 Hume's Skepticism and the Wisdom of the Heart 103Hume's Epistemological Refutation of Theism 104Three Answers from the Enquiry 108Hume's Attack on and Misunderstanding of Miracles 117Hume's Psychological Refutation of Theism 137Hume versus Augustine (and Pascal): Opposing Rationalities in Conflict 154Conclusion 1593 Pascal, Paradox, and the Wisdom of the Heart 161Pascal and the Rationality of Faith 164Pascal's Dialectical Defense of Faith 168Pascal's Teleological Apologetics 176Pascal: Faith Is Rational but Beyond Reason 184Pascal's Wager: Unmasking Skeptical Neutrality 188Pascal versus Fideism: Faith Is Not Contrary to Reason 193Pascal and Hume, Pascal and Aristotle: Conclusions 1954 A Dialectical Defense of Pascal's Paradox Argument: Pascal versus Radical Postmodernism 203The Radical Postmodern Challenge to Pascal's Paradox Argument 205Radical Postmodernism's Fourfold Hermeneutics of Unmasking 209Postmodernism as "Hypermodernism" 217Bibliography 287Index 295
