Terry Eagleton's witty and polemical "Reason, Faith, and Revolution" is bound to cause a stir among scientists, theologians, people of faith and people of no faith, as well as general readers eager to understand the God Debate. On the one hand, Eagleton demolishes what he calls the 'superstitious' view of God held by most atheists and agnostics, and offers in its place a revolutionary account of the Christian Gospel. On the other hand, he launches a stinging assault on the betrayal of this revolution by institutional Christianity. There is little joy here, then, either for the anti-God brigade - Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens in particular - nor for many conventional believers. Instead, Eagleton offers his own vibrant account of religion and politics in a book that ranges from the Holy Spirit to the recent history of the Middle East, from Thomas Aquinas to the Twin Towers.

About the Author

Terry Eagleton is Bailrigg Professor of English Literature at the University of Lancaster, England, and Professor of Cultural Theory at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He lives in Dublin.

Reviews

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 Reed Business Information.

"'Terry Eagleton's intervention into the debate sparked by Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion is, by turns, thought-provoking, infuriating, inspiring and very, very funny.' London Review of Books 'a gloriously rumbustious counter-blast to Dawkinsite atheism... paradoxes sparkle throughout this coruscatingly brilliant polemic... This is, then, a demolition job which is both logically devastating and a magnificently whirling philippic... Much of what it says is too true.' Paul Vallely, The Independent 'Eagleton's book began as a series of lectures delivered at Yale University. They must have been a riot... He's fantastically rude all round, about 'Ditchkins', about religion itself... It's terrific polemic.' Melanie McDonagh, Evening Standard"