The Challenge of Religion: A Philosophical AppraisalWith the Reformation, philosophers sought to establish a new way of thinking independent of religion. Borrowing principles popularized religious reformers: the right of conscience, the utter transcendence of God, the sinfulness of the world, they constructed a new metaphysics that highlighted the mystery of God and the complete intelligibility of 'rational man.' From this history an understanding of our religious situation is distilled. The chapters of this work develop for the reader the intellectual structure of religion and show how its language, imagery and ritual function. They argue that if religion no longer presents a challenge, it is because we think of it in terms of the 'new metaphysics.' To recapture the reality, we must join our contemporaries who are attacking the premises of classical modern philosophy and so experience ourselves afresh. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Religion as Framework | 9 |
Strategies of Expression | 35 |
Copyright | |
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Absolute Adam and Eve atheism basic became become believe Buddhism called celebration challenge chapter Christian Church commitment concept consciousness context creative culture death Descartes dialectic dialogue Dinka divine E. R. Dodds Eliade emphasized enactment enlightened existence experience expression fact faith framework freedom Genesis gnosis God's Greek Hegel Heidegger hierophany homo human idea imagination immanent important intellectual interpretation Islam Jesus Kant kind knowledge language Lévi-Strauss live Mahabharata Marxism ment metaphysics mind Mircea Eliade modern philosophy moral movement mystery myth mythologies nature Nietzsche notion one's ontological ourselves pantheism pattern person perspective Plato Plotinus political present principle problem question rational reality reason Reformation religion religious reveals ritual role sacred sense shaman simply social soul spiritual Sri Aurobindo suggest symbols theology theory things thinkers thought tion tradition transcendence translated truth Ummah understand University Western whole word world of meaning Yahweh