The Critique of Theological Reason

Far from merely reinvigorating relativism, postmodernism has detected and expressed in our time a powerful nihilating process of which truth and reality itself are the final casualties; and with these morality and religion. Beginning from the theological reaches of philosophy, this book argues that gods played a crucial part in modern philosophy, even when it was most critical of them; that the dominant nihilism of Derrida is really an excessive and misleading outcome of a contemporary philosophy which could otherwise resonate with all that is best in our evolutionary image of the universe; that moralists who turn to art in order to overcome the fact-value version of this deadly dualism do not thereby rule out religion; and that a Christian theology which recognises the evolutionary/historical conditions of faith and revelation is once again producing a theology that builds upon the best of contemporary philosophy and science.

• Provides a deeper understanding of postmodernism, based upon an account of its philosophical ancestry in the modern era • Makes a critical and creative use of the more theoretical or ‘philosophical’ views of the most advanced scientists in physics and psychology • Offers a persuasive acount of the most influential and promising movements in modern Christian theology

Part I. Historical-Critical: Prologue to Part I; 1. The status quo: genesis; 2. The status quo: current affairs; 3. Beginnings: old and new; Part II. Critical-Constructive: Prologue to Part II; 4. Morality and metaphysics; 5. Art and the role of revelation; 6. Revelation, religion and theology; Epilogue.

‘Mackey paints on a large canvas with a rich and varied palette. If mind and reality have indeed gone missing from recent philosophy, Mackey’s application of theological reason offers beguiling pointers to their restoration.’

– John Saxbee, Church Times