How We Got to Where We Are

After an extended stretch of higher education, Dr. Duane Hix responded to the call of ordained ministry in the Presbyterian Church (USA). How We Got to Where We Are: Modernity, Postmodernism and Christian Faith is the combination of those two experiences. The book introduces astute laypersons, pastors, and students of religion to the interplay between philosophy and theology over the last 500 years. Focusing on underlying questions like how revelation and reason interact, Hix takes a reader-friendly approach to the changes in three primary themes: our understanding of freedom, history, and happiness. The book is comprehensive in its breadth, providing a useful introduction to epistemological questions, political implications and ethical dilemmas in the modern and postmodern world. "Duane Hix, Ph.D. clearly understands the power of critical ideas and how they have shaped the last five hundred years. But he also has a gift for making the interplay of philosophy and theology accessible to anyone interested in a serious response to the question, "How do we know what we know?" He has the mind of a highly skilled scholar and the heart of a pastor who has repeatedly climbed into a pulpit believing careful language about God matters for how we live."M. Craig BarnesPresidentPrinceton Theological Seminary