Making Sense of God: Finding God in the Modern World

given the secular view of the universe, the conclusion of love or social justice is no more logical than the conclusion to hate or destroy. These two sets of beliefs—in a thorough-going scientific materialism and in a liberal humanism—simply do not fit with one another. Each set of beliefs is evidence against the other. Many would call this a deepl

The happier we are, the happier we will make each other. And that means that in heaven our joy and glory will multiply exponentially forever, “with inconceivable ardor of heart.”61

Cambridge historian Henry Chadwick argued that Augustine “marks an epoch in the history of human moral consciousness.”47 For the first time the supreme goal of life was not self-control and rationality but love. Love was required to redirect the human person away from self-centeredness toward serving God and others. Augustine’s Confessions laid the

The other problem we have addressed is that many secular people base their nonbelief on a rigid and simplistic view of reason. They will not acknowledge that there are different, contested approaches to rationality and that all of them include the exercise of faith.

Before we proceed, however, we should take a moment to explore how we will be using the word “secular.” There are at least three ways the word is used today. One applies the term to the social and political structure. A secular society is one in which there is a separation of religion and the state. No religious faith is privileged by the governmen

So created meanings work less rationally and communally than discovered meanings. They are also less durable, less able to get you through adversity and suffering.

moon. I have lowered my expectations of life and learned to enjoy what I have, and I’m getting by fine.”

Our identity, then, is not, after all, something we can bestow on ourselves. We cannot discover or create an identity in isolation, merely through some kind of internal monologue. Rather, it is negotiated through dialogue with the moral values and beliefs of some community. We find ourselves in and through others. “We never get to the bottom of our

This volume begins by addressing those objections. In the first two chapters I will strongly challenge both the assumption that the world is getting more secular and the belief that secular, nonreligious people are basing their view of life mainly on reason. The reality is that every person embraces his or her worldview for a variety of rational, e