Books by Nicholas Adams
Eclipse of Grace offers original insights into the roots of modern theology by introducing system... more Eclipse of Grace offers original insights into the roots of modern theology by introducing systematic theologians and Christian ethicists to Hegel through a focus on three of his seminal texts: Phenomenology of Spirit, Science of Logic, and Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion.
How can the world's religious traditions debate within the public sphere? In this book Nicholas A... more How can the world's religious traditions debate within the public sphere? In this book Nicholas Adams shows the importance of Habermas' approaches to this question. The full range of Habermas' work is considered, with detailed commentary on the more difficult texts. Adams energetically rebuts some of Habermas' arguments, particularly those which postulate the irrationality or stability of religious thought. Members of different religious traditions need to understand their own ethical positions as part of a process of development involving ongoing disagreements, rather than a stable unchanging morality. Public debate additionally requires learning each other's patterns of disagreement. Adams argues that rather than suspending their deep reasoning to facilitate debate, as Habermas suggests, religious traditions must make their reasoning public, and that 'scriptural reasoning' is a possible model for this. Habermas overestimates the stability of religious traditions. This book offers a more realistic assessment of the difficulties and opportunities they face.
Books (Edited) by Nicholas Adams
The Impact of Idealism Volume 4: Religion, Oct 2013
"There are three headings under which we might consider the impact of Idealism on religion. The f... more "There are three headings under which we might consider the impact of Idealism on religion. The first concerns those areas of intellectual enquiry where the impact of Idealism is well understood in general, even if the particularities are not often in view. The second concerns those areas where the patterns of thinking are familiar, but their debts to Idealism are less often noticed. The third concerns those developments that display the impact of Idealism but are much less familiar.
The first strand, where the impact of Idealism is familiar, include the doctrines of Christology and of the Trinity, in particular, and the transmission of idealist thought through various major theological figures in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The second strand, where the patterns of thinking are familiar but the debts to Idealism are less often noticed, include developments in hermeneutics, in the relation between unity and plurality, in radical orthodoxy and non-realist theology, and in the conflict between faith and reason. These are familiar topics in theology and are central to a variety of intellectual strategies in contemporary thought. The impact of Idealism on their development and modes of expression are less often remarked; essays in this section lay special emphasis on this impact. The third strand, where the impact of Idealism is obvious when one investigates certain topics but the topics themselves are less familiar include the development of themes in Jewish philosophy, the rise of the category of ‘myth’ and some aspects of theology in the twentieth century.
The pattern followed in general by the essays is broadly tripartite. First, they establish how the topic in view is handled by particular post-Kantian figures. Second, they give some account of how this thinking is transmitted (or fails to be transmitted) through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Third, they suggest ways in which contemporary thinking displays the impact (or the lack of impact) of Idealism.
VOLUME IV: RELIGION
CONTENTS
Introduction: The Impact of Idealism on Religion
Nicholas Adams, University of Edinburgh
The Impact of Idealism on Christology from Hegel to Tillich
Martin Wendte, University of Tübingen
German Idealism’s Trinitarian Legacy: The Nineteenth Century
Dale Schlitt, Oblate School of Theology
German Idealism’s Trinitarian Legacy: The Twentieth Century
Dale Schlitt, Oblate School of Theology
Kierkegaard, Hegelianism and the Theology of the Paradox
Joel D. S. Rasmussen, University of Oxford
Biblical Hermeneutics from Kant to Gadamer
Nicholas Boyle, University of Cambridge
Aesthetic Idealism and Its Relation to Theological Formation: Reception and Critique
Cyril O’Regan, University of Notre Dame
The Autonomy of Theology, the Moment of Hegel and the Impact of German Idealism
John Walker, Birkbeck, University of London
Faith and Reason
Nicholas Adams, University of Edinburgh
Rabbinic Idealism and Kabbalistic Realism: Jewish Dimensions of Idealism and Idealist Dimensions of Judaism
Paul Franks, Yale University
‘In the Arms of Gods’: Schelling, Hegel and the Problem of Mythology
George S. Williamson, Florida State University
Dialectic and Analogy: A Theological Legacy
Rowan Williams, University of Cambridge"
Oxford Handbook of Theology and Modern European Thought, Mar 2013
"Modern European thought' describes a wide range of philosophies, cultural programmes, and politi... more "Modern European thought' describes a wide range of philosophies, cultural programmes, and political arguments developed in Europe in the period following the French Revolution. Throughout this period, many of the wide range of 'modernisms' (and anti-modernisms) had a distinctly religious and even theological character-not least when religion was subjected to the harshest criticism. Yet for all the breadth and complexity of modern European thought and, in particular, its relations to theology, a distinct body of themes and approaches recurred in each generation. Moreover, many of the issues that took intellectual shape in Europe are now global, rather than narrowly European, and, for good or ill, they form part of Europe's bequest to the world-from colonialism and the economic theories behind globalisation through to democracy to terrorism. This volume attempts to identify and comment on some of the most important of these.
The thirty chapters are grouped into six thematic parts, moving from questions of identity and the self, through discussions of the human condition, the age of revolution, the world (both natural and technological), and knowledge methodologies, concluding with a section looking explicitly at how major theological themes have developed in modern European thought. The chapters engage with major thinkers including Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Schleiermacher, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Barth, Rahner, Tillich, Bonhoeffer, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Wittgenstein, and Derrida, amongst many others. Taken together, these new essays provide a rich and reflective overview of the interchange between theology, philosophy and critical thought in Europe, over the past two hundred years.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Part I: Identity
1: Clare Carlisle: The Self and the Good life
2: Stephen Backhouse: Community (1) The Nation
3: Graham Ward: Community (2): The City
4: Pamela Anderson: The Other
5: Steven Shakespeare: Language
6: Daphne Hampson: Freedom
Part II: The Human Condition
7: John Hughes: Work and Labour
8: Paul Fiddes: Suffering
9: George Pattison: Death
10: Jennifer Geddes: Evil
11: Werner Jeanrond: Love
Part III: The Age of Revolution
12: Luke Brotherton: Sovereignty
13: Tracey Rowland: Tradition
14: Judith Wolfe: Messianism
15: Connor Cunningham: Nihilism
16: Douglas Hedley: Sacrifice
17: Stanley Hauerwas: War and Peace
Part IV: The World
18: Michael Gillespie: Radical Philosophy and Political Theology
19: Gordon Graham: Nature
20: Ross Wilson: The Sublime and the Beautiful
21: Arne Grøn: Time and History
22: David Lewin: Technology
Part V: Ways of Knowing
23: Johannes Zachhuber: Wissenschaft
24: Jim Fodor: Hermeneutics
25: Merold Westphal: Phenomenology
26: William Desmond: The Metaphysics of Modernity
Part VI: Theology
27: Nicholas Adams: The Bible
28: David Law: Incarnation
29: David Brown: Sacramentality
30: Simeon Zahl: Atonement
31: David Fergusson: Eschatology and Providence"
Papers on Philosophy/Theology by Nicholas Adams
The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 2017
Wo to thee Town of Cambridge, thy wickedness surmounteth the wickedness of Sodom; therefore repen... more Wo to thee Town of Cambridge, thy wickedness surmounteth the wickedness of Sodom; therefore repent whilst thou hast time , lest I consume thee with fire, as I have done it ; therefore harden not your hearts , lest I consume you and my wrath burn like fire, and I consume you in my fierce angers and so be brought to nought; for thou hast joyned hands with thy sister Jerusalem; therefore will I uncover thy
Ford's Modern Theologians
A historically informed account of the relationship between philosophy and theology in Europe in ... more A historically informed account of the relationship between philosophy and theology in Europe in the period after the First World War.
Signs of Salvation, 2021
An homage to the Jewish Philosopher Peter Ochs. The main argument is that a shift from 'positions... more An homage to the Jewish Philosopher Peter Ochs. The main argument is that a shift from 'positions' to 'tendencies' enables a more significant shift from wholesale adoption or refusal of arguments to a more differentiated discernment between errant and incomplete arguments. The effect is to enable repair of arguments more than assent or rejection. A complementary argument to the paper 'Mitigating Theological Disputes' (https://www.academia.edu/45566747/Mitigating_Theological_Disputes_Collingwoods_Question_and_Answer)
A pre-publication draft for the volume Signs of Salvation, edited by Mark James and Randi Rashkover
The field ‘religion and international relations’ is well-established within the discipline of IR.... more The field ‘religion and international relations’ is well-established within the discipline of IR. It marks a new (largely twenty-first century) set of interdiscipinary engagements, bringing together political science and the sociology of religion. ‘Religion and IR’ and ‘Religious Studies’ continue to conduct their business independently, in different conferences, journals and book series, but their interests increasingly overlap. This enquiry interprets religion and IR as a ‘turn to the local’. This is displayed in its concern with concerns with events at the local level that have significance that travels up the scale of ‘levels of analysis’ to events that have international significance. The turn to the local offers compelling arguments for shifting the focus in IR away from states and on to relations between local, national, and international actors. Engaging here with influential works in religion and IR published over the last fifteen years, it is argued here that it is the turn to the local offers the most scope for collaboration between scholars of religion and IR and scholars in theology and religious studies.
Timothy Jenkins is a master taxonomist. This involves constructing his own taxonomies-a kind of h... more Timothy Jenkins is a master taxonomist. This involves constructing his own taxonomies-a kind of hobby for him as well as a professional interest-but it also involves investigating and probing the taxonomies of others. It is a characteristic move in his analyses of others' work to prod and manipulate their taxonomies before considering whether their claims have merit. Faced with a claim that 'S is P', Tim tends to suspend the question as to whether S is indeed P and observes instead, that in this case it is supposed that there are such subjects as S and such predicates as P. Things get out of hand for his opponents rather quickly, for he moves immediately to observe that not only are there supposed to be such subjects as S and such predicates as P, but that it is supposed that there are such kinds of subject as S represents, and such kinds of predicate as P represents. But are there such kinds? If there are, then some kind of taxonomy is at work, and it will profit the interpreter, he suggests, to bring to light what that taxonomy is. But it may well be that this taxonomy is a brittle or frail thing, and where that is so, Tim's characteristic pastoral response is to offer an alternative that might prove more durable. In this he shows himself to be a philosopher of anthropology (just as there are philosophers of hisory and philosophers of religion).
Karl Barth was both appreciative and critical of Hegel. He was appreciative of Hegel’s bold insis... more Karl Barth was both appreciative and critical of Hegel. He was appreciative of Hegel’s bold insistence that knowledge of God is at the heart of philosophy, and of Hegel’s challenge to the theology of his time that it was too timid. He was critical of Hegel’s philosophy for bringing human and divine subjectivity too close together, for reconciling the dualism between thinking and being on the side of thinking, and for producing an account of the absolute concept which dissolves all contradictions. In this essay I argue that Barth’s theological instincts obstruct his appreciation for some of Hegel’s key insights – insights to which Barth himself draws attention. I also demonstrate that Hegel and Barth were in key respects asking different questions. If one poses Barth’s questions and gives Hegel’s answers, one has indeed a monstrous theology; but equally to pose Hegel’s questions and give Barth’s answers yields an impoverished philosophy
Philosophy has often served the public good. It has arguably done so when it is pursued within a ... more Philosophy has often served the public good. It has arguably done so when it is pursued within a specific discipline (economics, politics, law, religion). I offer the example of the 'philosophy of theology' (by analogy with 'philosophy of history') and provide intellectual and institutional arguments about how it might be a model for philosophy undertaken for the public good.
This paper explores some uncertainties arising from the question of what theology might contribut... more This paper explores some uncertainties arising from the question of what theology might contribute to social anthropology. It offers reflections on the proposal by Joel Robbins in ‘Theology and Anthropology: An Awkward Relationship’ (2006) and contrasts its approach with some recent work by Timothy Jenkins. I read both anthropologists as bearers of the legacy of GWF Hegel (1770-1831). Robbins and Jenkins are described here as reprising Hegel’s account of the struggle of Enlightenment against superstition, but in different ways.
A response to criticisms offered at a panel session at the American Academy of Religion in 2014. ... more A response to criticisms offered at a panel session at the American Academy of Religion in 2014. Papers by Randi Rashkover, Molly Farneth and Mark James proposed a more robust Hegelianism. This is my response. The papers and my response are published by the Journal of Scriptural Reasoning (http://jsr.shanti.virginia.edu/)
Hegel's remarks on China are well-known. Had he considered art in China, some of his judgements w... more Hegel's remarks on China are well-known. Had he considered art in China, some of his judgements would have been modified (on his own terms); but his 'structural trinitarianism' would not have been challenged.
Hegel offers an interpretation of Genesis 1-3 in his /Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion/. I... more Hegel offers an interpretation of Genesis 1-3 in his /Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion/. It is a model for how philosophy maps the shape of reasoning exhibited in scripture, and is notable for its use of pairs of terms. (A draft contribution to a forthcoming volume of essays devoted to classical philosophers' readings of passages of scripture.)
Blackwell Companion to Nineteenth Century Theology (ed. David Fergusson, Oxford: Blackwell, 2011), 2010
"""'I had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith’ (Critique of Pure Reason B xxx).1 Th... more """'I had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith’ (Critique of Pure Reason B xxx).1 This remark, taken from the preface to the second version of the Critique of Pure Reason, is one of Kant’s most famous. The philosophy of Immanuel Kant (17241804) has unparalleled significance for the theology and philosophy of the nineteenth century and beyond. The roles of knowledge and faith are central to that philosophy, a fact that until recently was heavily downplayed by philosophers who investigated epistemology and ethics in ways that ignored theological and historical questions. In this article, Kant’s philosophy will be presented in ways that make his theological commitments explicit, in two sections. The first section will sketch the shape of Kant’s thinking, and the second will present some of the technical arguments in relation to what are known technically as his theoretical, practical and aesthetic philosophy. These divisions will be explained in due course.
Theologians continue to be interested in Kant today because he transforms certain questions inherited from his predecessors, especially those related to clarifying types of investigation, a shift from intuition to discursive reasoning, his attempt to offer a ‘rational’ account of respectable habits of thought and action, exploring the character of human freedom, and reconceiving the relation of philosophy to theology. Kant’s influence extends far beyond his significance for particular subsequent individual thinkers. His thought has left its mark on the shape of the modern state, not least the university, and the place of religious life and theological reflection within it.""
The Impact of Idealism Volume 4: Religion (ed. Nicholas Adams, Cambridge: CUP, 2013, forthcoming), Oct 2013
This essay has as its focus Hegel’s contribution to our contemporary thinking about the relation ... more This essay has as its focus Hegel’s contribution to our contemporary thinking about the relation between theology and philosophy, through an engagement with two of his most fascinating discussions. The first is his account of ‘the Enlightenment struggle against superstition’ in the Phenomenology of Spirit; the second is his retrieval of Anselm’s ontological argument in the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion. This discussion exhibits in some ways a curious lack of impact of idealism in contemporary thinking, in an area where Hegel has a distinctive and compelling – yet unfulfilled – contribution to make.
Theology and Philosophy (ed. Oliver Crisp, Gavin D'Costa, Mervyn Davies, Peter Hampson, London: T&T Clark, 2011), 2011
The purpose of this essay is to describe some of the ways in which Hegel’s philosophy can serve c... more The purpose of this essay is to describe some of the ways in which Hegel’s philosophy can serve contemporary theology. It is not concerned with Hegel’s relations to his own theological tradition, nor with Hegel’s own inventive recasting of central themes in theology, notably the concepts of God, Spirit, Trinity and the idea of evil. These are important, indeed central, topics that any theological account of Hegel must satisfactorily address. What follows is not a theological account of Hegel. I take it as generally agreed by the majority of Hegel’s interpreters that his own theology diverges significantly, but implicitly and probably unintentionally, from orthodox Christian doctrine, and that for this reason his theology (as opposed to the tools his philosophy offers to theology) is less relevant to the concerns displayed in this collection of essays. Those concerns (which Hegel shared too to a degree) presuppose a fidelity to doctrine, conceived within western broadly Catholic and Protestant tradition. The aim here is narrow. I leave to one side evaluations of Hegel’s explicit treatment of doctrinal themes, and present those aspects of his philosophical approach that can serve a doctrinally oriented theology today.
This is the intro essay for the forthcoming CUP volume /The Impact of Idealism Volume 4: Religion... more This is the intro essay for the forthcoming CUP volume /The Impact of Idealism Volume 4: Religion/. It introduces the essays and includes some substantial discussion of atheism and evil.
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Books by Nicholas Adams
Books (Edited) by Nicholas Adams
The first strand, where the impact of Idealism is familiar, include the doctrines of Christology and of the Trinity, in particular, and the transmission of idealist thought through various major theological figures in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The second strand, where the patterns of thinking are familiar but the debts to Idealism are less often noticed, include developments in hermeneutics, in the relation between unity and plurality, in radical orthodoxy and non-realist theology, and in the conflict between faith and reason. These are familiar topics in theology and are central to a variety of intellectual strategies in contemporary thought. The impact of Idealism on their development and modes of expression are less often remarked; essays in this section lay special emphasis on this impact. The third strand, where the impact of Idealism is obvious when one investigates certain topics but the topics themselves are less familiar include the development of themes in Jewish philosophy, the rise of the category of ‘myth’ and some aspects of theology in the twentieth century.
The pattern followed in general by the essays is broadly tripartite. First, they establish how the topic in view is handled by particular post-Kantian figures. Second, they give some account of how this thinking is transmitted (or fails to be transmitted) through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Third, they suggest ways in which contemporary thinking displays the impact (or the lack of impact) of Idealism.
VOLUME IV: RELIGION
CONTENTS
Introduction: The Impact of Idealism on Religion
Nicholas Adams, University of Edinburgh
The Impact of Idealism on Christology from Hegel to Tillich
Martin Wendte, University of Tübingen
German Idealism’s Trinitarian Legacy: The Nineteenth Century
Dale Schlitt, Oblate School of Theology
German Idealism’s Trinitarian Legacy: The Twentieth Century
Dale Schlitt, Oblate School of Theology
Kierkegaard, Hegelianism and the Theology of the Paradox
Joel D. S. Rasmussen, University of Oxford
Biblical Hermeneutics from Kant to Gadamer
Nicholas Boyle, University of Cambridge
Aesthetic Idealism and Its Relation to Theological Formation: Reception and Critique
Cyril O’Regan, University of Notre Dame
The Autonomy of Theology, the Moment of Hegel and the Impact of German Idealism
John Walker, Birkbeck, University of London
Faith and Reason
Nicholas Adams, University of Edinburgh
Rabbinic Idealism and Kabbalistic Realism: Jewish Dimensions of Idealism and Idealist Dimensions of Judaism
Paul Franks, Yale University
‘In the Arms of Gods’: Schelling, Hegel and the Problem of Mythology
George S. Williamson, Florida State University
Dialectic and Analogy: A Theological Legacy
Rowan Williams, University of Cambridge"
The thirty chapters are grouped into six thematic parts, moving from questions of identity and the self, through discussions of the human condition, the age of revolution, the world (both natural and technological), and knowledge methodologies, concluding with a section looking explicitly at how major theological themes have developed in modern European thought. The chapters engage with major thinkers including Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Schleiermacher, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Barth, Rahner, Tillich, Bonhoeffer, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Wittgenstein, and Derrida, amongst many others. Taken together, these new essays provide a rich and reflective overview of the interchange between theology, philosophy and critical thought in Europe, over the past two hundred years.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Part I: Identity
1: Clare Carlisle: The Self and the Good life
2: Stephen Backhouse: Community (1) The Nation
3: Graham Ward: Community (2): The City
4: Pamela Anderson: The Other
5: Steven Shakespeare: Language
6: Daphne Hampson: Freedom
Part II: The Human Condition
7: John Hughes: Work and Labour
8: Paul Fiddes: Suffering
9: George Pattison: Death
10: Jennifer Geddes: Evil
11: Werner Jeanrond: Love
Part III: The Age of Revolution
12: Luke Brotherton: Sovereignty
13: Tracey Rowland: Tradition
14: Judith Wolfe: Messianism
15: Connor Cunningham: Nihilism
16: Douglas Hedley: Sacrifice
17: Stanley Hauerwas: War and Peace
Part IV: The World
18: Michael Gillespie: Radical Philosophy and Political Theology
19: Gordon Graham: Nature
20: Ross Wilson: The Sublime and the Beautiful
21: Arne Grøn: Time and History
22: David Lewin: Technology
Part V: Ways of Knowing
23: Johannes Zachhuber: Wissenschaft
24: Jim Fodor: Hermeneutics
25: Merold Westphal: Phenomenology
26: William Desmond: The Metaphysics of Modernity
Part VI: Theology
27: Nicholas Adams: The Bible
28: David Law: Incarnation
29: David Brown: Sacramentality
30: Simeon Zahl: Atonement
31: David Fergusson: Eschatology and Providence"
Papers on Philosophy/Theology by Nicholas Adams
A pre-publication draft for the volume Signs of Salvation, edited by Mark James and Randi Rashkover
Theologians continue to be interested in Kant today because he transforms certain questions inherited from his predecessors, especially those related to clarifying types of investigation, a shift from intuition to discursive reasoning, his attempt to offer a ‘rational’ account of respectable habits of thought and action, exploring the character of human freedom, and reconceiving the relation of philosophy to theology. Kant’s influence extends far beyond his significance for particular subsequent individual thinkers. His thought has left its mark on the shape of the modern state, not least the university, and the place of religious life and theological reflection within it.""
The first strand, where the impact of Idealism is familiar, include the doctrines of Christology and of the Trinity, in particular, and the transmission of idealist thought through various major theological figures in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The second strand, where the patterns of thinking are familiar but the debts to Idealism are less often noticed, include developments in hermeneutics, in the relation between unity and plurality, in radical orthodoxy and non-realist theology, and in the conflict between faith and reason. These are familiar topics in theology and are central to a variety of intellectual strategies in contemporary thought. The impact of Idealism on their development and modes of expression are less often remarked; essays in this section lay special emphasis on this impact. The third strand, where the impact of Idealism is obvious when one investigates certain topics but the topics themselves are less familiar include the development of themes in Jewish philosophy, the rise of the category of ‘myth’ and some aspects of theology in the twentieth century.
The pattern followed in general by the essays is broadly tripartite. First, they establish how the topic in view is handled by particular post-Kantian figures. Second, they give some account of how this thinking is transmitted (or fails to be transmitted) through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Third, they suggest ways in which contemporary thinking displays the impact (or the lack of impact) of Idealism.
VOLUME IV: RELIGION
CONTENTS
Introduction: The Impact of Idealism on Religion
Nicholas Adams, University of Edinburgh
The Impact of Idealism on Christology from Hegel to Tillich
Martin Wendte, University of Tübingen
German Idealism’s Trinitarian Legacy: The Nineteenth Century
Dale Schlitt, Oblate School of Theology
German Idealism’s Trinitarian Legacy: The Twentieth Century
Dale Schlitt, Oblate School of Theology
Kierkegaard, Hegelianism and the Theology of the Paradox
Joel D. S. Rasmussen, University of Oxford
Biblical Hermeneutics from Kant to Gadamer
Nicholas Boyle, University of Cambridge
Aesthetic Idealism and Its Relation to Theological Formation: Reception and Critique
Cyril O’Regan, University of Notre Dame
The Autonomy of Theology, the Moment of Hegel and the Impact of German Idealism
John Walker, Birkbeck, University of London
Faith and Reason
Nicholas Adams, University of Edinburgh
Rabbinic Idealism and Kabbalistic Realism: Jewish Dimensions of Idealism and Idealist Dimensions of Judaism
Paul Franks, Yale University
‘In the Arms of Gods’: Schelling, Hegel and the Problem of Mythology
George S. Williamson, Florida State University
Dialectic and Analogy: A Theological Legacy
Rowan Williams, University of Cambridge"
The thirty chapters are grouped into six thematic parts, moving from questions of identity and the self, through discussions of the human condition, the age of revolution, the world (both natural and technological), and knowledge methodologies, concluding with a section looking explicitly at how major theological themes have developed in modern European thought. The chapters engage with major thinkers including Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Schleiermacher, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Barth, Rahner, Tillich, Bonhoeffer, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Wittgenstein, and Derrida, amongst many others. Taken together, these new essays provide a rich and reflective overview of the interchange between theology, philosophy and critical thought in Europe, over the past two hundred years.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Part I: Identity
1: Clare Carlisle: The Self and the Good life
2: Stephen Backhouse: Community (1) The Nation
3: Graham Ward: Community (2): The City
4: Pamela Anderson: The Other
5: Steven Shakespeare: Language
6: Daphne Hampson: Freedom
Part II: The Human Condition
7: John Hughes: Work and Labour
8: Paul Fiddes: Suffering
9: George Pattison: Death
10: Jennifer Geddes: Evil
11: Werner Jeanrond: Love
Part III: The Age of Revolution
12: Luke Brotherton: Sovereignty
13: Tracey Rowland: Tradition
14: Judith Wolfe: Messianism
15: Connor Cunningham: Nihilism
16: Douglas Hedley: Sacrifice
17: Stanley Hauerwas: War and Peace
Part IV: The World
18: Michael Gillespie: Radical Philosophy and Political Theology
19: Gordon Graham: Nature
20: Ross Wilson: The Sublime and the Beautiful
21: Arne Grøn: Time and History
22: David Lewin: Technology
Part V: Ways of Knowing
23: Johannes Zachhuber: Wissenschaft
24: Jim Fodor: Hermeneutics
25: Merold Westphal: Phenomenology
26: William Desmond: The Metaphysics of Modernity
Part VI: Theology
27: Nicholas Adams: The Bible
28: David Law: Incarnation
29: David Brown: Sacramentality
30: Simeon Zahl: Atonement
31: David Fergusson: Eschatology and Providence"
A pre-publication draft for the volume Signs of Salvation, edited by Mark James and Randi Rashkover
Theologians continue to be interested in Kant today because he transforms certain questions inherited from his predecessors, especially those related to clarifying types of investigation, a shift from intuition to discursive reasoning, his attempt to offer a ‘rational’ account of respectable habits of thought and action, exploring the character of human freedom, and reconceiving the relation of philosophy to theology. Kant’s influence extends far beyond his significance for particular subsequent individual thinkers. His thought has left its mark on the shape of the modern state, not least the university, and the place of religious life and theological reflection within it.""
The first section considers the work of Hegel and Schleiermacher, and connects aspects of their philosophies to issues in Biblical interpretation. Hegel’s contribution to a range of topics is vast: here one small part will be treated, namely, the relation between ‘representation’ and ‘conceptual thinking’. Schleiermacher’s development of hermeneutics deserves its own essay as a contribution to theology and modern European thought. The remarks here will be restricted to the relation between the rule-bound nature of language and the spontaneous nature of the language-user, which come together in style and interpretation.
The second section considers three classic essays on the Bible (one German, one French and one English) by Strauss, Renan and Jowett. These essays articulate significant nineteenth-century cultural contradictions vis-à-vis the Bible, many of which persist in our own time. These include the increasing specialisation and professional expertise that is brought to bear on the Bible by scholars, and the increasing distance between scholars and laypersons that is a consequence of this; it also includes various failed attempts to find a single intellectual framework within which to place historical-critical inquiries into the plain sense of scripture, on the one hand, and into habitable narratives for worship, on the other, usually with the consequence that narrative is eclipsed (to echo Hans Frei’s felicitous phrase) in favour of the plain sense.
The third section considers two contrasting influential twentieth century approaches to the Bible: Barth’s expressionist commentary on Romans and Bultmann’s existentialist programme of ‘demythologization’."
I argue in this paper that Schelling turns to scripture in order to repair certain deficiencies in modern philosophy. These include the failure of modern philosophy to account for freedom and the tendency of modern philosophy to reduce life to what can be stated in concepts."
http://us.macmillan.com/muslimandchristianunderstanding"
The task we have set ourselves is not easy, however. Barth’s ‘ethics is dogmatics’ approach is far from straightforward. His idea that ethics is best understood as ‘a special elucidation of the doctrine of sanctification’, and that a general (philosophical) conception of ethics ‘coincides exactly with the conception of sin’ is not quickly explained. Saying something intelligent about Foucault’s ‘ethics is ethnography’ method (as we shall characterise it) is hazardous, because to summarise his approach theoretically is rather obviously to miss its point and to give an account of it in the very terms it rejects. The first and second parts of this article will nevertheless try to do justice to some of their insights about ethics and suggest what can be learned from them. The third and fourth parts will attempt to do what the previous sections advertise: describe things. They form the crux of the article. The final section will summarise our intentions and suggest how ‘ethnography is dogmatics’ might influence future dogmatic inquiry and, in particular, the part of dogmatic inquiry often called Christian ethics.
"
(1) A Common Word
(2) A Muscat Manifesto
(3) Scriptural Reasoning
For the relevant materials discussed in lectures (1) and (2) see:
Pope Benedict XVI's Regensburg Address: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg_en.html
A Common Word: www.acommonword.com
Archbishop Rowan's Response: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1892
David Ford's Muscat Manifesto: www.acommonword.com/OmanFordMuscatManifestocircverapr09.pdf
Aref Ali Nayed: Growing Ecologies of Peace:
http://www.kalamresearch.com/images/documents/ecologiesofpeace_web.pdf"