Searching for Faith: A Skeptic's JourneyParlor Press LLC, 2004 - 192 pages Description Searching for Faith: A Skeptic's Journey is intended for the general reader. It is not a scholarly book; however, it is the result of a decades-long interest in how readers read and how texts convey their meaning, leavened by a very personal commitment to the quest for faith. It explores timely questions that must concern anyone who thinks about faith, particularly insofar as faith is based on the Bible. Readers are invited to join the author in thinking about faith and the individual's own history; the nature of prayer; the problems of reading scripture; the nature of sin and guilt; the apparently insuperable enigmas of the Bible; conceptions of God; the "messages" that the Bible conveys; and capitalism and Christianity. Finally, Searching for Faith offers a view of faith based on the great poetic and pragmatic traditions of the United States: the philosophy of William James and John Dewey and the poetry of Walt Whitman and Wallace Stevens. Written in a graceful, accessible style, Searching for Faith is an introduction to faith that rational people can embrace. About the Author W. Ross Winterowd is the Bruce R. McElderry Professor Emeritus, University of Southern California. He has authored, co-authored, or edited 22 books, including The English Department: an Institutional and Personal History (1998), The Rhetoric of the "Other" Literature (1990), The Culture and Politics of Literacy (1989), The Contemporary Writer (3rd, 1989), Composition/Rhetoric: a Synthesis (1986), and Rhetoric and Writing (1965). He has also authored numerous essays, reviews, and poems appearing in such journals and magazines as College English, College Composition, and Communication, Journal of Advanced Composition, ADE Bulletin, Pre/Text, and Plainsongs. He planned and founded the influential doctoral program in Rhetoric, Linguistics, and Literature at the University of Southern California, where he directed the program for twelve years during its period of tremendous growth. |
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Common terms and phrases
Amalek American Augustine Augustine's Aunt Dolly Aunt Lucile believe Biblical Blessed Book of Mormon called Christ Christian Church City Confessions consubstantiality course Crouch culture death Disciples divine Divine Conspiracy doctrine earth Edgar Guest Emerson enigma ethical evil example Exodus explain fact father flesh Genesis God's Gospels Greek hand heaven historical Holy homosexuality hope human interpretation Israelites James Jesus Jews John John Dewey Karen Armstrong Kenneth Burke King Leviticus living logic Lord Manichaean Marcella meaning mind moral Moses mother mystic Neoplatonism Nietzsche Norma offering Old Testament parables passage Paul perhaps person philosophy poem Pragmatism pray Prayer of Jabez presupposition principle problem questions Ralph Waldo Emerson rationalize reader religion religious Saint scripture search for faith sense skepticism Song soul speak spirit story student tells theology things tion truth understand universe Whitman wife Wilkinson William Bonin wisdom woman word York
Popular passages
Page 117 - You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Page 148 - To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.
Page 48 - AND there appeared a great wonder in heaven ; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: 2 And she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Page 162 - I am content when wakened birds, Before they fly, test the reality Of misty fields, by their sweet questionings; But when the birds are gone, and their warm fields Return no more, where, then, is paradise?
Page 131 - We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
Page 133 - Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Page 70 - Before all temples the upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread, Dove-like, sat'st brooding on the vast abyss, And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark Illumine; what is low, raise and support; That to the height of this great argument I may assert eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men.
Page 138 - Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Page 134 - People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.