Faith and Reason: Philosophers Explain Their Turn to Catholicism

by Brian Besong, Jonathan Fuqua

Too smart to believe in God? The twelve philosophers in this book are too smart not to, and their finely honed reasoning skills and advanced educations are on display as they explain their reasons for believing in Christianity and entering the Roman Catholic Church.

Among the twelve converts are well-known professors and writers including Peter Kreeft, Edward Feser, J. Budziszewski, Candace Vogler, and Robert Koons. Each story is unique; yet each one details the various perceptible ways God drew these lovers of wisdom to himself and to the Church. In every case, reason played a primary role. It had to, because being a Catholic philosopher is no easy task when the majority of one's colleagues thinks that religious faith is irrational.

Although the reasonableness of the Catholic faith captured the attention of these philosophers and cleared a space into which the seed of supernatural faith could be planted, in each of these essays the attentive reader will find a fully human story. The contributions are not merely collections of arguments; they are stories of grace.

Genres: Catholic, Philosophy

298 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 20, 2019

Reviews

[Thadeus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eleven different walks, eleven different paths. This book was very helpful to me in understanding the different paths that some have taken from different starting points with all of them finding their way to be received into the Catholic Church. The book helps bring to light different aspects of the faith that were difficulties and stumbling blocks, and how those were overcome and how they found peace.

Highly recommended for Catholics and non-Catholics as a source for a reasonable and serious look at the Catholic faith, through many different eyes!

A particularly quote from one of the stories:

"This experience [a difficulty reading John 6 and understanding it in a Catholic way] confirmed for me that we always read Scripture in light of our tradition. So it is imperative to have the right one. I desired to read the Bible with the Church of the ages rather than with a historically young American Evangelical subculture. Reading the Church Fathers on the Eucharist, it was apparent that they would not attend any of the churches of which I had been a part." - Logan Paul Gage
P. 172

Table of Contents:
1- Fallen-away Catholic, Edward Feser
2- Baptist, J. Budziszewski
3- Atheist, Brian Cutter
4- Evangelical Protestant, Neal Judisch
5- Dutch Reformed Church, Peter Kreeft
6- Assemblies of God/Baptist, Logan Paul Gage
7- Lutheran, Robert C. Koons
8- Lutheran, Lindsay K. Cleveland and Evangelical Protestant, W. Scott Cleveland
9- Pentecostal, Bryan R. Cross
10- Christian victim of child abuse, Candace Vogler

[Kari Yergin]

I didn't really read this. I just the Peter Kreeft essay "Why?" I've heard so much about him and was fascinated by his take on questioning his faith much of his life and eventually coming around to Catholicism. He listed his 10 biggest issues he used to have with the religion and the thinking around those misunderstandings, history and logic and scripture and footnotes that were sometimes too complicated for me to understand.

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book with a more academic and philosophical approach to Catholicism. Of note were the historical exegesis and the academics specializing in metaphysics and epistemology. It highlights arguments against accepting by default the "atheistic" Enlightenment or Protestant traditions (and for that part, the Catholic tradition).

[Cristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fact that this is a somewhat difficult book to read does not imply that it is impossible to follow (or to finish, for that matter). We need to understand that all the authors are professional Philosophers. However, there seems to be a clear intention of being as plain as possible for this book is intended for the general public. This is a compilation of testimonies and obviously, they all have one thing in common, and that is the telling of their intellectual journey towards the Catholic Church. The authors also share the fact that they all come from a Protestant background. Different denominations, yet all of them were raised within a Reformed church. Still, none of them has a bad word to say with regards to their former faith, quite the opposite. They are grateful for the fact that it was there that they started to love God. Yet, their life experience and, more importantly, their intellectual journey inevitably led their faith to Rome. Their conversion did not come without a fight. We all know that the Reformed churches were born out of a feeling of Anti-Catholicism. This feeling is embebbed in their identity and I myself have witnessed how they spend a great deal of their lives trying to prove Catholics wrong, apart from talking about the utmost importance of the “Sola Scriptura”, so they all had some fear and even discredit towards the reality that they were almost falling in love with Catholicism, the long-time "enemy". And falling in love it was, body and soul and, most important for the purpose of the book, they fell in love through their mind, their reasoning. There is an endless debate whether faith and reason can never go together. The authors of this book contradict just that. The reading of the chapters can be a little challenging if one is not very familiarised with philosophical terms, but the authors clearly explain how it was that they got there via reason and logic. By doing this they ultimately bare their souls to the reader and not only their brains. Some of these testimonies are written by men alone but they all talk about the importance of their wives in their road to conversion. Some other chapters were written by some husband/wife duplas and they show how they got there together but not always at the same time. Most of them coincide on the fact that the cult towards the Virgin Mary was the last one thing that kept them from making their final decision. Yet, their experience after accepting her as the Mother of God and therefore their Mother, too made their stories even more enrichening. I personally enjoyed Peter Kreeft’s testimony the most. It was the simplest of them all and I don’t mean it in a pejorative way, but I admired the capacity he has to convey a very complicated journey in a very unelaborate way. We all know he is one of the most conspicuous Philosophers of Religion of our times, and that makes his testimony even more fascinating. At least it was for me. As a practising cradle Catholic from a historically Catholic country (Mexico) I find these stories captivating. I can learn so much from these people as they teach me to see many things from a different perspective (and no, I don’t mean things that I take for granted) They are great teachers who can show me how to learn more about my faith, which is definitely part of my identity. This faith is not only for those who have done intricate readings throughout their lives, it is for those who want to experience the love of God in themselves. However, there are many, many different paths to achieve that and this book is an example of how these people found just that through a specific manifestation of God: in their professional lives as Philosophers. To me, this is one of the best statements from the book: “Time and again it seemed the Catholics had already “been and done that” –atop every cliff I climbed there were the Catholics at summit, relaxed and at home” (page 123).