Books by Orthodox philosopher and theologian David Bentley Hart
- The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth
- The Experience of God
- The Story of Christianity: An Illustrated History of 2000 Years of the Christian Faith
- Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashinable Enemies
- The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami?
- In the Aftermath: Provocations and Laments
"David Bentley Hart -- like Soloviev and Florensky before him -- stands in the finest tradition of virile Eastern alternatives to modern Western philosophy and theology." (R. Trent Pomplun)
Comments
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I've not read Hart but if I recall his work is somewhat controversial. What would you suggest as a place to start?
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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I don't know. I'm not familiar with his work, but his The Beauty of the Infinite was quoted in a Vyrso book I'm reading now (Beauty Will Save the World: Rediscovering the Allure and Mystery of Christianity by Brian Zahnd), so I guess I'd want to start with that. I only looked up his other titles because when an author intrigues me I'm also interested in what else he or she may have written.
EDIT:
Did some more digging. Here is a bit of the "controversy" surrounding Beauty of the Infinite: from the pages of the Scottish Journal of Theology (which I wish we had in Logos):
Two reviewers raise some issues with it:
From somewhere else I learned that one of McGuckin's critiques is that Hart’s book “comes among us like a satellite fallen through the roof of the hen house.” In the abstract above, McGuckin claims that Hart "has yet to start a university career." From Wikipedia one learns that he has indeed taught at the university level at several schools, though evidently has not yet been in a tenure-track position. But so what? He won the Michael Ramsey Prize in Theology (announced by the Archbishop of Canterbury) for his book Atheist Delusions. So he's someone of significance anyway.
Hart responds to Murphy and McGuckin:
Doesn't sound that controversial, just a lively discussion among academics who respect each other for the most part, though not quite as much as they could.
There could be more, but I haven't had time to dig up any more dirt on him. Anyway, he remains intriguing to me.
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If I remember correctly, Hart has published a number of pieces for First Things, which allows anyone to read online a decent chunk of what it has published.
“The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara
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