Editor’s Note

This issue of AJTP brings together a mix of scholars engaging classic theoretical questions and topics in American philosophy of religion (Johnson, Rohr, Verkamp) and scholars critically engaging the theological dimensions of our American politics of race and immigration (Pinn and Rivera). This mix also represents three generations of scholars: emerging scholars finishing their doctoral work, midcareer scholars at the top of their field, and an elder scholar publishing after his retirement. Johnson’s article takes up the question of whether pragmatism, in becoming a distinctive American philosophical tradition, has betrayed its Jamesian origins as a “method” for the resolution of philosophical dispute. Pinn’s article, which follows up on his 2018 AJTP lecture, interrogates the categories of “future” and “hope” in contemporary American theologies, categories that he takes to be unjustifiable in relation to the ongoing history, and current intensification, of antiblack racism in the United States. Rivera’s article analyzes, contextualizes, and deconstructs the theological underpinnings of the anti-immigrant rhetoric driving the Trumpian formation of the Republican party. Rohr’s article presents a bold critique of Robert Neville’s use of Peircean semiotics. And Verkamp’s essay traces Darwinian themes in Dewey’s work. We hope you enjoy this collection of articles!