From Faith in Reason to Reason in Faith

Transformations in Philosophical Theology from the Eighteenth to Twentieth Centuries

Edited by Wayne Cristaudo and Heung-wah Wong

If the philosophers of the Enlightenment had hoped to establish, once and for all, that reason is the primary source of human orientation, twentieth century philosophy has demonstrated all too clearly that reason is far from having clear boundaries. In this respect, Immanuel Kant’s contemporaries and critics, Johann Georg Hamann and Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, look surprisingly modern. Faith is now increasingly recognized as intrinsic to social identity and thus no more capable of taking a permanently subordinate role to reason—whatever that may be—than reason is capable of an existence free from social embodiment. This collection of thirteen essays focuses upon major philosophical and theological debates from the past three hundred years. Written by leading international scholars, this remarkable text takes the reader through major transitions in the modern understanding of faith and reason. It thus provides an invaluable guide to the history of modern philosophical theology whilst informing readers why the relationship between faith and reason remains an issue of major social and philosophical importance.

University Press of America

Pages: 238 • Trim: 6 x 9¼

978-0-7618-5490-6 • Paperback • December 2011 • $48.99 • (£38.00)

Subjects: Religion / Philosophy, Philosophy / Essays, Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, Philosophy / Religious, Religion / Theology

From Faith in Reason to Reason in Faith

Transformations in Philosophical Theology from the Eighteenth to Twentieth Centuries

Paperback

Summary

If the philosophers of the Enlightenment had hoped to establish, once and for all, that reason is the primary source of human orientation, twentieth century philosophy has demonstrated all too clearly that reason is far from having clear boundaries. In this respect, Immanuel Kant’s contemporaries and critics, Johann Georg Hamann and Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, look surprisingly modern. Faith is now increasingly recognized as intrinsic to social identity and thus no more capable of taking a permanently subordinate role to reason—whatever that may be—than reason is capable of an existence free from social embodiment. This collection of thirteen essays focuses upon major philosophical and theological debates from the past three hundred years. Written by leading international scholars, this remarkable text takes the reader through major transitions in the modern understanding of faith and reason. It thus provides an invaluable guide to the history of modern philosophical theology whilst informing readers why the relationship between faith and reason remains an issue of major social and philosophical importance.

Details

University Press of America

Pages: 238 • Trim: 6 x 9¼

978-0-7618-5490-6 • Paperback • December 2011 • $48.99 • (£38.00)

Subjects: Religion / Philosophy, Philosophy / Essays, Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, Philosophy / Religious, Religion / Theology

Author

Wayne Cristaudo is the director of European studies at the University of Hong Kong. He has written and edited a dozen books, including Great Ideas in the Western Literary Canon (with Peter Poiana) and Power, Love and Evil: Contribution to a Philosophy of the Damaged. He is also the author of two forthcoming books: Religion, Redemption, and Revolution and A Philosophical History of Love.

Heung-wah Wong, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist and associate professor of Japanese studies at the University of Hong Kong. He has written numerous articles in leading scholarly journals and is the author and editor of a number of books, including the highly acclaimed Japanese Bosses, Chinese Workers. Wong is the series editor of Culture, Society, and Business in East Asia and the co-editor of St. Augustine: His Relevance and Legacy (with Wayne Cristaudo). His focuses lie in business, the pornographic culture in Asia, and creative industries in Asia.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Heung-wah Wong
Introduction
Wayne Cristaudo

1Faith and Reflexivity: Reflections on Language
and the “Semiotic Turn”
Christopher Hutton

2The Destructive Potential of the God of Reason (Reimarus)
Englehard Weigl

3The Material God in Diderot’s D’Alembert’s Dream
Miran Bozovic

4Anthropologist of Enlightenment: Purity, Pollution,
and Forbidden Mixtures in Hamann’s Metacriticism
Peter J. Leithart

5Hegel on Kant, Fichte, Jacobi:
Being Reasonable about Faith and Knowledge
Wayne Cristaudo

6Beyond Paradox:
Faith and Reason in the Thought of Søren Kierkegaard
Murray Rae

7Nature, Nurture and Nietzsche’s Faith in Life
Nalin Ranasinghe

8Reason and Faith:
A Comparison of Immanuel Kant and Albert Schweitzer
Predrag Cicovacki

9Faith and Reason: Shestov and Gilson
Mathew Del Nevo

10Karl Barth: Reason Beyond Autonomy?
Phillip Tolliday

11Consciousness and Transcendence:
Voegelin and Lonergan on the Reasonableness of Faith
Glenn Hughes

12Reason and Violence in Girard’s Mimetic Theory:
The Anthropology of the Cross
Robert Hamerton-Kelly

13The Spirit Has Reasons That Rationalists Cannot Fathom:
The Emergence of Christian Dao-ology
in Late Twentieth Century China
Lauren Pfister

Index
Contributors