From Amazon
Umberto Eco is a famous scholar-novelist and Cardinal Martini is a famous scholar-bishop. Eco is an urbane ex-Catholic. Cardinal Martini is an urbane prince of the Church. This little book of eight chapters is a dialogue between them, first published by an Italian newspaper. Each author writes four alternating chapters addressing the hopes of humanity at the dawn of a new millennium, the question of the beginning of human life, the role of the Church and how we can know truth.
Belief or Non Belief is a good idea, but it suffers from a couple of problems. The format and content is too obviously re-cycled newspaper articles. While the engaging popular style is welcome, the necessary brevity of each chapter means arguments cannot be developed and the reader is left with a vague dissatisfaction. It would have been better if the authors had expanded the project. Both men write well in a sophisticated and polite Italian style that is entertaining at first, but soon sounds artificial to the English reader. Finally, there are some difficulties in translation: for example, "illumination" is used instead of "enlightenment" and "layman" is consistently used where it would be interpreted as "non-Catholic". Despite these criticisms, Belief or Non Belief is a sharp little book with the advantage of giving a fresh perspective on age-old questions. --Dwight Longenecker
Book Description
This volume is a dialogue on belief between Umberto Eco, an agnostic intellectual, and Cardinal Martini, Cardinal Archbishop of Milan. Topics discussed include: ethics without God, violence and intolerance, women in the church and when does life begin?
