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Saving God: Religion after Idolatry. By Mark Johnston. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2009. 187 pp. $24.95 (cloth).
Do you believe in God? Are you sure? Mark Johnston - -religious naturalist, philosopher, and slayer of idols - advises you to think carefully before you answer. In the practices, and much of the traditions, of the three monotheistic religions, Johnston finds pervasive idol-worship. At its essence, the kind of idolatry about which Johnston writes is an attempt to manipulate the Divine. This manifests itself in various instrumentalist ways, involving placation and supplication in order to achieve the desired outcome. As a result, believing in God is less a belief state, Johnston says, than an accomplishment, and one that only happens by God's own self-revelation. The correct response to the query about whether one believes in God, Johnston says, is "I hope so."
Anthropomorphism, total human depravity, a pervasive idolatry - what is a Christian to do? Johnston finds that panentheism, based...