Belief and Metaphysics

'This is an exciting, distinguished and indeed brave volume on the relation between belief and metaphysics. The volume of twenty essays is exciting in that the points of entry to the question of relation and styles of discourse are so varied, whiles less-established voices are allowed to sound with the more established; it is distinguished not simply because of its many famous names, but because it unites in one volume analytical and continental philosophical approaches to the issue to the common purpose of retrieving yet also reconceiving metaphysics; and it is brave in that not only does it refuse to indulge the contemporary prejudice against metaphysics and the necessity for belief to forgo the comfort of relation, but brings to the surface postmodernity s own penchant for axiomatics and its containment of the religious by uncoupling it from metaphysical commitments. Cyril O Regan, Catherine F. Husking Professor of Theology, Department of Theology, Notre Dame