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Questions of Truth: Fifty-one Responses to Questions About God, Science, and Belief |  | Authors: John Polkinghorne, Nicholas Beale
Publisher: Westminster John Knox
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
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Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 121123
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1ST
Pages: 160
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.5
ISBN: 0664233511
Dewey Decimal Number: 230
EAN: 9780664233518
ASIN: 0664233511
Publication Date: January 27, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
For many years people from across the world have sent the scientist-turned-priest John Polkinghorne questions about science and belief. In question-and-answer format, Polkinghorne and his collaborator Nicholas Beale offer their informed opinions about some of the most asked questions. Readers can follow their own paths through the book, selecting questions that interest them and looking at the additional material if they choose. The unique book will help Christians clarify their beliefs and better face challenges to their faith.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
 A Liberal Christian Defense of God May 18, 2010
Jason Chamberlain (Cary, NC USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is useful for engaging skeptics on their turf. However, from a Christian perspective it is decidedly liberal in its approach to Scripture. I understand that it is common to take Genesis 1-11 as a myth which was not meant to represent reality. I also recognize that such an approach is not heretical. However, this puts the Bible reader on a slippery slope because then every story must be scrutinized similarly. Was Job a real person? Maybe and maybe not (Polkinghorne and Beale don't think that he was). Where does that kind of thinking end? How about David? Do we need archaeological proof of a story before we accept it as factual? What about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ? The authors don't go that far, but these are logical questions to ask based on their hermeneutic.
This book does a fine job of doing what it means to do. I just want to point out that there is a liberal slant to the authors' theology. It does ask and answer some great questions.
 Some of the questions/answers I've read multiple times and it seems as though I only just read each for the first time! April 1, 2010
Dr. J. Ryan (Ocean Shores, Washington)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Some of the questions/answers I've read multiple times now and it seems as though I only just read each for the first time! I will be sending copies of this marvelous quantum physics/theistic book to many of my twelve youngsters (ages 30 to 50). The answers are as often surprising as they are educational. Best book I've had lying on my bed among maybe twenty such books over the past ten years. "Absolutely perfect!" as Mary Poppins would say.
Excellent Introduction to Polkinghorne's Wisdom with Humility July 28, 2009
rowley32256 (Jacksonville USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
John Polkinghorne is a unique individual; an accomplished particle physicist, he decided to change careers about 30 years ago to become a minister of the Anglican church. A Templeton prize winner, his writing style is lucid and accessible. Questions of Truth is a departure from classics such as Exploring Reality and The Faith of a Physicist in that it is a collaboration between Polkinghorne and his associate Nicholas Beale, who helps with the deluge of e-mail that Polkinghorne receives.
This book, while quite short, covers a great deal of ground and effectively signposts the reader to other books by Polkinghorne that deal with specific subjects in greater depth. (page 81) "Every so often in the history of the universe something intrinsically new emerges from within the deep potentiality with which creation has been endowed. This happened with the coming-to-be of life and again with the dawning of animal consciousness. I believe it also happened in the genus Homo with the emergence of human self-consciousness." (page 68) "At some point in hominid evolution, self-consciousness - a deep self-awareness and the power to project our thought far into the future - dawned on our ancestors. At the same time, I believe that a new form of God-consciousness also dawned for them. The fall was the process by which they turned away from God into the self, an error of which we are all the heirs." I am an avid fan of Polkinghorne; he understands the flaws in the quasi-scientific arguments often advanced against faith, but even when he is dealing with crass abuse of logic or science he always tempers his great wisdom with humility and congeniality.
A Brief Introduction to Looking at Science and Christianity Side-by-Side July 21, 2009
Professor Donald Mitchell (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 96,000 Helpful Votes Globally)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." -- John 4:24
If you are like me, it's often frustrating to read what pastors have to say about science because they may not know much about science. The potshots that atheists take at Christianity are often based at least in part on scientific-seeming comments. Wouldn't it be nice to read what a scientist has to say about science and Christianity?
Questions of Truth takes you to the doorway through which you can begin to learn about how science and Christianity stack up, side-by-side. John Polkinghorne is a former professor of physics who often writes about Christianity and science. Nicholas Beale is a management consultant who speaks eloquently in defense of Christianity. Both write from a faith-based perspective that will seem familiar to many Christians.
The book opens with about 100 pages of questions and brief answers. In a few cases, the answers are elaborated on in appendices concerning the extreme delicacy of the universe that allows for us to live, the mind and the brain, and evolution. All sections of the book generously refer to more detailed arguments in other sources through commentaries, footnotes, and a bibliography. In many cases, you won't find what you are really looking for until you get into those more detailed treatments.
This book, rather, mimics the Web site that Nicholas Beale maintains to publicize John Polkinghorne's views about Christianity. As such, it's brief and to the point: That the book's strength.
The authors separate respond to each question so you get at least two perspectives in each case. Here are a few of the key points that the book makes:
1. Science is about "how" things work and Christianity is about "why" they work. The two perspectives can exist side-by-side because they are looking at different questions.
2. The unknowns about the physical world exceed the knowns. As a result, it's premature to say that science can prove much of anything about Christianity in many cases. The seemingly quirky characteristics of quantum physics suggest a world made to permit and encourage free will and loving cooperation.
3. Many of the atheistic arguments made by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion don't look so good when you quantify the points.
4. In many areas concerning Christianity and science, you can't prove or disprove key beliefs and theories.
Whimsical arguments sometimes take off in good humor which lends the book some lighthearted moments, such in as the section about how Christian believers live longer and produce more children than atheists suggesting that "natural selection" favors Christian belief.
Although your time would probably be better spent in reading the Bible or in prayer than reading this book, I think you'll find Questions of Truth will increase your appreciation of the truths that the Bible relates.
 Great idea. Too slim a volume May 18, 2009
John W. Burgeson (Houston, Texas)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Don't get me wrong. Thais is a good book and I recommend it. But it is, alas, too short and the content, therefore, too brief.
What it needed, since a "slim volume" was apparently in the design objectives, was a list of relevant books and internet links on each of the 51 chapters. And, specifically, references to one or more of Polkinghorne's other (longer) books. All of which, I can recommend more highly than this one -- this one just tantalizes. It does give, however, a good summary of each of the 51 questions. As such. I'm enjoying reading it -- one chapter at a time just before sleep.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
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