Book Review: Solved by Sacrifice: Austin Farrer, Fideism, and the Evidence of Faith

Abstract

Solved by Sacrifice: Austin Farrer, Fideism, and the Evidence of Faith. By Robert MacSwain. Studies in Philosophical Theology, Book 51. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters Publishers, 2013. 275 pp. $71.00 (paper).Robert MacSwain has written one of the best books on the work of Austin Farrer to this day. Beyond being an authoritative guide to the philosophical theology of Farrer, MacSwain offers a brilliant and nuanced narrative of Anglophone philosophical theology in the second half of the twentieth century, especially as this was practiced by those in the Anglican Communion. I know of nothing equal in any of the secondary literature on Farrer to MacSwain's meticulous care with his sources and his masterful use of details that he includes in the text but does not allow to intrude on an engaging, critical, but constructive overall narrative on how philosophical theology was and may be practiced. His subject, Austin Farrer, was an Anglican divine who, in his time, attracted the attention of leading philosophers (of no less significance than Wittgenstein) and, in particular, those who would become leading philosophers of religion: Basil Mitchell cites Farrer as instrumental in his mature embracing of Christian faith, and C. S. Lewis was a close personal friend. Farrer is especially worthy of attention today given the lively debate over faith and reason, the very nature of faith, and the use of metaphors and image in revelation.There is a helpful introduction situating MacSwain s study, five chapters, and an impressive appendix that includes some of Farrers correspondence and a bibliography of work by or on Farrer. Rather than begin straightaway with a narrative of Farrer s life and diving into primary texts, MacSwain dedicates his first two chapters to some stage setting. We are introduced to Farrer through considering the response to his work; this is a fitting way to anticipate the issues that will emerge later in arriving at a judicious interpretation of Farrers theology, epistemology, and his work on revelation. We are also able to recapture or (for younger readers) see for the first time the importance of Farrer in the mid-twentieth century on up through the 1970s.Getting into some of the details of MacSwain's narrative, the first chapter takes us into Farrer's work with attention to the perennial question that is often put in terms of the relationship of faith and reason. We see tension between those who are committed to some form of evidentialism, such as Basil Mitchell and Brian Hebblethwaite, and those who embrace a moderate form of fideism, such as John Hick, or a position that hovers on the borders of fideism, such as the position advanced by Diogenes Allen. Chapter 2 takes us into exploring the different forms of fideism that have significance historically and today. …