Between Faith and Unbelief: American Transcendentalists and the Challenge of Atheism

Erscheinungsjahr 2007
ISBN: 978-90-04-16166-5
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 136, 224 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 568 g

Reihe: Studies in the History of Christian Traditions

This book sets out to shed light on what is specific to American Transcendentalism by comparing it with the atheistic vision of German philosophers and theologians like Ludwig Feuerbach and Arthur Schopenhauer. The study argues that atheism was part of the discursive and religious context from which Transcendentalism emerged. Tendencies toward atheism were already inherent in Transcendentalist thought. The atheist scenario came to the surface in the controversy about Emerson’s “new views.” Contemporary critics charged that the deity Emerson worshipped was himself. Emersonian Transcendentalism thus anticipated some of the central concerns in the works of German atheists like Feuerbach. From idealism to atheism seemed but a short step.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hurth, Elisabeth

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Alternative Glaubensformen Agnostizismus, Atheismus, Säkularer Humanismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments

Introduction

I. “The Spirit of Infidelity”: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Harvard’s Early Göttingen Students
II. The “Credentials” of Faith: The Miracles Controversy in New England
III. The Arch-Fiend of Christian Faith: David Friedrich Strauss and New England Divinity
IV. The Claims of History: Strauss’s “Mytho-Mania” and After
V. Man as God-Maker: Feuerbachian Atheism in New England
VI. From Idealism to Atheism: Theodore Parker and the Projection Theory of Religion
VII. The “Cures for Atheism”: Emerson and Jakob Böhme
VIII. “A World Without God”: Emerson and Arthur Schopenhauer

Conclusion

Selected Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Elisabeth Hurth is a freelance writer and scholar is Wiesbaden, Germany. Her recent publications include Mann Gottes: Das Priesterbild in Literatur und Medien (Grünewald, 2003) and Gute Nacht, John-Boy. Familien vor und auf dem Bildschirm (Grünewald, 2005).