The Foundations of Belief

Dewart's new book is a work of fundamental theology, or of the philosophy of religion, and its purpose is to consider the question at the basis of the present-day ""crisis of faith"": can the Christian faith be said truly to develop and unequivocally to evolve, assuming that that faith is true, and that its object is real? It is Dewart's belief that the Christian faith must evolve consciously if it is to survive, and that neither the traditional foundations of belief (as formulated in Aquinas' synthesis) nor contemporary thought can furnish the basis for that development. Instead, contemporary Christian thought must complete the work begun by Aquinas, and revise the achievements of contemporary philosophical and scientific thought, thereby achieving a new synthesis within the framework of which the ""conscious evolution"" of a rational Christian belief could take place. The book, obviously, is complementary to Dewart's earlier The Future of Belief and, like that book, its implications will be considered outrageously radical by some, but as reliable guidelines for the future by most. Despite the complexity of the author's thought and the inherent difficulty of the material, this work, like its predecessor volume, will create a sensation both academic and popular. It should prove to be one of the most important, and probably one of the most successful, religious books of the year.