Two Wings

Integrating Faith & Reason

This work arises out of the efforts of two college teachers to explain to their beginning students how believing and reasoning are two human activities that may be integrated to form a complete Christian view of human existence. Two Wings takes its title from the opening of John Paul II’s encyclical Fides et Ratio, which speaks of how the human spirit rises on the two wings of faith and reason to stretch toward truth.

The book offers a basic yet engaging encounter with traditional arguments for and against God’s existence, including such troubling topics as the question of evil and Christian belief. It also grapples in non-technical language with arguments arising from the encounter between contemporary natural science and traditional Christian theology. These chapters include accessible discussions of the implications of Big Bang cosmology, arguments from design, and Darwinian evolution. The final chapters of the book take up questions from ethics and politics that impact decisions on how we should structure our lives in light of the engagement between faith and reason.

This book is non-dogmatic; it seeks to probe and question the contours of the problems involved in the debate. It addresses arguments supporting and opposing its own viewpoint, and abounds in analogies designed to speak to non-specialists. Today even Christians who do not work in academic environments need to be familiar with such philosophical and theological arguments.

Two Wings provides the best available starting point for their efforts to engage with confidence the contemporary situation of Christian believers because it arises directly from the questions of the inquisitive.

Brian B. Clayton

Brian Clayton, Ph.D., is a Professor of Philosophy at Gonzaga University where he teaches the courses “Faith and Reason,” “C.S. Lewis,” “Walker Percy” and “J.R.R. Tolkien”. He has been Director of Gonzaga University’s Faith and Reason Institute since 2009. 

Douglas Lee Kries

Douglas Kries, Ph.D., is a Professor of Philosophy at Gonzaga University. He is the author of The Problem of Natural Law, and his essays have appeared in various journals including The Claremont Review of Books and The Review of Politics. 

Marketing & Publicity
  • Explains to a non-specialized audience how the two human activities of believing and reasoning can be integrated into a complete Christian worldview.
  • Written for intelligent non-specialists, showing why it is profitable for all reflective, thinking people who are at least interested in Christianity, even if they are not committed to it.
  • Shows how many of the arguments treated in the book would have to be considered by Jews and Muslims who are interested in the problem of faith and reason.