Belief and Metaphysics

This is an exciting, distinguished and indeed brave volume on the relationbetween belief and metaphysics. The volume of twenty essays is excitingin that the points of entry to the question of relation and styles of discourseare so varied, while less-established voices are allowed to sound with themore established; it is distinguished not simply because of its many famousnames, but because it unites in one volume analytic and continentalphilosophical approaches to the issue to the common purpose of retrievingyet also reconceiving metaphysics; and it is brave in that not only does itrefuse to indulge the contemporary prejudice against metaphysics and thenecessity for belief to forgo the comfort of relation, but brings to the surfacepostmodernity's own penchant for axiomatics and its containment of thereligious by uncoupling it from metaphysical commitments.-Cyril O'Regan, Catherine F. Huisking Professor of Theology,Department of Theology, Notre DameWithout metaphysics theology is boring, some one says in this book;without theology metaphysics goes nowhere, some one else says. Of courseit depends what you mean by metaphysics and for that matter theology.There is more than enough here to interest, entertain, and evenenrage philosophers and especially theologians. A MARVELLOUSCOLLECTION!-Fergus Kerr O.P., Honorary Fellow in the School of Divinity at theUniversity of EdinburghThis is a truly splendid collection of essays, admirable not only for itsrange, but for its depth. It would be hard to assemble a moredistinguished cast of contributors, and harder still to find another volumethat offers comparably rich and varied reflections on the profund relationbetween faith and metaphysical reasoning.-David Bentley Ha