First, let's get the terrible subtitle out of the way. It wasn't Flew's own choice, and it's a piece of puffery that almost stands in the way of the book's value. Flew has probably never been regarded as a notorious atheist at the best of times (Richard Dawkins is a much more likely candidate for the title).
Flew is a philosopher, and has been for around fifty years. His father was a Methodist minister, but Flew lost his faith in his teens, and never returned to it. What he didn't lose was his sense of integrity, and his determination to follow an argument through to its logical conclusion - even if it meant giving up long-held beliefs. Flew has been debating with God-believers for two or three decades, but it's not his sole reason for existence. He's a philosopher in the best sense in that he thinks about big questions in all sorts of fields.
In the book he explains in some detail how he came to the conclusion that there is a God, and then sets out his arguments clearly. It's the clarity of this book (which could have been philosophically dense) that makes it so good. I'm no philosopher, but overall I found I could understand the arguments almost entirely. (A few points slipped past me, but that's fine - sometimes philosophers don't even understand each other.)
The book is written in conjunction with Roy Abraham Varghese, an Indian-born philosopher who has written a number of books on the interface between science and God. Varghese contributes a clear and substantial introduction to the book, as well as a critical appraisal of Dawkins and four other popular atheists in one of the appendices. The other appendix is by N T Wright, the English Anglican scholar and writer, who looks at the evidence for the Resurrection.
Apart from enjoying the sense of generosity Flew brings to the book, it was an eye-opener for me to see that philosophy doesn't just exist in two opposing camps, the way Dawkins and others might lead us to conclude. The philosophers mentioned in the book may vary hugely in their understandings, but for the most part they're men who are willing to put aside their own biases, and think through issues at the deepest levels.
I haven't been so excited by a book in a long time.
