Abstract: Nancy K. Frankenberry is the John Phillips Professor in Religion, Emeritus, at Dartmouth College. She is the author of numerous publications in the areas of philosophy of religion, science and religion, and gender studies. She has served as President of the Metaphysical Society of America (2017) and President of the Institute for American Religious and Philosophical Thought (2016–2020).Andrew Irvine is an associate professor of philosophy and religion at Maryville College, Maryville, Tennessee. His scholarly interests include philosophical theology, philosophy as a way of life, and critical pedagogy. His poetry and popular writing has appeared in Written River and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Religion ... Read More PubDate: 2020-04-30T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: When Robert Cummings Neville retired from Boston University in May, 2018, an era ended. Not a career—certainly not; the publications keep pouring forth from the windowed, garden-surrounded office that has been the generative home for most of Bob's books and articles. Not a pattern of influence—obviously not; the many people Bob has influenced, including me, continue to give evidence of that influence in their writing and teaching, as well as more privately in their thinking and warm recollections of a model scholar and colleague. Rather, what ended was an era of institutional formation and commitment that crystalized, promoted, and protected rigorous yet generous philosophical reflection on every aspect of ... Read More PubDate: 2020-03-25T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: As his student, colleague, and friend, my learning process with Robert Neville has experienced two stages of perplexity, which I think represent to a large extent other scholars' similar experience of engaging Neville's thought. The two stages can be described as follows. First, given their familiarity with existing divisions of human knowledge of religion within modern research universities, scholars reading Neville's work may be confused by questions concerning its disciplinary nature, or what it is all about. Is it theology, philosophy, or religious studies' Second, however, after reading and thinking hard with Neville for a longer time, scholars may begin to question why we need those divisions at all.These ... Read More PubDate: 2020-03-25T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: C. S. Peirce claimed that the pragmatic method of clarifying ideas is "nothing but a particular application of an older logical rule, 'By their fruits ye shall know them.'"1 While Jesus spoke about discriminating between true and false religious teachers, Peirce was concerned with clarifying our intellectual concepts. Peirce's pragmatism asserts that we clearly understand the meaning of a concept if we can state the potentially practical and empirical consequences that would follow from the truth of a proposition involving that concept. Robert C. Neville's semiotic and pragmatic theory of religious truth unites Jesus's and Peirce's concerns, proposing that religious truth consists in an adaptedness or fit between ... Read More PubDate: 2020-03-25T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: During a time period spanning from 2013 to 2015, Robert Neville published the three volumes of his magnum opus on Philosophical Theology, selected aspects of which will be the main focus of my attention in this essay.1 Rather than hover at ten thousand feet and try to provide a broad overview or a bare sketch of Neville's thought as he developed it there, I have decided to take the plunge, to focus my attention more narrowly on specific issues, while trying also to illuminate as much of the rest of his philosophical theology as I possibly can. This means lingering over volume one of his trilogy, on Ultimates, to a greater extent than I do with either volume two, on Existence, or volume three, on Religion.2 Within ... Read More PubDate: 2020-03-25T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Absorbing—being absorbed in—the vision of Robert Neville's Philosophical Theology recalled to me a lowly cartoon by much-beloved Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig.1 A small man carries a big briefcase on a smudgy street. With a look of—relief' regret' foreboding' anticipation'—the man beholds a sign on a wall that reads: "If you see anything mysterious or unusual just enjoy it while you can." Neville's vision is unusual, and the contemplation of mystery sounds as a basso continuo through each and all three opera of his Philosophical Theology. I want to say: enjoy it while you can. For who can say whether its beauty is that of things ephemeral or something more perennial'It seems we might be coming to an end of ... Read More PubDate: 2020-03-25T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Robert Cummings Neville1 first came to my attention when I was a senior in college. "Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now," as Bob Dylan crooned at the time. Serious and studious, I was reading scholarly journals in the stacks one Saturday night. Among them was the journal Theological Studies, and in the March 1969 issue was the most effusive book review I had ever read. It was of Neville's very first book, God the Creator: On the Transcendence and Presence of God. The Dominican reviewer was suitably impressed by the "brilliant" argument, but more than that, he was astonished to think that "Neville, at the time of publication, was twenty-eight."2 Curious about a brilliant author who was still ... Read More PubDate: 2020-03-25T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Both individually and collectively, the five essays in this groups are brilliant. Each of the authors has worked with extraordinary care and success to represent my position, and they all succeed. The essays work to expound my thought in a progressive order. Bin Song's lays out my approach to comparison, setting it within the larger whole of my philosophy. David Rohr's explores in depth my epistemology and shows its relevance to my philosophy as a whole and also to its application to Christian sermons. Michael Raposa's works through my specific claims about how "praying the ultimate" is its real meaning. Andrew Irvine's carries that thought through to religionless religion, asking: What if that is really ... Read More PubDate: 2020-03-25T00:00:00-05:00
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