NEW PUBLICATION - JULY 2010:We live in a time of much confusion about the role and place of religion in our world. Many have lost their faith in religion. Others have become outright hostile towards it. And still others consider religion to be irrelevant to their personal and community lives. There are misgivings about the divisive and authoritarian approaches adopted by most religions and the violence that these religions have inflicted and continue to inflict on the masses of humanity under the guise of ‘salvation’, ‘jihad’, ‘crusade’, and similar notions.
As well, there are many questions about God. Is God real? If so, why we do not experience the presence of God in our world and our lives? Is God merciful? If so, why is there so much misery? Is God powerful? If so, why the ascendancy of the oppressors? Is God just? If so, why the universal prevalence of injustice? Is God all-knowing? If so, why the seemingly irrational and illogical beliefs and practices of various religious communities and why so many seemingly different and irreconcilable religions? Added to these questions is the highly significant and problematic issue of discordance between science and religion, as currently understood and practiced. The popularity of books such as The God Delusion by scientist Richard Dawkins and Darwin’s Dangerous Idea and Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by philosopher Daniel Dennett is due to the fact that they put into words the current confusion about the nature, role, and source of religion. Many wonder whether it is possible to have a religion that is in harmony with science and whether science could ever find itself in harmony with any religion. These are genuine perplexities, especially in an age when both religion and science are being so callously abused. Unity of Faith and Reason in Action: A Journey of Discovery by H.B. Danesh explores religion in a totally new light and shows how “religion" and "science” and “faith" and "reason,” in their authentic forms, are distinct but complementary ways of knowing, essential for a reasoned, creative, enlightened, and meaningful life. The book takes the reader on a journey at once personal and universal, familiar and unfamiliar, sobering and enlightening, joyful and soulful. |