Antony Flew’s New Book

Antony Flew, famous English philosopher, has released a book entitled “There is a God” that charts his journey from atheism to theism. It reads quite a bit like a biography rather than a work of philosophy, but I was pleasantly surprised at the exposition of his former atheism (and, for that matter, the innovative atheistic arguments he created). He appears to be his best critic, and the reader is given a whirlwind tour of the history of his arguments and why he does not think they cut it. For the C.S. Lewis aficionado, he has some interesting anecdotes of his time in the Socratic Club- he appears to have taken the Socratic maxim of following the evidence where it leads to heart, and may have gleaned that from his time with Lewis.

While his story is certainly interesting, perhaps the best part of the book was not written by Flew. Roy Abraham Varghese wrote the first appendix, and in the space of a few pages offers a very compelling critique of the so-called New Atheists. Without commenting too much, it is interesting to see someone calling Dawkins out as a non-scientist charlatan.

The second appendix is a Question/Answer with the always fantastic N.T. Wright. As it is a condensed version of his usual resurrection stuff, we are treated to a summarization of his book Resurrection of the Son of God (to those familiar, a massive tome). It is interesting to me that Flew would include a section on the resurrection, especially while he remains committed to Aristotelean theism (read: non-Christianity).

All in all, this is a read for everyone. It is non-technical, so nearly anyone interested in religious themes could pick this one up and have a meaningful dive into one of our centuries brilliant minds.