Faith Seeking Understanding

[DESCRIPTION] How does the Christian faith help us see into the true nature of life more clearly? Why do people suffer? Where do we come from? What does Jesus have to say to a changing world? What can we learn from great mission pioneers about seeking truth at the cutting edges of human knowledge?

Faith Seeking Understanding explores such questions. Notable Christian thinkers such as Philip Yancey, Alvin Plantinga, Rodney Stark, Allan Chapman, Don Richardson, Yuan Zhiming, and more share powerful insights that, from the perspective of Christian faith, help answer people's deepest questions in the twenty-first century.

Inspired by the lives and accomplishments of Paul Brand and Ralph D. Winter, this book seeks to apply the curious, open-minded, and compassionate spirit these Christian leaders exhibited to key contemporary questions in science, history, philosophy, theology, and comparative religion. The reader will gain a fresh appreciation for the intellectual challenges of the Christian faith, and some of the most fascinating and sometimes controversial ways in which those challenges are being met. [/DESCRIPTION][SUBTITLE]Essays in Memory of Paul Brand and Ralph D. Winter[/SUBTITLE] [CREDIT] by: David Marshall (Editor) [/CREDIT] [PAGES] 236 [/PAGES] [BINDING] Paperback [/BINDING] [PUBLISHER] William Carey Library [/PUBLISHER] [PUBLISHYEAR] 2012 [/PUBLISHYEAR] [ENDORSEMENT1]

Faith and intellectual inquiry are often pitched against each other, not only by unbelievers but also by believers. David Marshall's Faith Seeking Understanding is a collection of seventeen engaging stories of search in which the two are intertwined. Some are stories of seeking to understand what one is longing for; some are stories of seeking to understand better what already one believes; some are stories of seeking to understand the world in the light of what one believes. What makes the collection especially fascinating and valuable is the individuality and particularity of the stories—a concrete testimony to the fact that the Christian intellectual life takes many forms.

Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology, Yale University, and senior reserach fellow, Institute for Advanced studies in Culture, University of Virginia [/ENDORSEMENT1] [ENDORSEMENT2]

The most impressive thing about Faith Seeking Understanding is the enormous wealth of material contained within such a relatively narrow space. David Marshall has gathered a really distinguished array of contributors, who have all thought deeply about faith in its global context, and the different essays work wonderfully well together. The book makes a splendid memorial to two truly great individuals, Paul Brand and Ralph Winter.

Phillip Jenkins, Emeritus Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Humanities, Pennslyvania State University, and Distinguished Professor of History, Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University [/ENDORSEMENT2] [TOC]

Introduction: Climbing by Faith

Part I- Tutors

1. Philip Yancey: A Doctor’s Defense of Pain

2. Paul Smith: The Contagious Humility of Paul Brand

3. Greg Parsons: How Ralph Winter Engineered World Missions

4. Bill Prevette: Marx, the Mob, and Missions

Part II- Christ in Culture

5. Miriam Adeney: Egg Flower Soup and Cherry Blossoms: A Woman’s Life

6. Glimpsed through World Religions

7. Ivan Satyavrata: India’s Search for Jesus

8. Yuan Zhiming: Amazing Grace for China

9. A Conversation with Don Richardson 

Part III- Christ in History

10. David Marshall: The Fingerprints of Jesus

11. Earl Palmer: The Resurrection

12. A Conversation with Rodney Stark

Part IV- Christ in Philosophy and Science

13. Randal Rauser: The Prayer that Prayed Me

14. Allan Chapman: Christian History or Secular Mythology?

15. Guillermo Gonzalez: Faith Seeking Exoplanets

16. Don N. Page: The Superb Design

17. Ben McFarland: The Tree of Life

18. A Conversation with Alvin Plantinga

Bibliography
Index

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