Waving a flag of truce in the ongoing literary battle between ardent atheists and their theist opponents, Novak chooses to make love, not war—or at least to inquire why humans are capable of loving. Currently a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism
, Novak displays an impressive command of classical and contemporary philosophy and theology in this eloquent, candid and multifaceted attempt to encourage dialogue between the two camps. “Neither the atheist nor the believer sees God. Both must live in darkness,” he argues. Making the most abstruse ideas accessible to the unschooled reader, he grapples with such perennial questions as the role of reason, the existence of evil and God's nature. Although the writer, a Catholic conservative, generally treats notable atheists like Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris with respect, he doesn't mind taking a friendly swipe at them now and then. In fact, he suggests, it is past time for believers and nonbelievers to acknowledge the questions they share in an age of doubt, and learn with mutual sensitivity from each other. (Aug. 5)
