Abstract: This article explores an important metaphysical issue raised by Donald Crosby in his Nature as Sacred Ground1—namely, the reality and nature of teleology and the explanatory relevance of teleology for understanding human mentality. Crosby, in his endeavor to construct a metaphysical system on which to base religious naturalism, acknowledges the importance of positively accounting for teleology. Teleology is crucial for accounting for human freedom, and if teleology falls prey to reductionism (or some version of antirealism), then a dangerous dissonance is created between naturalism and the necessary presupposition regarding ourselves as experiencing and causally effective creatures. To leave such a dissonance ... Read More Keywords: Naturalism; Nature; Whitehead, Alfred North,; Bible; Bell, Jason,; Science; Marcel, Gabriel,; Philosophy, Confucian; Royce, Josiah,; Smith, Adam,; United States PubDate: 2019-08-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: In recent decades, American pragmatism has become an increasingly important voice in Anglo-American philosophy of religion.1 The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this ongoing development by approaching religious diversities through pragmatism's emphasis on the primacy of practice. I will not put forward a full-blown pragmatic philosophy of religious diversity, but rather offer one essential building block to use in a more comprehensive edifice.2For pragmatists, pluralism is generally a default stance, and similarities are often just as puzzling and alarming as diversities. William James articulates this stance well in The Varieties of Religious Experience:Is the existence of so many religious types and ... Read More Keywords: Naturalism; Nature; Whitehead, Alfred North,; Bible; Bell, Jason,; Science; Marcel, Gabriel,; Philosophy, Confucian; Royce, Josiah,; Smith, Adam,; United States PubDate: 2019-08-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Contemporary debates about the implications of contingency are understatedly vast. One central question is whether or not a metaphysics of contingency is a contradiction of terms. Of course, how one answers this question in large part depends on what else one means by the terms of the question. Metaphysics, according to Alfred North Whitehead's redescription, is not conceivably the sort of thing one could so much as avoid. Metaphysics is "nothing but the description of the generalities which apply to all the details of practice."1 It is true that the contingency of our starting points and formulations makes it such that our everyday experience underdetermines our metaphysical generalities. Thus, one may have very ... Read More Keywords: Naturalism; Nature; Whitehead, Alfred North,; Bible; Bell, Jason,; Science; Marcel, Gabriel,; Philosophy, Confucian; Royce, Josiah,; Smith, Adam,; United States PubDate: 2019-08-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Let me begin by giving preliminary definition to the two kinds of contingency named in my title, although I shall argue that the distinction between them gets too complicated to sustain in the long run. Cosmological contingency is the contingency of things within the world upon other things within the world, plus perhaps their own spontaneous creativity. Ontological contingency is the contingency of everything in the world that is determinate in any way upon an ontological ground. That ontological ground cannot itself be determinate, and you can recollect Plotinus's One, Thomas Aquinas's Pure Act of To Be, Brahman without qualities, or the Ultimate of Non-Being in Zhou Dunyi's philosophy for sample conceptions of ... Read More Keywords: Naturalism; Nature; Whitehead, Alfred North,; Bible; Bell, Jason,; Science; Marcel, Gabriel,; Philosophy, Confucian; Royce, Josiah,; Smith, Adam,; United States PubDate: 2019-08-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Two prominent questions come to mind when I think of readers likely to pick up a book with this title. Those attracted to a study of miracles will probably ask, "How can miracles be 'everyday''" And those who eagerly anticipate Donald Crosby unfolding another dimension of his religious naturalism might well ask, "Why do we still need to be talking about 'miracles''" In The Extraordinary in the Ordinary, Crosby weaves a gracious and expansive argument that brings both kinds of readers to the same existential meeting place, a space where we take time to stand together in awe and wonder at the inexplicable mysteries of even the most seemingly mundane aspects of our daily lives—mysteries that draw us irresistibly ... Read More Keywords: Naturalism; Nature; Whitehead, Alfred North,; Bible; Bell, Jason,; Science; Marcel, Gabriel,; Philosophy, Confucian; Royce, Josiah,; Smith, Adam,; United States PubDate: 2019-08-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: The distance in conceptual space between the philosophical pragmatism of William James and the narrative theologies of Hans Frei and Stanley Hauerwas would appear at first glance to be significant. Hauerwas himself has measured that distance in public, when his extended critique of James supplied a good portion of the agenda for his Gifford Lectures, delivered in 2001 at St. Andrews and subsequently published as With the Grain of the Universe: The Church's Witness and Natural Theology. In this book, Jacob Goodson dramatically closes the distance, appealing consistently to James's pragmatism as a resource not only for understanding the thought of contemporary narrative theologians but also for productively ... Read More Keywords: Naturalism; Nature; Whitehead, Alfred North,; Bible; Bell, Jason,; Science; Marcel, Gabriel,; Philosophy, Confucian; Royce, Josiah,; Smith, Adam,; United States PubDate: 2019-08-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: In this expensive but invaluable book, students and scholars of Whitehead's philosophy and those more generally interested in the intersections of philosophy and science will find a treasure trove for gleaning the development, breadth, and depth of Whitehead's thought. This work, which consists of three independent sets of course notes from the previously unpublished lectures that Whitehead gave in his first year at Harvard in 1924–1925, is the first volume in a new and richly important series by Edinburgh University Press: The Edinburgh Critical Edition of the Complete Works of Alfred North Whitehead, overseen by series editors George R. Lucas Jr. and Brian G. Henning. This initial volume, which was skillfully ... Read More Keywords: Naturalism; Nature; Whitehead, Alfred North,; Bible; Bell, Jason,; Science; Marcel, Gabriel,; Philosophy, Confucian; Royce, Josiah,; Smith, Adam,; United States PubDate: 2019-08-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: In Gabriel Marcel and American Philosophy, David W. Rodick investigates Gabriel Marcel's relationship to classical American philosophy—more specifically, to Josiah Royce's idealism, William James's radical empiricism, William Ernest Hocking's empiricism, and Henry G. Bugbee's experiential naturalism—to provide Marcel scholars and scholars of classical American philosophy with a fruitful perspective for understanding Marcel's thought (x, 18–19). He also seeks to capture Marcel's dynamic and concrete approach to philosophizing along with examining its "relevance to the contemporary world—a world in which philosophy, confined to the ivory tower, remains at risk of becoming somewhat of a caricature of itself" (xi). In ... Read More Keywords: Naturalism; Nature; Whitehead, Alfred North,; Bible; Bell, Jason,; Science; Marcel, Gabriel,; Philosophy, Confucian; Royce, Josiah,; Smith, Adam,; United States PubDate: 2019-08-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: What new points of connection can be forged between two traditions that will either enable us to learn more about one or the other tradition or enable us better to address the concerns underlying those connections when armed with the resources of both traditions' This is the main, underlying question of Foust's new book, Confucianism and American Philosophy. The perceived quality of his several answers to this question will likely depend on the comparative method that one takes into the pages of the book. Fortunately, Foust offers an explicit, well-informed, and carefully considered account of his own method in the introduction to the book. Indeed, the book is worth reading on the strength of that introduction ... Read More Keywords: Naturalism; Nature; Whitehead, Alfred North,; Bible; Bell, Jason,; Science; Marcel, Gabriel,; Philosophy, Confucian; Royce, Josiah,; Smith, Adam,; United States PubDate: 2019-08-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Though Catherine Keller frequently publishes essays, and many of her book chapters have had their beginnings in journal articles, most of the material she is known for has been delivered in the form of tightly organized, if somewhat chaophilic, monographs. What makes Keller's latest offering, Intercarnations, distinctive is that it is a collection of recent stand-alone pieces, some of which carry her ideas and her deterritorializing style into new territories. There is no tight organization here, only resonances across various interventions and themes. Nor does Keller suggest a preferred order for reading. Like the rhizomatic entanglement suggested by her title, the text is a series and not an order.A recurring ... Read More Keywords: Naturalism; Nature; Whitehead, Alfred North,; Bible; Bell, Jason,; Science; Marcel, Gabriel,; Philosophy, Confucian; Royce, Josiah,; Smith, Adam,; United States PubDate: 2019-08-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Does Josiah Royce's (1855–1916) defense of loyalty hold any relevance for us in the twenty-first century' Mathew A. Foust thinks that it does. Business ethics, the ethics of warfare, and moral interpretation of twenty-first-century fiction: these are the three areas where Foust applies a Roycean understanding of loyalty. While Foust offers a persuasive case for the relevance and viability of Royce's account of loyalty in the twenty-first century, my primary criticism of Foust's book concerns his acceptance of Royce's equation of duties and virtues. In what follows, I contextualize Royce's understanding of loyalty in relation to the political and social philosophy developed late in his writing career; I explain ... Read More Keywords: Naturalism; Nature; Whitehead, Alfred North,; Bible; Bell, Jason,; Science; Marcel, Gabriel,; Philosophy, Confucian; Royce, Josiah,; Smith, Adam,; United States PubDate: 2019-08-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Henry Bugbee (1915–1999) was an American philosopher whose name is probably less familiar than other twentieth-century thinkers, yet his small volume of writings is deeply appreciated by those who have read him. A fondness for the man and his thought shines through the pages of this new collection edited by David Rodick, who hopes to introduce Bugbee to a new generation and to make him "more accessible to the wider public" (2). This is a worthy goal, given the delightful idiosyncrasy of Bugbee's writing.The introduction includes a short biographical sketch, attributing the denial of tenure at Harvard to Bugbee's preference for "experiential reflection" over formal writing; this "fateful event" led to the production ... Read More Keywords: Naturalism; Nature; Whitehead, Alfred North,; Bible; Bell, Jason,; Science; Marcel, Gabriel,; Philosophy, Confucian; Royce, Josiah,; Smith, Adam,; United States PubDate: 2019-08-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: I thought that I knew Adam Smith. Apparently not! "The political economy of the USA today is based on a laissez-faire interpretation of his Wealth of Nations," which, according to John E. Hill, "grossly distorts Smith's ideas." Furthermore, "correctly interpreting" (and implementing) Smith's thought would lead to greater happiness in all capitalistic political economic systems" (vii). The general slant of this book is that gross misinterpretations of Smith's theory of market capitalism have been used to justify the destruction of the moral standards on which market capitalism depends. In other words, market capitalism requires a moral infrastructure or foundation, which has been eroded by Smith's recent ... Read More Keywords: Naturalism; Nature; Whitehead, Alfred North,; Bible; Bell, Jason,; Science; Marcel, Gabriel,; Philosophy, Confucian; Royce, Josiah,; Smith, Adam,; United States PubDate: 2019-08-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: On November 4, 2008, during his concession speech to (then) President-Elect Barack Obama, Senator John McCain transformed Obama's victory into his (and white America's) theodicy by claiming that the election "proved" that the country had progressed from its days organizing social life around racial exclusion. McCain's speech exemplifies a paradox of "American" progress: black bodies ascending to social heights previously prevented through a particularly pernicious brand of white American antiblack racism, upon whose backs U.S. global financial and military dominance was built, become evidence for justifying American exceptionalism. One tragic irony of American history is that since at least emancipation, "black ... Read More Keywords: Naturalism; Nature; Whitehead, Alfred North,; Bible; Bell, Jason,; Science; Marcel, Gabriel,; Philosophy, Confucian; Royce, Josiah,; Smith, Adam,; United States PubDate: 2019-08-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: This issue of the AJTP marks the beginning of the fortieth year of the journal's history. Over these years, we have published numerous articles interpreting the thinkers and advancing the pragmatist, process, empirical, and naturalist lineages in American philosophy and theology. Many of our authors also have been members of the Institute for American Religious and Philosophical Thought (IARPT). Since I have been serving as editor of the AJTP, I have been pleased to see the membership of the Institute, and likewise the contributors to this journal, expanding in many ways. We now have more emerging and international scholars than we have had at any point I can recall. This issue of the AJTP reflects this trend. ... Read More Keywords: Naturalism; Nature; Whitehead, Alfred North,; Bible; Bell, Jason,; Science; Marcel, Gabriel,; Philosophy, Confucian; Royce, Josiah,; Smith, Adam,; United States PubDate: 2019-08-27T00:00:00-05:00
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