Suspicion and Faith by Merold Westphal

Suggested by my pastor when I asked about Nietzsche. The premise is that the atheistic philosophers Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche, while criticizing Christianity, make some observations we would do well to listen to. If we can hold back from trying to refute their basic philosophy, which Westphal feels is possible, we can listen and learn.

The hermeneutics of suspicion, "the attempt to expose self-deception, in hiding our actual motives from ourselves," and not to notice "how much our behavior and our beliefs are shaped by values we disown." It is not skepticism, which deals with evidence of propositions believed, but suspicion as to the duplicity of persons.

Freud views religion as false and as a delusion and a way to seek consolation, life being too hard for us. Dreams are wish-fulfillment.

To Marx, religion is the opiate of the people, anesthetizing them so that they can ignore the plight of the oppressed.

Nietzsche sees religion as a will to power, a way to make one big and others small.

Westphal goes deeply into the writings of each one and shows how on the mark much of this criticism is.

Especially interesting are the later chapters where he shows Jesus making the same case against the Pharisees and us. A very good book.