Description
This book has been written in the belief that both the demoralized “liberal” and the resurgent “conservative”elements of the present Christian community need to grasp again what G. K. Chesterton once called “the romance of orthodoxy.” Many major beliefs of the church are actually a joining of at least two coordinate truths that are delicately placed so as to form a larger whole, the higher truth. Very often,the components of a larger theological whole appear on the surface to be contradictory. Nevertheless, each contains a vital piece of the whole. Only together do they form the essential paradox that alone is able to express the real, the whole truth. We Christians find ourselves faced with a set of crucial paradoxes that are inevitable if our theology is to be adequate. We are challenged to avoid panic in the face of persistent paradox. The delicate ambiguities of paradox maybe the only path to true wisdom.
David Elton Trueblood –
The paramount need of contemporary Christianity lies in the field of clear thinking. The Christian faith cannot endure by mere organization or by emphasis upon feeling, and little else. I commend to readers everywhere, and of all persuasions, this book of Dr. Callen that deals honestly and skillfully with the nature of Christian faith.
Joseph D. Allison –
After reading an early draft of this book three decades ago, I was struck by Dr. Callen’s forthright questioning of propositional theology, which held the field of Christian faith long before the term postmodernism had entered intellectual discourse. I am glad to see that his ideas have been further developed and his book is now being published. Truly, its time has come.
Laurence W. Wood –
This book reflects the mature wisdom of a veteran scholar and highly respected theologian on a topic that is much debated across the university curriculum. Avoiding the extremes of modernist and postmodernist notions of truth, Dr. Callen proposes that truth is a continuum that spans a spectrum of diversity and yet entails multidimensional unity. This work shows that either/or thinking is too simplistic and that Christian faith appropriately appreciates the nature of paradoxical thinking without succumbing to logical contradictions. This work is both philosophical and pastoral, theological and personal, and is lucidly written.