Stories of Desire and Narratives of Faith: From Neanderthals to the Postmodern Era

Stories are the foundation for identity and the ground of understanding. Stories of Desire and Narratives of Faith addresses humankinds search for identity and meaning through the stories of science and religion. Both arose in the mists of history. Both are awe inspiring. Both beggar the imagination. Both have always competed for authority. Science gained preeminence in our postmodern pluralistic globalized world as evidenced based while religion (for many reasons) lost credibility. Yet religion has not disappeared. Stories is a concise engaging inspiring accessible account of the history of science (geological and biological evolution perceived through increasingly sophisticated technology) and the history of nine text-based world religions of antiquity. Stories avoids insider language democratizing both God talk and scientific jargon without patronizing either. There is no attempt to identify the best or truest religion and Stories disavows dogmatic religious triumphalism. The authors do follow the tradition of giving an account of their Christian faith the only religious story with which they have experience. They invite others to do the same paying attention to their own stories as they grapple with modern science do theology and engage faith. Stories proposes how and in what manner these disciplines can meaningfully converse in todays world. The brothers Hunter a medical doctor and a preacher-theologian have written a splendid welcome book. . . . These Jayhawk brothers have no interest in apologetics or evangelism but invite us into the marvel of faith that expresses and responds to the deepest human craving. --Walter Brueggemann Columbia Theological Seminary In striking felicitous prose this erudite book grapples with core issues of epistemology science religion and their relation to each other in a pluralist world. --William C. Martin Rice University Finally we have a book that fills in the gaps for readers who were not educated in Western history and culture. . . . This book is edgy creative and awesome. It is cultural theology at its best with a confessional tone and thrust. --Larry Grimes Bethany College West Virginia Stories of Desire is an intimate dialogue between two brothers a beautifully-crafted and ambitious gathering of the stories that compose their lives. It is a refreshing investigation into the experiential and narrative dimensions of life a dimension where our search for truth and meaning for certainty and mystery and for a particular spiritual identity informed and transformed by our encounter with other spiritual identities can find coherence. --Erin Nourse Regis University Victor Hunter is a pastoral theologian who has spent more than fifty years in the pastors study and parish pulpit. He has worked with civic and church leaders academics and seminarians in addition to serving in a variety of denominational judicatory settings. Lanny Hunter is a physician with more than fifty years experience in the consultation room and operating theater. He is a Vietnam veteran and recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross for valor. As brothers they have engaged in a lifelong conversation within their disciplines of theology and science. They have written published and lectured individually and jointly for thirty-five years.