Theos, Anthropos, Christos

Book excerpt: Theos, Anthropos, Christos: A Compendium of Modern Philosophical Theology is an anthology of 21 essays (two-thirds of them appearing for the first time) by noted thinkers who rigorously deploy the tools of modern thought to re-examine and restate the central insights of classical philosophy. In natural theology, the contributors address the challenge of influential varieties of skepticism while developing a cogent and coherent framework of thought to defend the existence, as well as the simplicity, immutability, goodness, and infinity of God. In philosophy of mind, they counter modern materialisms with an extensive defense of the existence of a mental reality, which is radically nonphysical. In moral philosophy, the contributors consider the contradictions of relativism and the application of rationally defensible norms to contemporary ethical debates. The final section comprises a critique of syncretism in comparative religion and a phenomenological analysis of the New Testament's Jesus.