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T. Ryan Byerly, Faith, Flourishing, and Agnosticism, Oxford University Press, 2024, 224pp., $100.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780192865717.
Reviewed by Daniel Howard-Snyder, Western Washington University, and Daniel J. McKaughan, Boston College
Can someone whose evidence concerning the existence of God is ambiguous sensibly engage in God-directed behavior such as praising God, thanking God, displaying contrition and apologizing to God, accepting God’s love, and skillfully using a God-directed worldview? Faith, Flourishing, and Agnosticism, by T. Ryan Byerly, defends an affirmative answer. Those in such a position have reason to engage in such God-directed behavior since doing so can help them become more virtuous and contribute to their flourishing, even if God does not exist.
Byerly understands God as “the one who is the ultimate source of contingent reality, who loves each human person [at least] as much as anyone does, and who has benevolently bestowed each good in each human person’s life to them” (11). As…
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