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William
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« on: November 16, 2011, 09:21:58 PM » |
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If you had to recommend one Christian book to someone battling agnosticism, what would it be?
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HandmaidenofGod
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« Reply #1 on: November 16, 2011, 09:33:02 PM » |
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"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jer 29:11
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Cognomen
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Street walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm
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« Reply #2 on: November 16, 2011, 10:34:32 PM » |
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I think a bit more on the person's background, e.g. familiar with real Christianity, Orthodoxy or not, would be helpful for a sound recommendation.
That said, I still think C.S. Lewis' works like the Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, Problem of Pain, and the Great Divorce (all can be found in one book) present a helpful, generic Christian perspective. Is it high theology? Certainly not, but I get the feeling that people who demand exhaustively rigorous theology to shore up their faith may be in trouble.
St. Athanasius' On The Incarnation may be helpful.
Looking forward to additional suggestions.
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« Last Edit: November 16, 2011, 10:35:50 PM by Cognomen »
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"Paint a bunch of icons of our Lord and the saints and then kiss them. Also, pray to Mary after she dies in the future."
~ The Epistle of St. Paul to the Antiochians, 46 AD.
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Iconodule
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« Reply #3 on: November 16, 2011, 10:42:25 PM » |
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Perhaps, William, you could share with us what specifically you are struggling with? People become agnostics or atheists for divergent reasons. I personally for a long time struggled with materialism. Reading William Blake of all people did the most to help me out of it, but Blake is so not Orthodox that I'm not sure I can recommend him to everyone.
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"A Poet a Painter a Musician an Architect: the Man Or Woman who is not one of these is not a Christian." - William Blake
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Papist
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« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2011, 10:22:41 AM » |
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I think a bit more on the person's background, e.g. familiar with real Christianity, Orthodoxy or not, would be helpful for a sound recommendation.
That said, I still think C.S. Lewis' works like the Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, Problem of Pain, and the Great Divorce (all can be found in one book) present a helpful, generic Christian perspective. Is it high theology? Certainly not, but I get the feeling that people who demand exhaustively rigorous theology to shore up their faith may be in trouble.
St. Athanasius' On The Incarnation may be helpful.
Looking forward to additional suggestions.
You may want to add C.S. Lewis' "Miracles" to the list. |
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"The only-begotten Son of God, wanting us to be partakers of his divinity, assumed our human nature so that, having become man, he might make men gods." - St. Thomas Aquinas
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William
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« Reply #5 on: November 17, 2011, 06:19:34 PM » |
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I think a bit more on the person's background, e.g. familiar with real Christianity, Orthodoxy or not, would be helpful for a sound recommendation. His mother is a very religious Catholic and he's been raised Catholic all his life. He doesn't identify with Catholicism anymore mostly because of a "lack of proof" and, I think, the traditional Christian teaching on homosexuality. Perhaps, William, you could share with us what specifically you are struggling with? People become agnostics or atheists for divergent reasons. I personally for a long time struggled with materialism. Reading William Blake of all people did the most to help me out of it, but Blake is so not Orthodox that I'm not sure I can recommend him to everyone.
It isn't me. |
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Jetavan
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« Reply #6 on: December 03, 2011, 09:01:20 PM » |
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One way to battle agnositicsm is to read books written by the best agnostics, like Robert Ingersoll. Still, Ingersoll did not embrace atheism, or belief in no God, and he was quick to explain why. "I do not deny," he writes in the essay, published three years before his death at age 66. "I do not know." Despite vehemently rejecting Christianity, then, he did not close the door on religious belief. Instead, like many other agnostics at the time -- including Leslie Stephen, George Eliot, Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley (who coined the term agnostic three decades earlier, in 1869) -- he thought belief should rest on evidence, not faith, but also that evidence itself was in some key instances wanting.
That stance irks absolutists on either side who have come to consider agnosticism as spineless and wishy-washy, and agnostics as people who can't or won't make up their minds. According to Quentin de la Bédoyère, science editor of the Catholic Herald, for example, the Catholic historian Hugh Ross Williamson respected firm religious belief and certain unbelief, but "reserved his contempt for the wishy-washy boneless mediocrities who flapped around in the middle." Richard Dawkins not only repeats the same line in his recent book, The God Delusion, but prefaces it with similar invective from a "robust Muscular Christian" preacher of his schooldays, for whom agnostics were "namby-pamby, mushy pap, weak tea, weedy, pallid fence-sitters." |
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« Last Edit: December 03, 2011, 09:02:10 PM by Jetavan »
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If you will, you can become all flame.
Extra caritatem nulla salus.
In order to become whole, take the "I" out of "holiness".
I'm not a witch.
Ἄνω σχῶμεν τὰς καρδίας
"Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is." -- Mohandas Gandhi
Y dduw bo'r diolch.
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Papist
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« Reply #7 on: December 03, 2011, 09:04:15 PM » |
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Handbook of Christian Apologetics - Peter Kreeft
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"The only-begotten Son of God, wanting us to be partakers of his divinity, assumed our human nature so that, having become man, he might make men gods." - St. Thomas Aquinas
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Ioannis Climacus
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« Reply #8 on: December 03, 2011, 09:24:38 PM » |
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Fr. John Romanides' Patristic Theology. This books covers such a wide variety of topics, that I typically recommend it to every single person, no matter the situation. In the case of agnosticism, Fr. John's witness to noetic prayer is especially powerful.
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« Last Edit: December 03, 2011, 09:28:01 PM by Ioannis Climacus »
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Note : Many of my posts (especially the ones antedating late 2012) do not reflect charity, tact, or even views I presently hold. Please forgive me for any antagonism I have caused.
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Isadore
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« Reply #9 on: December 03, 2011, 09:30:08 PM » |
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It depends on how cynical the agnostic is. "The Brothers Karamazov" is always a powerful read and proof of Orthodox Christianity's influence in every day life.
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"Acquire a peaceful spirit, and around you thousands will be saved."
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stavros_388
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« Reply #10 on: December 03, 2011, 09:31:10 PM » |
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"...A broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."--Psalm 51:17
"And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God!"--Gospel of St. John 20:28
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William
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« Reply #11 on: January 28, 2012, 10:16:21 PM » |
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The author of that will actually be speaking at my parish in late February. |
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Asteriktos
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« Reply #12 on: January 28, 2012, 10:40:10 PM » |
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If you had to recommend one Christian book to someone battling agnosticism, what would it be?
Sayings of the Desert Fathers |
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"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled." - Plutarch
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Jetavan
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« Reply #13 on: January 28, 2012, 11:05:13 PM » |
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The author of that will actually be speaking at my parish in late February. ? |
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If you will, you can become all flame.
Extra caritatem nulla salus.
In order to become whole, take the "I" out of "holiness".
I'm not a witch.
Ἄνω σχῶμεν τὰς καρδίας
"Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is." -- Mohandas Gandhi
Y dduw bo'r diolch.
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William
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« Reply #14 on: January 28, 2012, 11:09:18 PM » |
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The author of that will actually be speaking at my parish in late February. ? Yep. |
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