The Persistence of the Sacred in Modern Thought

by Firestone, Chris L.; Jacobs, Nathan A.

• ISBN13: 9780268029067
• ISBN10: 0268029067
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-06-15
• Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr

Summary

In The Persistence of the Sacred in Modern Thought,Chris L. Firestone, Nathan A. Jacobs, and thirteen other contributors examine the role of God in the thought of major European philosophers from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. The philosophers considered are, by and large, not orthodox theists; they are highly influential freethinkers, emancipated by an age no longer tethered to the authority of church and state. While acknowledging this fact, the contributors are united in arguing that this is only one side of a complex story. To redress the imbalance of attention to secularism among crucial modern thinkers and to consolidate a more theologically informed view of modernity, they focus on the centrality of the sacred (theology and God) in the thought of these philosophers. The essays, each in its own way, argue that the major figures in modernity are theologically astute, bent not on removing God from philosophy but on putting faith and reason on a more sure footing in light of advancements in science and a perceived need to rethink the relationship between God and world. By highlighting and defending the theologically affirmative dimensions of thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes, Gottfried Leibniz, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, F. W. J. Schelling, G. W. F. Hegel, and others, the essayists present a forceful and timely correction of widely accepted interpretations of these philosophers. To ignore or downplay the theological dimensions of the philosophical works they address, they argue, distorts our understanding of modern thought. "Over the past twenty-five years there has been a gradual change in the study of modern philosophy toward recognizing the centrality of our relation to God in the work of most of the major modern thinkers of the period. The Persistence of the Sacred in Modern Thoughtis a timely and useful collection that has the potential to crystallize this important development in the study of modern philosophy." - John E. Hare, Yale Divinity School

Author Biography

Chris L. Firestone is associate professor of philosophy at Trinity International University. Nathan A. Jacobs is assistant professor of religion and philosophy at John Brown University.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
The Desecularization of Descartes	p. 15
Law and Self-Preservation in Leviathan: On Misunderstanding Hobbes's Philosophy, 1650-1700	p. 38
The Religious Spinoza	p. 66
God and Design in the Thought of Robert Boyle	p. 87
God in Locke's Philosophy	p. 112
The Myth of the Clockwork Universe: Newton, Newtonianism, and the Enlightenment	p. 149
Pierre Bayle: A "Complicated Protestant"	p. 185
Leibniz and the Augustinian Tradition	p. 209
Hume's Defense of True Religion	p. 251
The Illegitimate Son: Kant and Theological Nonrealism	p. 273
The Reception and Legacy of J. G. Fichte's Religionslehre	p. 300
Metaphysical Realism and Epistemological Modesty in Schleiermacher's Method	p. 319
Schelling's Turn to Scripture	p. 335
Hegel and Secularization	p. 352
Kierkegaard's Critique of Secular Reason	p. 372
List of Contributors	p. 392
Index	p. 397
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