Faith and Reason: Philosophers Explain Their Turn to Catholicism

Editors: Brian Besong & Jonathan Fuqua

An Ignatius Press Reprint

Ignatius Press Reprints are identical in content with the most recent print edition of the original title. In order to keep important titles available at reasonable prices, we reprint them digitally in small quantities. We use high quality, acid-free paper, but the books are not smyth-sewn as is customary with our offset press print editions.

Too smart to believe in God? The twelve philosophers in this book are too smart not to, and their finely honed reasoning skills and advanced educations are on display as they explain their reasons for believing in Christianity and entering the Roman Catholic Church.

Among the twelve converts are well-known professors and writers including Peter Kreeft, Edward Feser, J. Budziszewski, Candace Vogler, and Robert Koons. Each story is unique; yet each one details the various perceptible ways God drew these lovers of wisdom to himself and to the Church. In every case, reason played a primary role. It had to, because being a Catholic philosopher is no easy task when the majority of one's colleagues thinks that religious faith is irrational.

Although the reasonableness of the Catholic faith captured the attention of these philosophers and cleared a space into which the seed of supernatural faith could be planted, in each of these essays the attentive reader will find a fully human story. The contributions are not merely collections of arguments; they are stories of grace.

Brian Besong

Brian Besong is an assistant professor of philosophy at Ohio Dominican University. He earned his B.A. in philosophy from Calvin College and converted to Catholicism while working toward a Ph.D. in philosophy at Purdue University.

Jonathan Fuqua

Dr. Jonathan Fuqua is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Conception Seminary College. He is the co-editor of Faith and Reason: Philosophers Explain Their Turn to Catholicism (Ignatius, 2019) and has published several articles in academic journals, such as American Philosophical Quarterly, Synthese, and the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion.  Together with his wife, Angela, he has five children; they were received into the Catholic Church in 2017.