The Persistence of the Sacred in Modern Thought
Publication Year: 2012
Published by: University of Notre Dame Press
Cover
Title Page, Copyright
Contents
Introduction
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pp. 1-14
The collection of essays to follow looks at the role of God in the work of major thinkers in modernity. The philosophers of this period are, by and large, not orthodox theists; they are freethinkers, emancipated . . .
Chapter 1: The Desecularization of Descartes
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pp. 15-37
It is striking that Descartes is not generally treated in the anglophone academy as a Christian philosopher, in the manner of Augustine, say, or Thomas Aquinas; indeed, he is generally presented in textbooks . . .
Chapter 2: Law and Self-Preservation in Leviathan
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pp. 38-65
Thomas Hobbes’s philosophy was by and large misunderstood by his critics in the second half of the seventeenth century.1 In this chapter I explain some of the principal sources for this misunderstanding and . . .
Chapter 3: The Religious Spinoza
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pp. 66-86
Perhaps no figure in the two-century history from Descartes through Hegel has been more thoroughly identified with secularization and atheism than Baruch de Spinoza. In Christian Europe, for almost a . . .
Chapter 4: God and Design in the Thought of Robert Boyle
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pp. 87-111
In the last half century, historians of early modern science have recognized the importance of the religious, indeed, the theological dimension to the thought of the natural philosophers or scientists of the late . . .
Chapter 5: God in Locke’s Philosophy
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pp. 112-148
To write about the role of God in Locke’s philosophy is to confront a daunting hermeneutical challenge. In what Locke says about God and God’s role in human existence, there are contradictions, ambiguities, . . .
Chapter 6: The Myth of the Clockwork Universe
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pp. 149-184
The myth of Newton’s clockwork universe is one of the most persis - tent and pervasive myths in the history of science, perhaps almost as widespread as the mistaken and essentialistic belief that the Galileo . . .
Chapter 7: Pierre Bayle
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pp. 185-208
The expression “complicated Protestant” needs some explaining. It comes from Antony McKenna’s response to the invitation from a certain university to speak on Pierre Bayle. McKenna had to decline but . . .
Chapter 8: Leibniz and the Augustinian Tradition
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pp. 209-250
Although Gottfried Leibniz professes a commitment to historical Christian theism, both the depth and orthodoxy of his commitment have been questioned throughout the past three centuries. Accusations . . .
Chapter 9: Hume’s Defense of True Religion
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pp. 251-272
On the back cover of the Oxford World’s Classics edition of David Hume’s Dialogues concerning Natural Religion and The Natural History of Religion we read that in these works is to be found . . .
Chapter 10: The Illegitimate Son
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pp. 273-299
Two interpretive bloodlines flow from the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The theologically positive bloodline, as Gordon Michalson characterizes it, “veer[s] off in the direction of constructive theological . . .
Chapter 11: The Reception and Legacy of J.G. Fichte’s Religionslehre
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pp. 300-318
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762– 1814) was an autumn child of the German Enlightenment, or Aufklärung. Educated to be a moderate theo - logian, persuaded to be a material determinist, and inclined to be a . . .
Chapter 12: Metaphysical Realism and Epistemological Modesty in Schleiermacher’s Method
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pp. 319-334
How are we to understand religion? It is undeniable that religion, and religious motivations, have played a very large role in shaping world events. As such, the question of how to understand religion has . . .
Chapter 13: Schelling’s Turn to Scripture
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pp. 335-351
F.W. J. Schelling (1775– 1851) is an unusual figure in this volume. He is significantly less well known and less read than his contemporaries Fichte and Hegel; there are thus fewer signs of the tendency, . . .
Chapter 14: Hegel and Secularization
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pp. 352-371
Secularizing interpretations of Hegel have arisen largely as a consequence of the professionalization of philosophy as a secular academic discipline and the concomitant rejection of metaphysics, including . . .
Chapter 15: Kierkegaard’s Critique of Secular Reason
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pp. 372-391
One stubborn perception among philosophers is that there is little of value in the explicitly Christian character of Søren Kierkegaard’s thinking.1 Those embarrassed by a Kierkegaardian view of Christian . . .
Contributors
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pp. 392-396
Index
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pp. 397-421
Back Cover
E-ISBN-13: 9780268079741
E-ISBN-10: 0268079749
Print-ISBN-13: 9780268029067
Print-ISBN-10: 0268029067
Page Count: 400
Illustrations: NA
Publication Year: 2012
