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The Experience of God

Being, Consciousness, Bliss

By (author) David Bentley Hart
Format: Paperback / softback
Publisher: Yale University Press, United States
Published: 30th Sep 2014
Dimensions: w 137mm h 213mm d 31mm
Weight: 380g
ISBN-10: 0300209355
ISBN-13: 9780300209358
Barcode No: 9780300209358
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Synopsis
From one of the most revered scholars of religion, an incisive explanation of how the word "God" functions in the world's great faiths Despite the recent ferocious public debate about belief, the concept most central to the discussion-God-frequently remains vaguely and obscurely described. Are those engaged in these arguments even talking about the same thing? In a wide-ranging response to this confusion, esteemed scholar David Bentley Hart pursues a clarification of how the word "God" functions in the world's great theistic faiths. Ranging broadly across Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Vedantic and Bhaktic Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism, Hart explores how these great intellectual traditions treat humanity's knowledge of the divine mysteries. Constructing his argument around three principal metaphysical "moments"-being, consciousness, and bliss-the author demonstrates an essential continuity between our fundamental experience of reality and the ultimate reality to which that experience inevitably points. Thoroughly dismissing such blatant misconceptions as the deists' concept of God, as well as the fundamentalist view of the Bible as an objective historical record, Hart provides a welcome antidote to simplistic manifestoes. In doing so, he plumbs the depths of humanity's experience of the world as powerful evidence for the reality of God and captures the beauty and poetry of traditional reflection upon the divine.

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"Hart marshals powerful historical evidence and philosophical argument to suggest that atheists-if they want to attack the opposition's strongest case-badly need to up their game."-Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian



". . . there is something evangelical about this study: it is at once both the most valuable discussion of the doctrine of God to have appeared for decades, and a witty, often mordant, defence of Christian belief. . . . The Experience of God is still an outstanding addition to the literature on God, not least for its survey of so many of the world's great faiths. It is also a fine piece of work of Christian apologetics, and a major contribution to debate on science and religion."-Andrew Davison, Times Literary Supplement

"This hugely suggestive book is a lyrical paean to a vital, more capacious understanding of reality, ourselves and God: a timely and gripping invitation to wake up, see the regnant naturalism, and subvert its suffocating hegemony. The text is by turns elegant, curmudgeonly, witty, infuriating, incisive, nostalgic, rhapsodical, explosive, frequently bang on the money - and always stimulating."-Philip McCosker, The Tablet

"David Hart can always be relied on to offer a perspective on Christian faith that is both profound and unexpected. In this masterpiece of quiet intellectual and spiritual passion, he magnificently sets the record straight as to what sort of God Christians believe in and why."-Rowan Williams, University of Cambridge

"David Hart's new book is nothing less than astounding. He is liberal, conservative, radical, theological, philosophical, and historical all at the same time - that is his genius. There is no American writing on religion as intelligently, bravely, and originally as Hart."-Conor Cunningham, University of Nottingham

"David Bentley Hart's new book is a feast- stylish and substantial. Bringing together Sanskritic analyses of God's being with Latin and Greek and Arabic ones, this is a considerable achievement by one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary theology."-Paul J. Griffiths, Duke Divinity School

"Writing at a high philosophical level with a sharp sense of humor, Hart argues for an ecumenical Theism. Devastatingly accurate, imaginative, and immensely readable, this is David Bentley Hart's best book."-Francesca Murphy, University of Notre Dame

"Magnificent . . . a book unlike anything done in recent times and one that only Hart could write."-Robert Louis Wilken