Hellfire and lightning rods

by Frederick Ferré

Religion, philosophy, science, or technology - Do they represent methods by which humanity can overcome its problems? Or are they our chief problem? Seeking answers, New-Agers move in one direction, mainline religionists in another. Technologists and scientists move in yet another, many despairing of making vital connections between their disciplines and the wisdom to be found in deeper traditions of religion and philosophy. And fundamentalisms of many sorts beckon those wearied by modernity and its cognitive dissonance. Renowned philosopher Frederick Ferre invites us to contemplate a new world to be constructed out of the debris of modernity. Hellfire and Lightning Rods displays a vision in which the dichotomies between religion, philosophy, science, and technology can be seen as too-narrow construals of a single, but polyvalent, organic world. The world, Ferre argues, must be envisioned organically or be destroyed by stunted and sterile approaches.