BRÜMMER ON MEANING AND THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

This volume presents a wide-ranging selection from the writings of a leading contemporary philosophical theologian, Vincent Brümmer. In his many books and articles Brümmer has demonstrated how the tools of philosophical analysis are not only fruitful but also essential for dealing with the central issues of systematic theology. The title of this volume, Meaning and the Christian Faith, highlights two characteristic themes that recur throughout the many writings of Vincent Brümmer. Much of his work has been devoted to exploring the meaning of the Christian faith, and especially of its central claim that God is a personal being whose fellowship believers may enjoy. On the other hand, Brümmer has also shown that religious belief should not be understood as an explanatory theory but rather as a way in which believers understand the meaning of their lives and their experience of the world and direct their lives accordingly. Thus in the Christian tradition believers claim that their lives are meaningful because they seek to attain ultimate happiness in the love of God. In the introductory sections throughout this volume Vincent Brümmer describes how he came to pay attention to the various themes dealt with in his writings and explains why he came to deal with them in the ways he did.