Idealism and Christian Theology Idealism and Christianity Volume 1

by Farris, Joshua R.; Hamilton, S. Mark; Spiegel, James S.

• ISBN13: 9781628924022
• ISBN10: 1628924020
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2016-02-25
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

In the recent history of philosophy few works have appeared which favorably portray Idealism as a plausible philosophical view of the world. Considerably less has been written about Idealism as a viable framework for doing theology. While the most recent and significant works on Idealism, composed by the late John Foster (Case for Idealism and A World for Us: The Case for Phenomenological Idealism), have put this theory back on the philosophical map, no such attempt has been made to re-introduce Idealism to contemporary Christian theology. Idealism and Christian Theology is such a work, retrieving ideas and arguments from its most significant modern exponents (especially George Berkeley and Jonathan Edwards) in order to assess its value for present and future theological construction. As a piece of constructive philosophical-theology itself, this volume considers the explanatory power an Idealist ontology has for contemporary Christian theology.

Author Biography

Joshua R. Farris is a PhD candidate at the University of Bristol, UK. He is a chief editor (with Charles Taliaferro) for the forthcoming Ashgate Research Companion to Theological Anthropology.

S. Mark Hamilton is a PhD candidate University of Bristol, UK. He is co-editor of New England Dogmatics: A Systematic Collection of Questions and Answers in Divinity (2014).

James S. Spiegel is a Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, USA. His books include The Love of Wisdom (2010), Faith, Film, and Philosophy (2007), Hypocrisy: Moral Fraud and Other Vices (1999), and the award-winning How to be Good in a World Gone Bad (2004).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Idealism and Christian Theology
Joshua R. Farris (University of Bristol, UK) and S. Mark Hamilton (Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

1. The Theological Orthodoxy of Berkeley's Immaterialism
James S. Spiegel (Taylor University, USA)

2. Berkeley, Edwards, Idealism and the Knowledge of God
William J. Wainwright (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA)

3. Idealistic Panentheism: Reflections on Jonathan Edwards's Account of the God-World Relation
Jordan Wessling(University of Notre Dame, USA)

4. Berkeley, Realism, Idealism and Creation
Keith Yandell (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)

5. Edwardsian Idealism, Imago Dei, and Contemporary Theology
Joshua R. Farris (University of Bristol, UK)

6. On the Corruption of the Body: A Theological Argument for Metaphysical Idealism
S. Mark Hamilton (Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

7. Idealism and the Resurrection
Mark Cortez (Wheaton College, USA)

8. Jonathan Edwards, Idealism, and Christology
Oliver D. Crisp (Fuller Theological Seminary, USA)

9. Jonathan Edwards's Dynamic Idealism and Cosmic Christology
Seng-Kong Tan (Biblical Graduate School of Theology, Singapore)

10. Idealism and Participating in the Body of Christ
James Arcadi (University of Bristol, UK)

11. Idealistic Ethics and Berkeley's Good God
Timo Airaksinen (University of Bristol, UK)

Notes on Contributors

Index