— Rabbi Aaron Segal, professor of Philosophy, Yeshiva University
I question whether a book will convince a non-believer. But life can teach us. A farmer told me that in the spring when color returns to the fields, baby sheep are born, creation resumes – one believes in G-d. Midrashim tell how Abraham realized there is one G-d through analyzing creation and the arc of history. Scientists have commented that the more one studies the intricacies of physics, mathematics, and biology, the more one recognizes there is a Creator. In Psalm 104 we read, “A person goes out to his task”; if it is meaningful, one experiences the next verse: “How great are Your works, Hashem.”
— Dr. Rivkah Blau, Torah educator for over five decades
I recommend How to Be an Atheist: Why Some Skeptics are Not Skeptical Enough by Mitch Stokes. [Editor’s note: This book is an attack on atheism, not a defense of it.]
— Peter van Inwagen, professor of Philosophy, Notre Dame University
Permission to Believe and Permission to Receive by Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen are excellent works from a more contemporary perspective. For those with greater skills and philosophical sophistication, I would suggest Seifer Ikkarim by Rav Yosef Albo, sections two and three. Finally, the Handbook of Jewish Thought (vol. 1) by Rav Aryeh Kaplan, although not fully addressing the issues of proving or confirming belief, nonetheless presents much important material in the chapters “Foundations,” “God,” and “Torah.”
— Rabbi Yakov Haber, teacher, Shapell’s/Darchei Noam and Sha’alvim for Women
1) God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism by Abraham Joshua Heschel; 2) Permission to Believe by Lawrence Kelemen; 3) The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis S. Collins; 4) The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning by Jonathan Sacks
— Rabbi Dov Greenberg, Chabad shliach, Stanford University
1) It’s odd to seek intellectual ammunition to strengthen your relationship to your intimates. G-d communicates with us through His relationship to the world, humanity, the Jewish people, the individual, and in the words of Torah.
The past 50 years have been a golden age for philosophy of religion – Alvin Plantinga, Peter van Inwagen, and others. The primary benefit of their efforts is to clear away confusions and misconceptions about religious belief. See my revered teacher R. Aharon Lichtenstein’s “The Source of Faith is Faith Itself” (and commentaries on him in Tradition, Winter 2015). Our best modern resources are those that present what it means to be engaged with the Ribbono shel Olam: my teacher R. Soloveitchik’s major publications, for many R. Kook, for some R. Hirsch.
2) Among recent efforts I recommend the Torat Etzion series on Chumash.
— Rabbi Shalom Carmy, professor of Bible and Jewish Philosophy, Yeshiva University