Trust: Who or What Might Support Us? - Hardcover

By these particular studies of trust as related to society, nature and self, the author leads the reader to a conclusive and original study of trust in philosophy (existential wisdom) as distinct from Cartesian doubt to undergird scientia and to retrieve the traditional philosophical understanding of the centrality of trust for producing philosophy as sapientia (existential wisdom). -- -David Tracy * University of Chicago * "There are relatively few philosophers capable of producing a book like this one. Trust represents the work of a seasoned philosopher who has spent a lot of time thinking through the perennial and fundamental questions that persons interested in the pursuit of genuine wisdom must ask. It is a book that shows remarkable coherence, brevity, and depth." -- -Norman Wirzba * Duke Divinity School *

This phenomenological study begins by presenting trust as a characteristic form of interpersonal and communal relationship. In the second chapter, the scope is narrowed to someone's reliance on one or more trustworthy individuals. Chapters 3 to 5 explore specific aspects of trust, insofar as we confide in social structures or movements, the impersonal regularities and events of nature, or our own particular talents, motivations, and possibilities. In a world that is ravaged by the omnipresence of suffering and the most outrageous manifestations of evil, no philosopher can avoid the question of what kind of trust may be profound and strong enough to overcome the ultimate anxiety or despair that threatens all human existence. In the Western tradition of belief, thinking, faith, and searching for the first and ultimate, that question is approached here through reflection upon the radical difference between trust (or faith) in the universe (the totality) and faith (or trust) in God.