No One Sees God

May 26, 2008
Waving a flag of truce in the ongoing literary battle between ardent atheists and their theist opponents, Novak chooses to make love, not war—or at least to inquire why humans are capable of loving. Currently a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism
, Novak displays an impressive command of classical and contemporary philosophy and theology in this eloquent, candid and multifaceted attempt to encourage dialogue between the two camps. “Neither the atheist nor the believer sees God. Both must live in darkness,” he argues. Making the most abstruse ideas accessible to the unschooled reader, he grapples with such perennial questions as the role of reason, the existence of evil and God's nature. Although the writer, a Catholic conservative, generally treats notable atheists like Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris with respect, he doesn't mind taking a friendly swipe at them now and then. In fact, he suggests, it is past time for believers and nonbelievers to acknowledge the questions they share in an age of doubt, and learn with mutual sensitivity from each other.

July 15, 2008
The recent spate of books on the evils of religion and the need to embrace atheism as the only rational choice has been followed by a number of titles on the reasonableness of belief, many written by one-time atheists. Alister McGrath responded as a believing scientist to the most outspoken of these atheists in "The Dawkins Delusion?: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine", which he cowrote with his wife, Joanna Collicutt McGrath. Here, Templeton Prize winner Novak ("Belief and Unbelief: A Philosophy of Self-Knowledge") writes as a theologian calling for a reasoned and mutually respectful conversation. Not restricting himself to Dawkins, he also engages Sam Harris, Daniel C. Dennet, and Heather MacDonald of the Manhattan Institute. Novak respects the arguments of these writers and sees much of value in their writings. Using traditional philosophical and theological arguments, he considers what it means to think about God, and he ends his work with a discussion of why this conversation is necessary given current world conditions. Recommended for all collections, though a little heavy-going for the average reader.Augustine J. Curley, Newark Abbey, NJ

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