God Now: Christianity and Heresy

In these short accessible essays Alford writes about the personal “Why I Pray” as well as the political “Simone Weil and Donald Trump.” He makes some difficult theologians such as Karl Barth and Soren Kierkegaard accessible while not hesitating to criticize them. Alford argues the genius of Christianity is in God making himself vulnerable so as to know what it is to be human; otherwise God stands at a terrible distance from humanity. From this perspective Christianity is about the teachings of Christ and Gods willingness to suffer. The resurrection so central to most Christians becomes less important. Myriad religious thinkers are considered including Albert Camus Thomas Merton Reinhold Niebuhr Rudolf Bultmann and Paul Tillich among others including Simone Weil. Also addressed is the relationship between religion and psychology as well as the status of natural law. Notable is the authors attitude which combines respect for great thinkers and a willingness to call them out as wrong confused or misguided. Unafraid of atheism Alford thinks many of the so-called new atheists judge religion as though it were a science a confusion of categories. Once a philosopher of science he knows the scope and limits of scientific explanation better than most.