The Dog Delusion, and Other Essays: Confronting Science and Contemporary Scholarship in a Traditionalist Context

Publication Data: Etna, CA: Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies, 2010
Format: softcover
Number of Pages: 162
Dimensions (l × w × h): 21.3 cm × 13.8 cm × 1.1 cm
Additional Information: black-and-white illustrations, two-color printing
ISBN: 978‒0‒911165‒65‒4

   
Archbishop Chrysostomos of Etna

“In each essay[...], I have very specific goals. In Chapter One, I address the rise of militant atheism, which is not only anti-intellectual in its tone but which thwarts, in its practical consequences, necessary exchanges between scientists and religious thinkers, as well as philosophers and humanists in general. In making my arguments, I clearly point out that militant atheism of the recent kind fails to address religion as the Eastern Orthodox Christian sees it and, by extension, fails to address the fundamental assumptions of Christianity—which has clear Eastern roots—at a wider level, too. In Chapter Two, I speak to the notions of unknowability and the discovery of truth in paradox, issues of immense importance for a proper understanding of religion and the profounder aspects of scientific theory. In Chapter Three, turning to the problems of ‘unintelligent’ tradition and religious anti-intellectualism, I observe that many ideas that seem to impede a constructive rapprochement between science (or human knowledge) and Eastern Orthodox religious beliefs are, in fact, misrepresentations of Orthodox belief and foreign to its actual spirit. And finally, in Chapter Four, I offer critical comments about how poor scholarship, fundamentalistic thinking, and Western historiographical conventions have, in concord, served to distort and misrepresent the witness of Eastern Christianity and to obfuscate the vital role that it has to play in intellectual debates and in interdisciplinary efforts to bring human knowledge into a wholeness of expression and to reconcile science, religion, and the humanities in a way that will expand our conception of man, his world, and the universe.”
—“Preface”

CONTENTS

About the Author
Preface
Chapter One
   THE DOG DELUSION
      Some Remarks About Professor Richard Dawkins’ Mordant Best-Seller, The God Delusion
Chapter Two
   FINDING GOD BETWEEN THE CRACKS
      Reminiscences from the Princeton of Albert Einstein, Rose Rand, John Nash, and Father Georges Florovsky
Chapter Three
   THE “UNCERTAIN RICHES” OF FUNDAMENTALISM
      Some Comments on Unknowing, Uncertainty, and Ambiguity as Paths to Spiritual Wisdom
Chapter Four
   SCHOLARLY IMPRUDENCE
      Comments on Contemporary Trends in Orthodox Spiritual Writing and Byzantine Historiography