Revelation and Reconciliation HB

Stephen Williams is Honorary Professor of Theology at Queen's University, Belfast. He holds master's degrees from Oxford and Cambridge Universities and a doctorate from Yale University. His teaching career has been centred on Presbyterian theological colleges in Wales and Northern Ireland, but he also has professional links to Central and Eastern Europe. He has published in the areas of theology, ethics and intellectual history.

• Introduction1. Around and About Descartes2. Restoring a Measure of Faith in Locke3. Troubled Giant4. The Verdict of Nietzsche5. From a Theological Point of View6. Towards ReconciliationBibliographyIndex

"In this lively book, Stephen Williams challenges the conventional wisdom regarding Christian theology's responsibility for modern atheism, urging that Christianity's claim about God's historical act of reconciliation and forgiveness is at least as offensive in modern culture. It is an important proposal, rich with implications both for constructive theology and for plotting the history of modern religious thought."David H. Kelsey, Luther Weigle Professor Emeritus of Theology, Yale University"For Stephen Williams, not only is the epistemological charge brought against the seventeenth-century thinkers difficult to make stick, but it is clear also that the decisive change which takes place in the period has more to do with a conception of moral autonomy, and in particular with the self-perfecting subject and the rejection of traditional understandings of sin. The author has a penetrating intelligence, and makes the shape and importance of his discussion brilliantly clear."Oliver O'Donovan, Honorary Professor of Divinity, University of St Andrews"In this substantially revised second edition, Stephen Williams explores again the challenges faced by theology in modernity. In contesting accounts that over-determine our cognitive states, he develops a more rooted and holistic understanding of Christian faith. Insightful and stimulating, Williams' analysis deserves renewed attention at a time of increasing dissociation of faith from contemporary culture."David Fergusson - Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge