Reading Hume's Dialogues: A Veneration for True Religion

"... establishes the literary and philosophical greatness of the
Dialogues in ways that even its warmest admirers have been unable to do
before." -- Terence Penelhum

In this lively reading of David
Hume's Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, William Lad Sessions reveals a complex
internal hermeneutic that gives new form, structure, and meaning to the work.
Linking situations, character, style, and action to the philosophical concepts
presented, Sessions finds meaning contained in the work itself and calls attention
to the internal connections between plot, character, rhetoric, and philosophy. The
result avoids the main preoccupation of previous commentaries, namely, the attempt
to establish which of the main characters speaks for Hume. Concentrating on
previously unexplored questions of piety and theology, Sessions asks important
questions in the philosophy of religion today -- what is the nature of true
religion, what is the relationship between theology and piety, and how should we
actively engage with God?