Reason, Faith, and Revolution

May 11, 2009
Eagleton (English literature, Univ. of Lancaster; Holy Terror) is one of our era's most renowned literary theorists. For the 2008 Dwight H. Terry lectures at Yale University, which support a humanist approach to religious studies, Eagleton adopts the sobriquet "Ditchkins" to conflate the arguments of two formidable atheists: polemicist Christopher Hitchens and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. Divining the specific sources of Eagleton's complaint against the two, however, proves a puzzle. Verdict: While Eagleton matches his antagonists' reputation for rancor, he lacks their popular appeal. His erudite and esoteric humor may play well to his Yale audience, but they are unlikely to rally general readers looking for allowance for the intellectual validity of faith. An easy acquisition for academic libraries; less well-funded public libraries may pass.-Scott H. Silverman, Bryn Mawr Coll., PA

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 1, 2009
Takes one to know one, they say, and Eagleton knows one of the new atheisms dynamic duo, Christopher Hitchens, rather well, for in Hitchens socialist days, Eagleton was a comrade. Still a Marxist and, hence, an atheist, Eagleton scores Hitchens along with his biologist sidekick, Richard Dawkins (sometimes as the composite new atheist Ditchkins), for unconscionably misrepresenting theology generally and Christianity, in particular, and for adhering to the shallow liberal belief in progress. He does so from a perspective he says is Marxist but that resembles the classical Greek tragic view that human actions inevitably have both good and bad effects. Thus the Enlightenment, seedbed of modern atheism, the liberal state, and economic individualismvirtually all that is progressivehas always been its own worst enemy. Far better the communitarian, sometimes communal ethic, which Eagleton sees as the orthodox kernel of Christianity and says Ditchkins ignores, than the surveillance state, wars for corporate profit, degenerate entertainment, and managed news that progress has brought us. Eagleton is that rarity, a non-ideological Marxist with a keen understanding of and sympathy for the human condition, not to mention an informed as well as sharp sense of humor. Serious Christians may be his most appreciative readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)