Tuesday, September 12, 2017

The Saint Vs. the Scholar:

The Fight Between Faith and Reason. Jon M. Sweeney wrote this as a historical account of the clash between Bernard of Clairvaux (now recognized as Saint) and Peter Abelard. Unfortunately, the book often descends into a screed against Bernard. Sweeney represents the clash as one between faith and reason, two different ways of thinking about revelation and tradition (also, Tradition) that continue to this day. Yet his obvious bias against "faith" makes it difficult to accept anything he says as objective or accurate. His solution to the dilemma,  "let's just agree to disagree" is untenable when one considers the questions the Church faces today.

I found this an unsatisfactory read. I read it for my church book club, and barely finished it. (We discuss it this evening.) I'm sure our next book won't be such a slog.

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