Description
What is the truth about the universe and its inhabitants? Helen Oppenheimer has carried out a balanced and rational inquiry into the existence of God to bring us closer to answering this question. Here she uses her findings to construct and argue her case for a responsible Christian faith, rooted firmly in the facts.
Christian Faith for Handing On offers readers a progress report on the live possibility of faith in an era of human suffering that can, at times, seem to render it futile. The author deftly tackles difficult questions and deconstructs objections to Christianity to equip and reassure believers, showing how they can learn from the sceptics in order to eschew comfortable complacency in favour of reason.
This engaging and thought-provoking work will grip and challenge thinking Christians and atheist enquirers alike with its current and comprehensive apologia for a Humanist Christian faith. Oppenheimer’s scholarly approach ensures that the book will also prove an invaluable resource for academics and students of theology and philosophy.
About the Author
Helen Oppenheimer graduated from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, in philosophy. She is married, with three married daughters, ten grandchildren, and a great-grandson. She has served on several Anglican commissions and taught ethics at Cuddesdon Theological College. She writes on Christian ethics and philosophical theology and holds a Lambeth DD. Her books include The Hope of Heaven (1988) and On Being Someone (2010). She and her husband live in Jersey in the Channel Islands.
Contents
Preface
Part I: Believing
1. Terms of Reference
2. Matter and More
3. The Argument from Value
4. Recalcitrant Reality
5. The Project of Creation
6. Question of Fact
7. The Hypothesis of Faith
8. Rational Inquiry
9. Gospel Story
Part II: Belonging
10. One Another
11. God in Charge
12. Christian Hope
13. Is Anyone There?
14. The Means of Grace
Part III: Behaving
15. Values, Human and Divine
16. The Way
17. Compare and Contrast
18. Mercy
19. Continuing
Bibliography
Names Index
Endorsements and Reviews
Two words that enter my mind whenever I read Helen Oppenheimer are clarity and humanity. Her philosophical care and rich embrace of Christian Humanism are at the heart. Life unfolds with meaning when there is a loving God who creates and redeems. Helen’s knowledge and love of both the Christian and the English literary traditions show just how rich is this faith to hand on.
Rt Revd Stephen Platten, Bishop of Wakefield, Bishop’s Lodge
Helen Oppenheimer is unusual in combining a finely honed philosophical mind with a lucid, friendly, informal style. Rigorously honest in facing the difficulties of believing in God today, at the same time she does not sell the Christian faith short. Drawing on a lifetime of experience and reflection, not least from family life, she gives us here a lovely legacy that will help many not only to believe, doubts and all, but to live out the faith with a deepening spiritual conviction.
Lord Harries of Pentregarth, former Bishop of Oxford
There is much food for thought (and exceptionally clear writing) in this account of Christian faith.
Gilbert Meilaender, in Studies in Christian Ethics, Vol 28, Issue 2
Helen Oppenheimer deals with these issues with spiritual sensitivity and loyalty to the Christian tradition in which she stands. For the community of believers there is much to learn from what she offers us in this rich book.
Vincent Brümmer, in Journal of Reformed Theology, Vol 10, Issue 1
