The Future of Reason, Science and Faith: Following Modernity and Post-Modernity. By J. Andrew Kirk. 256 Pp., Aldershot, England, Ashgate, 2007,
- Andrew Kirk is a retired lecturer in Mission and World Christianity from the University of Birmingham, UK. He is the author of more than a dozen books, covering disparate topics such as liberation theology, political theologies, theology of religion, and secularization. With this volume, he enters the science and religion dialogue.
Within this text, Kirk asserts that the whole of Western philosophy over the last 400 years is essentially a response to the experimental sciences. These experimental sciences, he notes, have caused many to abandon the faith of their forefathers, because they see it as not being cogent in a philosophically – and scientifically – literate society. Some have attempted to retain their ‘faith’, but end up compartmentalizing it, and the separation of their faith from their daily lives has caused manifold problems. As a result, people have an unmet yearning for meaning, recognition, self-worth, and fulfilling relationships. Instead of finding such in their faith, people end up turning to esoteric beliefs, consumerism, or carnal pleasures. Kirk contends that Western culture is now at a serious impasse, due to the fragmentation of knowledge. In what follows, I shall point out some of the more salient points from individual chapters within this book.
Chapter s one and two, respectively, recount the birth of modern science in the seventeenth century that gave rise to the bifurcation of knowledge, and sets forth Kirk’s overarching thesis that the Christian perspective offers the framework in which to test the asseveration that the correlation of the world of God with the word of God is a necessary assumption. This assumption is necessary, Kirk claims, to make sense of the unmet yearnings of humanity aforementioned. Chapters three and four further explicate the situation in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries that contributed to the breakdown of consensus regarding issues of science and faith. Moreover, in chapter four, Kirk posits that the method of reasoning known as inference to the best explanation (IBE) could potentially heal the breach between science and faith, and in fact lead to a resolution wherein the two paths are seen to be complimentary to one another.
Kirk fast-forwards several centuries in chapters five and six to introduce post-modernity. In these chapters, he discusses the philosophical influences upon post-modernity. For example, he notes that Heidegger makes numerous contributions to the understanding of language, and that Gadamer radically reorients hermeneutical thinking. Moreover, he notes the contributions of Derrida to post-structuralism, as well as the philosophy of Wittgenstein in regards to language games. Chapters seven and eight cover some intellectual influences upon the thinking of the Western world today. Pointedly, he defends the practical and conceptual benefits of the scientific enterprise against contemporary sources of skepticism in chapter seven. In chapter eight, he notes how post-modernists reject the possibility of Hegelian-type grand syntheses, and notes the problems with the modern project.
Chapters nine and ten collectively argue that modernism and post-modernism are both deficient in explaining the entirety of the human experience, which leads him to posit in the final chapter that perhaps it is the Christian view that is the best basis for the renewal of culture and society. In sum, this volume explores important questions concerning knowledge in relation to science, philosophy, ethics, and the Christian faith. Kirk contends that Christianity is a valid dialogue partner with secular movements that seemingly predominate the current era. His overall assertion is that Christian theism still, even in this day and age, possesses intellectual resources that beckon attention from believers and non-believers alike, and that it provides the needed consistency between believing and acting that is the prerequisite of a flourishing life.
All in all, this volume is illuminating and tightly written. Kirk succeeds in his stated objective: to make Christian beliefs at least a plausible candidate to renew society and culture. One will find a highly informative glossary at the end of the book, which makes the reading apropos for undergraduate studies.
Regent University Bradford McCall