God of Love and God of Reason

These homilies, lectures, and essays vigorously champion the author's conviction that it is reasonable to believe in a God of ""pure unbounded love"" and, also, that the best religion is a reasonable religion. That is, ""the God of Love"" is ""the God of Reason"" and, as a seventeenth-century Cambridge preacher put it, ""If you would be religious, be rational in your religion."" Thus, these essays challenge both the New Atheists and Fundamentalists, who are twins like Tweedledum and Tweedledee. And they aim, positively, to unpack the meaning and implications of Jesus' dictum: ""You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."" ""David Mason proceeds from two assumptions: that his listeners are too intelligent to be satisfied with spiritual platitudes, and that they are too humble to avoid challenging theological insights. Having been blessed for a decade in the hearing of his homilies, it is an equal blessing now to re-read them paired with his academic essays."" --Alan M. Gates, Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts ""David Mason eloquently expresses his rational faith in a personal and feeling fashion. He cares about a life-giving religion that makes sense to the contemporary critical mind. He spells it all out for us in a lyrical, even pastoral way, all the while respecting all healthy skepticism. This is the kind of writing and thinking that makes me want more."" --Ed Bacon, Rector, All Saints Church David R. Mason is Professor Emeritus of Theology and Religious Studies at John Carroll University in Cleveland. He was also, for forty years, priest associate at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He is the author of two books, Time and Providence (1982) and Something That Matters (2011), and numerous journal articles. David and his wife, Margaret, live in Pasadena, California.