THE LEAP OF REASON

Cupitt writes in the best tradition of English philosophy--with sober intelligence, clarity, concreteness, and wit. He takes on perhaps the century's central religious issue: how is faith possible, how can it make sense, if one acknowledges the radical relativity of all systems of knowledge, including science? Frameworks determine perceptions, perceptions coalesce into frameworks, and the meanings that emerge seem trapped in a vicious circle of projection and disclosure. Cupitt's incisive analysis of this problem of the contingency of interpretive standpoints and the pluralism of functional world views itself yields the solution. Our very capacity to see the relativity of viewpoints indicates that there is a transcendental dimension to the human spirit, and we reach faith in a comprehensive system of meaning by a leap of reason that frees us from the reigning ""paradigm"" of concepts, images, possibilities. But this liberating iconoclasm affirms what religious traditions have long known: that the transcendent (God, Nirvana), is always a mystery, known only in ""unknowing,"" that relativizes whatever symbols and categories try to express it. Three theological essays, exploring the rich implications of these ideas for Christian faith, round out the volume. A fine study, independently complementing prior work in this vein by John Dunne, Michael Novak, and Charles Davis.