Joseph Haroutunian

Wisdom and Folly in Religion: a Study in Chastened Protestantism Joseph Haroutunian

Wisdom and Folly in Religion ''is addressed to all who have been unable to escape the tragic sense of life, to all who contemplate with fear and pity the lot of suffering, sinful man on the torn earth, and to all wrestlers with God. It speaks to and confirms our doubt in the efficacy of religion to save us from disaster; it is almost exuberantly iconoclastic in its attack on modern superstitions.
''But Haroutunian's iconoclasm is deeply religious. His anti-religion is like that of the prophets and his protest against contemporary religion is like that of the early Protestants. . . . The note of assurance, the confession of faith in divine sovereignty and in the forgiveness of sins are more moving and fundamental elements.
''The writer has gone far toward the accomplishment of two tasks which are but one for him. The first of these is the effort to make explicit and to interpret in Christian terms the implicit religious content of the modern mind. . . . The second task is that of stating afresh the faith of the Reformers which modern Protestantism sets forth in pale images when it does not pervert it.''

H. Richard Niebuhr from the preface