Recently read: The Reason Driven Life (take two)
I previously posted about The Reason Driven Life, by Robert M. Price, when I was in the middle of that book. Apparently, the middle is the high point. On further reading, Price's work -- a response to Rick Warren's The Purpose-Driven Life -- becomes tiresome. Price takes cheap shots, mocks opposing viewpoints, and makes specious arguments. It's obvious that Price's book is a salvo in a holy war between competing orthodoxies. The old orthodoxy, championed by Warren (as presented by Price), posits a personal deity who takes an active interest in individual lives. In the new orthodoxy, represented by Price, God either doesn't exist or doesn't matter, and theology is closer to sociology than to religion.
A case could be made for either view, and either can be dangerous if carried too far. The former can lead to a parochial emotionalism; the latter, to a dry scholasticism removed from everyday concerns.
Ultimately, I'm not in Warren's camp or Price's, and without a dog in the fight, I lost interest.
Currently reading: The Reason Driven Life
I'm currently reading The Reason Driven Life, by Robert M. Price -- Price's response to Rick Warren's The Purpose-Driven Life, which Price finds simplistic and puerile. I haven't read Warren's book, so I can't say how good a rebuttal Price makes, but so far (p. 112), this work stands on its own. I don't agree with everything Price says; for instance, I find the answers of rationalism often as unsatisfying as those of religious fundamentalism, and some of Price's stances seem inconsistent. (As an example, since as far as I can determine Price doesn't believe in a deity of any sort, how can he say a personal god who makes decisions and feels emotions is somehow less reasonable than a distant, abstract and unchanging entity?) However, I have to like an author who quotes both Alfred North Whitehead and Monty Python, both Friedrich Nietzsche and Fritz Leiber.
Other quibbles are stylistic. Price is sometimes too breezy and studiously casual for my taste, with an overuse of italics and exclamation points.
A couple of favorite quotes so far:
I don't see how an inspired but ambiguous book is any more helpful than an uninspired book.
... and ...
Our working assumption ought to be that we have but a fleeting life here on earth, one full of irreplaceable opportunities. We ought to use our few years as wisely as we can. We ought to strive to make some mark on the world for better. But we ought also to take the time to savor being in the world with all its beauty and mystery.
Despite my reservations and occasional winces, I'm having a hard time putting this one down. As I mentioned, I'm on page 112. I started reading it about 2:00 this afternoon.
