The Mystery of Christian Faith: A Tangible Union with the Invisible God

by Paul Ungar

Overview

Since the time of bloody persecutions right up to the post-modern age, each historical period posed its particular challenge to Christianity. Psychologically, Christians' vitality in overcoming these challenges came primarily from what is perhaps the deepest mystery of faith itself—the believers' union with God. The postmodern positivist questions this mystery, and rejects the possibility of communication with a non-sensorial and therefore "non-existing" God. Agnostics proclaim, "One man's religion, is another's delusion." Therefore, the modern challenge for Christians is to explain how God, despite being invisible, is experientially present in the life of believers. Although the experience of living in a relationship with an invisible God is a profound one for Christians, it seems nonsensical to those who emphasize the primacy of sensory experience. Paul Ungar's extensive scholarly training equips him remarkably well to explore where, when, how, and through which psychological functions communication with the spiritual God factually occur. Ungar's The Mystery of Christian Faith: A Tangible Union with the Invisible God is an apologetic work on the borderline of theology, psychology and philosophy. It is written for Christian intellectuals regardless of their denominational background and rationally demonstrates what François Mauriac's hauntingly poetic expression, "Nothing is more alien than living in a Godless world, and nothing is closer to humans than God."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761839576
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	11/16/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	6.13(w) x 9.04(h) x 1.19(d)

About the Author

Paul Ungar holds an M.D., a Ph.D. and graduate degree in Theology. He has taught psychiatry, theology, and psychology at various universities. Currently he is in private practice, specializing in treatment of problems on the borderline of theology and psychology.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Preface
Part 2 Acknowledgement
Part 3 Who is God? – What are God's "Personal Characteristics" as they Emerge from a Biblical Description?
Chapter 4 Introductory Clarifications
Chapter 5 Concepts Preceding God's Self-Revelation
Chapter 6 Ideas of God's Personality in the Old Testament
Chapter 7 The Personality of God as Revealed by Jesus Christ
Chapter 8 Further Characteristics of God, the "Quite Other"
Chapter 9 God's Personality: Witnessing after Jesus' Ascension
Chapter 10 The Definition of God's Personality
Part 11 The Anthropological Characteristics that Enable Believers' Communication with the Biblical God
Chapter 12 The Problem Arising from God's Transcendence
Chapter 13 What Happened to Thomas?
Chapter 14 What Can We Establish from the Biblical Account of Thomas' Conversion?
Chapter 15 How Did Thomas Experience the Reality of Jesus' Resurrection?
Chapter 16 The "Missing Link" between Believers' Conscience and the Spiritual God
Chapter 17 Theologians' and Philosophers' Explanations
Chapter 18 Biblical Revelation about the Spirit, the Soul, and Conscience
Chapter 19 Conscience from an Experiential Perspective
Part 20 How Does the Genuine Seeker Psychologically Experience the Reality to Which the Bible Bears Witness?
Chapter 21 An Experiential Discernment of Faith
Chapter 22 Can the Human Mind Register That Which is Scientifically Immeasurable?
Chapter 23 The Concept of Transempirical Discernment
Chapter 24 The Epistemology of Faith: How Do We Know that We Have Faith?
Chapter 25 The Criteria for the Accuracy of Transempirical Recognition
Chapter 26 Transempirical Recognition of the Truth and Values
Chapter 27 Plurality in Discernment, Its Relevance to Faith Questions, and a New Chance for Ecumenism
Chapter 28 The Transempirical and Faith Dynamics in Religious Fanatics
Chapter 29 Are Non-Religious People Really Less Happy than People of Faith?
Chapter 30 Revisiting Thomas' Conversion
Part 31 Living in a Tangible Union with the Invisible God
Chapter 32 The Need for New Apologetics
Chapter 33 What Might We Understand by God's Call?
Chapter 34 God's Most Paradoxical Calls: Angst and Suffering
Chapter 35 A Paradoxical Pattern in the Personal Calls of Our Lord
Chapter 36 The Human Response to God's Call: When Does Mature Faith Begin?
Chapter 37 The Transempirically Experienced Presence of God in Mature Belief
Chapter 38 God's Personal Characteristics: His Love
Chapter 39 God's Personal Characteristics: "The Almighty, Eternal, and Ultimate"
Chapter 40 The Phenomenon of Jesus Christ: The Common Experience Behind the Biblical and the Transempirical
Chapter 41 Conclusion
Part 42 Bibliography
Part 43 Index
Part 44 About the Author