True Paradox: How Christianity Makes Sense of Our Complex World, By David Skeel
True Paradox
Paperback
  • Length: 176 pages
  • Dimensions: 5.5 × 8.25 in
  • Published: August 28, 2014
  • Imprint: IVP
  • ISBN: 9780830836765

Foreword Review's Annual INDIEFAB Book of the Year Finalist

How do we explain human consciousness? Where do we get our sense of beauty? Why do we recoil at suffering? Why do we have moral codes that none of us can meet? Why do we yearn for justice, yet seem incapable of establishing it?

Any philosophy or worldview must make sense of the world as we actually experience it. We need to explain how we can discern qualities such as beauty and evil and accountfor our practices of morality and law.

The complexity of the contemporary world is sometimes seen as an embarrassment for Christianity. But law professor David Skeel makes a fresh case for the plausibility and explanatory power of Christianity.The Christian faith offers plausible explanations for the central puzzles of our existence, such as our capacity for idea-making, our experience of beauty and suffering, and our inability to create a just social order. When compared with materialismor other sets of beliefs, Christianity provides a more comprehensive framework for understanding human life as we actually live it.

We need not deny the complexities of life as we experience it. But the paradoxes of our existence can lead us to the possibility that the existence of God could make sense of it all.

"David Skeel is widely respected for his scholarly writing that helps make sense of the laws governing bankruptcy and corporate finance in the United States. Now, stepping beyond his less well-known writing about law and religion, he has written a rich and challenging gem of a book about the meaning and majesty of Christianity in the twenty-first century. As he gracefully makes sense of difficult yet essential questions, you feel the power of his intellect and faith on every page."Lincoln Caplan, former editorial board member, New York Times
"Christianity, which is so simple that a child may understand and believe, is also filled with complexity. Those who have sung with Isaac Watts, 'When God the mighty maker died,' know that they live with much that cannot be explained simply. DavidSkeel's unusually thought-provoking book offers on one level a careful response to literature from the New Atheists. On a deeper level it explains why trying to understand the complexities of Christian faith may leave those who make the effort lostin wonder, love and praise."Mark Noll, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, University of Notre Dame
"True Paradox is a truly great book. David Skeel, a brilliant Ivy League scholar who is one of America's most widely respected legal thinkers, illuminates what Christianity does—and does not—teach about beauty, tragedy, justice and eternal life. True Paradox should be read (along with the Bible) and discussed (with no questions off limits) by thinking people of all faiths and of no faith. I will be giving the book as a gift not only to fellow Catholic friends but to friendswho are agnostics and atheists."John J. DiIulio Jr., first director of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives and Frederic Fox Leadership Professor of Politics, Religion, and Civil Society at the University of Pennsylvania
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CONTENTS

Preface
Introduction: Arguing about Origins--Great Theater and a Grand Distraction
1. Ideas and Idea Making
2. Beauty and the Arts
3. Suffering and Sensation
4. The Justice Paradox
5. Life and Afterlife
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes

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David Skeel

David A. Skeel Jr. is S. Samuel Arsht Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He is the author of The New Financial Deal, Icarus in the Boardroom and Debt's Dominion. He has been interviewed on The News Hour, Nightline, Chris Matthews's Hardball (MSNBC), National Public Radio and Marketplace, and has written for such publications as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard and BooksCulture. Skeel is a frequent speaker at Veritas Forums and is an elder at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. He blogs at www.trueparadoxblog.com.