The Face of God: The Gifford Lectures

Roger Scruton explores the place of God in a disenchanted world.

Roger Scruton presents a compelling argument in response to the growing atheist culture around us. His work is both a defence of human uniqueness and a rebuttal to the claim that there is no meaning or purpose in the natural world. He asserts that the sacred and the transcendental are 'real presences'—essential elements through which human beings come to know themselves, discover freedom, and find redemption.

Key Themes Explored:

• The human face as a paradigm of meaning
  Scruton argues that in the human face, we encounter profound meaning. From this experience, we construct both the face of the world and address the face of God. The face reveals the proof of our freedom and the mark of self-consciousness.
• The motivations of atheist culture
  One of the driving forces behind atheist culture, according to Scruton, is the desire to escape from the eye of judgement. This escape involves blotting out the face, a phenomenon Scruton finds deeply troubling. He connects this act to the sense of destruction we feel in modern times, where pleasure seeking and consumerism deface the world.

A Vision for a Consecrated World:

Scruton’s book defends a consecrated world against the pervasive habit of desecration. It offers a profound vision of the religious way of life as a source of guidance and resilience in a time of trial.