Title: Vigilant faith : passionate agnosticism in a secular world /
Authors: Boscaljon, Daniel
Year: 2013
Subjects: Faith; Skepticism.; Agnosticism.
Abstract: "In Vigilant Faith: Passionate Agnosticism in a Secular World, Daniel Boscaljon takes up the contemporary challenges to faith by skepticism and secularism. He proposes a model of faith for believers and unbelievers alike--a passionate agnosticism--that is rooted in a skeptical consciousness. Skepticism and faith are structurally similar, he writes, in that they share an "unknowing" quality. The author argues that vigilance--the act of keeping watch, a spiritual practice in its own right--is as necessary a precondition for the structure of faith as it is for the structure of skepticism. A suspension in uncertainty and an openness to possibility require vigilance, he attests, if faith and skepticism are to avoid the often dogmatic tendencies of both theism and atheism to cling to their own brands of certainty and knowledge."--Publisher website.
Contents: Introduction: Opening the domain of pre-symbolic faith -- Skeptical faith -- The model of absolute faith -- Skepticism as a ground of faith -- The function of vigilance in a skeptical faith -- Skeptical consciousness and the dynamic of faith -- Anonymous hierophanies and the mundane possibilities of God -- The works of a vigilant faith -- The work of vigilance -- Vigilance as the work of faith -- Conclusion: Vigilantly undergoing faith.