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Will Humanity Survive Religion?

Beyond Divisive Absolutes

W. Royce Clark

When the “human sciences” in the West followed the physical sciences in the 18th and 19th centuries with new measurements, methods, and language, the “metaphysics of infinity” lost its credibility. The response of Western religions was to retrench in a stronger authoritarianism, especially by the last half of the 19th century. While the new human sciences were being extended even to study the history and philosophy of religions, those religions themselves placed more emphasis on their understanding of the Absolute or Unquestionable. That split became a burden both to those who were religious and to those who were not.

Here, W. Royce Clark argues that humanity’s survival may depend on the development of a universal or inclusive ethic in which religions move beyond their Absolutes. Clark poses the sharp challenge: Are religious communities ready to abandon the foundations that until now they have insisted were the only adequate foundation for ethics?

Lexington Books / Fortress Academic

Pages: 552 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-9787-0855-6 • Hardback • June 2020 • $175.00 • (£135.00)

978-1-9787-0856-3 • eBook • June 2020 • $60.00 • (£46.00)

Subjects: Religion / Philosophy, Social Science / Sociology of Religion, Religion / History, Religion / Comparative Religion

Will Humanity Survive Religion?

Beyond Divisive Absolutes

Hardback

eBook

Summary

When the “human sciences” in the West followed the physical sciences in the 18th and 19th centuries with new measurements, methods, and language, the “metaphysics of infinity” lost its credibility. The response of Western religions was to retrench in a stronger authoritarianism, especially by the last half of the 19th century. While the new human sciences were being extended even to study the history and philosophy of religions, those religions themselves placed more emphasis on their understanding of the Absolute or Unquestionable. That split became a burden both to those who were religious and to those who were not.

Here, W. Royce Clark argues that humanity’s survival may depend on the development of a universal or inclusive ethic in which religions move beyond their Absolutes. Clark poses the sharp challenge: Are religious communities ready to abandon the foundations that until now they have insisted were the only adequate foundation for ethics?

Details

Lexington Books / Fortress Academic

Pages: 552 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-9787-0855-6 • Hardback • June 2020 • $175.00 • (£135.00)

978-1-9787-0856-3 • eBook • June 2020 • $60.00 • (£46.00)

Subjects: Religion / Philosophy, Social Science / Sociology of Religion, Religion / History, Religion / Comparative Religion

Author

W. Royce Clark is professor emeritus of Pepperdine University.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Considerations: The “Camel” Burdened with a Metaphysical Absolute

Chapter 1. Religion’s Divisive Burden as Absolutism in a Scientific and Pluralistic Age

Chapter 2. The Absolute’s Divisive Burden in Segregating Humanity

Chapter 3. Inflexible Faith in the Absolute: The Burden of the Loss of Self

Chapter 4. The Absolute and its Burden of Miracles, Mystery, and Authority

Chapter 5. Fantasy vs. Reality: The Burden of Reason’s Limits

Chapter 6. Inhumane Faith: The Burden of Death as Evil or as Divine Punishment

Chapter 7. The Burden of Religion’s Historical/Mythical Claims and the Slippage of Categories

Chapter 8. The “Ugly Ditch”: The Burden of Historical Data’s Dead End

Chapter 9. That Same “Ditch”: The Dead End of the Historical/Mythological

Chapter 10. The Greatest Burden “After Auschwitz”: The Dead End of God as a Historical Liberator

Chapter 11. Conclusion and Challenges

Reviews

In Will Humanity Survive Religion? Beyond Divisive Absolutes, W. Royce Clark confronts the burden borne by contemporary religious communities: the problem of reconciling scientific ways of understanding the world with the absolutist traditions inherited from the distant past. He does not confine his examination to the works of Western philosophers and theologians, but also uses insights gained from eastern religions, fictional literature, and even music theory. Among others, he analyzes the attempts of thinkers such as Crossan, Pannenberg, and Rubenstein to come to terms with the significance of ancient texts.

This is not a volume to ease the doubts of the doubter. It is a call to stimulate the seeker to find a universal ethic based on human relationships.
— Carolyn Hunter, emerita, Pepperdine University

This massive volume of philosophical theology is a rewarding intellectual journey of an age-old Hegelian dialectic: the relation between Absolute and Relative. To the ordinary reader, say a professing Christian, the challenge is an honest and scholarly attempt to understand one's own faith in a religious world that is divided by so many other truth-claims.

— Dan G. Danner, emeritus, University of Portland

Will Humanity Survive Religion?

Beyond Divisive Absolutes

W. Royce Clark

Will Humanity Survive Religion?

Beyond Divisive Absolutes

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