Divine Teaching and the Way of the World

A Defense of Revealed Religion
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-0-19-921736-6
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, 576 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 1013 g

A powerful argument for the place of religion in the modern world
Draws on Christian and Islamic as well as Jewish intellectual heritage
Shows how religion can supplement the secular worldview
Illuminates the question of what makes life worth living
Written equally for readers in philosophy and in religious studies

Samuel Fleischacker defends what the Enlightenment called 'revealed religion': religions that regard a certain text or oral teaching as sacred, as wholly authoritative over one's life. At the same time, he maintains that revealed religions stand in danger of corruption or fanaticism unless they are combined with secular scientific practices and a secular morality. The first two parts of Divine Teaching and the Way of the World argue that the cognitive and moral practices of a society should prescind from religious commitments -- they constitute a secular 'way of the world', to adapt a phrase from the Jewish tradition, allowing human beings to work together regardless of their religious differences. But the way of the world breaks down when it comes to the question of what we live for, and it is this that revealed religions can illumine. Fleischacker first suggests that secular conceptions of why life is worth living are often poorly grounded, before going on to explore what revelation is, how it can answer the question of worth better than secular worldviews do, and how the revealed and way-of-the-world elements of a religious tradition can be brought together.

Zielgruppe

Scholars and students of philosophy of religion, moral and political philosophy, theology, and history of philosophy

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fleischacker, Samuel

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Dialog & Beziehungen zwischen Religionen
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam und Weltreligionen, Weltethos
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christentum/Christliche Theologie Allgemein Christentum und Weltreligionen, Weltethos
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christentum/Christliche Theologie Allgemein Christentum und Gesellschaft, Kirche und Politik
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Religionssoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Judentum und Weltreligionen, Weltethos
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionssoziologie und -psychologie, Spiritualität, Mystik
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religion & Kultur
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsethik, Weltethos
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
1: The Way of the World (I): Truth
2: The Way of the World (II): Ethics
3: Beyond the Way of the World: Worth
4: Divine Teaching
5: Divine Teaching and the Way of the World
Epilogue
Appendix I: Proofs of God
Appendix II: Maimonides on the Evidence for Revelation
Appendix III: Kant on Art and Natural Beauty

Über Autor(innen)

Fleischacker, Samuel
Samuel Fleischacker is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois-Chicago. His previous work has focused on Enlightenment moral and political thought, especially that of Kant and Adam Smith, and on conceptions of culture, liberalism and distributive justice. He is the author of A Third Concept of Liberty (Princeton, 1999) and A Short History of Distributive Justice (Harvard, 2004) and editor of Heidegger's Jewish Followers (Duquesne, 2008). In 2009 his book, On Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, was given the 2009 Joseph B. Gittler Award by the American Philosophical Association, for an outstanding book in the philosophy of social science. Since 2010, he has been Director of Jewish Studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Samuel Fleischacker, University of Illinois-Chicago

Samuel Fleischacker is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois-Chicago. His previous work has focused on Enlightenment moral and political thought, especially that of Kant and Adam Smith, and on conceptions of culture, liberalism and distributive justice. He is the author of A Third Concept of Liberty (Princeton, 1999) and A Short History of Distributive Justice (Harvard, 2004) and editor of Heidegger's Jewish Followers (Duquesne, 2008). In 2009 his book, On Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, was given the 2009 Joseph B. Gittler Award by the American Philosophical Association, for an outstanding book in the philosophy of social science. Since 2010, he has been Director of Jewish Studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago.