Socrates in the City

Conversations on 'Life, God, and Other Small Topics'

By: Eric Metaxas (Editor)

Narrated by: Eric Metaxas

Following the extraordinary success of the New York Times best seller Bonhoeffer, Eric Metaxas’ latest book offers inspirational and intellectually rigorous thoughts about the great questions surrounding us all today.

The Greek philosopher Socrates famously said that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Taking this as a starting point, Eric Metaxas founded a speaking series that encouraged busy and successful professionals to attend forums and think actively about the bigger questions in life; thus Socrates in the City: Conversations on “Life, God, and Other Small Topics” was born.

This book is for the seeker in all of us, the collector of wisdom, and the person who asks, “What if?” Within this collection of original essays that were first given to standing-room-only crowds in New York City are serious thinkers taking on Life, God, Evil, Redemption, and other small topics. Luminaries such as Dr. Francis Collins, Sir John Polkinghorne, N. T. Wright, Os Guinness, and Peter Kreeft have written about extraordinary topics vital to both secular and Christian thinking, such as “Making Sense out of Suffering,” “Can an Atheist Be a Good Citizen?,” and “How Good Confronts Evil: Lessons from the Life and Death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” No question is too big—in fact, the bigger, the harder, the more complex the better. These essays are both thoughtprovoking and entertaining, because nowhere is it written that finding answers to life’s biggest questions shouldn’t be exciting and even, perhaps, fun.

©2011 Eric Metaxas (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Humor and introspection in almost equal measure.

I would encourage anyone who would like a brief respite from our shallow modern discourse to devour this book like the nourishing meal that it certainly is.

I wish I were there!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Absolutely! I very much enjoyed the thought provoking topics and rationale that was presented by most of the speakers. Unlike a print version of this "book," the audio version is actually digital recordings of guest speakers and short Q & A sessions that followed. I would love to hear additional speakers in a sequel. I would suggest that Eric edit his introductions. I very much have enjoyed Eric's books and have learned a lot about great leaders (I would recommend any of his books to you). However, before each speaker Eric spends nearly TEN full minutes introducing them and telling jokes. I appreciate a brief introduction so that I know the background of the speaker. A joke or two would be fine. However after the first few introductions I started skipping the intro all together (saving myself 10 minutes per speaker) and jumping right to the meat of the topic.

Great find

Thoughtful presentations with an unusually intelligent Q&A. A little too much vaudeville in the introductions which gives the impression of narcissism. However the ideas and the commitment of Metaxas is laudable as is his intellect. I thought his Luther was similarly a little to much of an attempt at “showing off” the author’s artistry and vocabulary which lead me to abandon the book by mid book. That said Metaxas’s work is to be appreciated and admired ,

Great lectures and Q&A

I wish the Q&A sessions weren't cut short. They could have omitted the lengthy introductions for each speaker to leave time for the Q&A sessions.

challenging, informative and refreshing

brilliant minds that challenge and encourage the listener. the final chapter is worth the price alone, but the entire book is simply a treasure for discussion and personal study.