- Department of Theology & Religion
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham, UK
B15 2TT - +44 121 41 43406
Nicholas Adams
University of Birmingham, Department of Theology & Religion, Faculty Member
- Philosophy, Ethics, Theology, Hegel, Immanuel Kant, Theological Ethics, and 19 more19th-century German philosophy, Karl Barth, Idealism, Doctrine of God, Habermas, Schleiermacher, Postliberal theology, Trinity (Theology), Schelling, Fichte, Scriptural Reasoning, Doctrines of Grace, Systematic Theology, Philosophical Theology, Reparative Reasoning, R.G. Collingwood, G.W.F. Hegel, Timothy Jenkins, and Divinityedit
- Two strands of research: (1) Impact of German Idealism on Christian Theology(2) Philosophical problems in inter-relig... moreTwo strands of research: (1) Impact of German Idealism on Christian Theology(2) Philosophical problems in inter-religious engagementSee my university profile: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/tr/adams-nicholas.aspxedit
Eclipse of Grace offers original insights into the roots of modern theology by introducing systematic theologians and Christian ethicists to Hegel through a focus on three of his seminal texts: Phenomenology of Spirit, Science of Logic,... more
Eclipse of Grace offers original insights into the roots of modern theology by introducing systematic theologians and Christian ethicists to Hegel through a focus on three of his seminal texts: Phenomenology of Spirit, Science of Logic, and Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion.
Research Interests:
How can the world's religious traditions debate within the public sphere? In this book Nicholas Adams shows the importance of Habermas' approaches to this question. The full range of Habermas' work is considered, with detailed commentary... more
How can the world's religious traditions debate within the public sphere? In this book Nicholas Adams shows the importance of Habermas' approaches to this question. The full range of Habermas' work is considered, with detailed commentary on the more difficult texts. Adams energetically rebuts some of Habermas' arguments, particularly those which postulate the irrationality or stability of religious thought. Members of different religious traditions need to understand their own ethical positions as part of a process of development involving ongoing disagreements, rather than a stable unchanging morality. Public debate additionally requires learning each other's patterns of disagreement. Adams argues that rather than suspending their deep reasoning to facilitate debate, as Habermas suggests, religious traditions must make their reasoning public, and that 'scriptural reasoning' is a possible model for this. Habermas overestimates the stability of religious traditions. This book offers a more realistic assessment of the difficulties and opportunities they face.
Research Interests: Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Theology, Philosophical Theology, and 7 moreJurgen Habermas, Comparative Linguistics, World Literature, Language Teaching, Inter-civilization contact and conflict, Inter-faith Contact and Theology, and Islam (Philosophy and History, critical issues, renaissance, principles of jurisprudence)
"There are three headings under which we might consider the impact of Idealism on religion. The first concerns those areas of intellectual enquiry where the impact of Idealism is well understood in general, even if the particularities are... more
"There are three headings under which we might consider the impact of Idealism on religion. The first concerns those areas of intellectual enquiry where the impact of Idealism is well understood in general, even if the particularities are not often in view. The second concerns those areas where the patterns of thinking are familiar, but their debts to Idealism are less often noticed. The third concerns those developments that display the impact of Idealism but are much less familiar.
The first strand, where the impact of Idealism is familiar, include the doctrines of Christology and of the Trinity, in particular, and the transmission of idealist thought through various major theological figures in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The second strand, where the patterns of thinking are familiar but the debts to Idealism are less often noticed, include developments in hermeneutics, in the relation between unity and plurality, in radical orthodoxy and non-realist theology, and in the conflict between faith and reason. These are familiar topics in theology and are central to a variety of intellectual strategies in contemporary thought. The impact of Idealism on their development and modes of expression are less often remarked; essays in this section lay special emphasis on this impact. The third strand, where the impact of Idealism is obvious when one investigates certain topics but the topics themselves are less familiar include the development of themes in Jewish philosophy, the rise of the category of ‘myth’ and some aspects of theology in the twentieth century.
The pattern followed in general by the essays is broadly tripartite. First, they establish how the topic in view is handled by particular post-Kantian figures. Second, they give some account of how this thinking is transmitted (or fails to be transmitted) through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Third, they suggest ways in which contemporary thinking displays the impact (or the lack of impact) of Idealism.
VOLUME IV: RELIGION
CONTENTS
Introduction: The Impact of Idealism on Religion
Nicholas Adams, University of Edinburgh
The Impact of Idealism on Christology from Hegel to Tillich
Martin Wendte, University of Tübingen
German Idealism’s Trinitarian Legacy: The Nineteenth Century
Dale Schlitt, Oblate School of Theology
German Idealism’s Trinitarian Legacy: The Twentieth Century
Dale Schlitt, Oblate School of Theology
Kierkegaard, Hegelianism and the Theology of the Paradox
Joel D. S. Rasmussen, University of Oxford
Biblical Hermeneutics from Kant to Gadamer
Nicholas Boyle, University of Cambridge
Aesthetic Idealism and Its Relation to Theological Formation: Reception and Critique
Cyril O’Regan, University of Notre Dame
The Autonomy of Theology, the Moment of Hegel and the Impact of German Idealism
John Walker, Birkbeck, University of London
Faith and Reason
Nicholas Adams, University of Edinburgh
Rabbinic Idealism and Kabbalistic Realism: Jewish Dimensions of Idealism and Idealist Dimensions of Judaism
Paul Franks, Yale University
‘In the Arms of Gods’: Schelling, Hegel and the Problem of Mythology
George S. Williamson, Florida State University
Dialectic and Analogy: A Theological Legacy
Rowan Williams, University of Cambridge"
The first strand, where the impact of Idealism is familiar, include the doctrines of Christology and of the Trinity, in particular, and the transmission of idealist thought through various major theological figures in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The second strand, where the patterns of thinking are familiar but the debts to Idealism are less often noticed, include developments in hermeneutics, in the relation between unity and plurality, in radical orthodoxy and non-realist theology, and in the conflict between faith and reason. These are familiar topics in theology and are central to a variety of intellectual strategies in contemporary thought. The impact of Idealism on their development and modes of expression are less often remarked; essays in this section lay special emphasis on this impact. The third strand, where the impact of Idealism is obvious when one investigates certain topics but the topics themselves are less familiar include the development of themes in Jewish philosophy, the rise of the category of ‘myth’ and some aspects of theology in the twentieth century.
The pattern followed in general by the essays is broadly tripartite. First, they establish how the topic in view is handled by particular post-Kantian figures. Second, they give some account of how this thinking is transmitted (or fails to be transmitted) through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Third, they suggest ways in which contemporary thinking displays the impact (or the lack of impact) of Idealism.
VOLUME IV: RELIGION
CONTENTS
Introduction: The Impact of Idealism on Religion
Nicholas Adams, University of Edinburgh
The Impact of Idealism on Christology from Hegel to Tillich
Martin Wendte, University of Tübingen
German Idealism’s Trinitarian Legacy: The Nineteenth Century
Dale Schlitt, Oblate School of Theology
German Idealism’s Trinitarian Legacy: The Twentieth Century
Dale Schlitt, Oblate School of Theology
Kierkegaard, Hegelianism and the Theology of the Paradox
Joel D. S. Rasmussen, University of Oxford
Biblical Hermeneutics from Kant to Gadamer
Nicholas Boyle, University of Cambridge
Aesthetic Idealism and Its Relation to Theological Formation: Reception and Critique
Cyril O’Regan, University of Notre Dame
The Autonomy of Theology, the Moment of Hegel and the Impact of German Idealism
John Walker, Birkbeck, University of London
Faith and Reason
Nicholas Adams, University of Edinburgh
Rabbinic Idealism and Kabbalistic Realism: Jewish Dimensions of Idealism and Idealist Dimensions of Judaism
Paul Franks, Yale University
‘In the Arms of Gods’: Schelling, Hegel and the Problem of Mythology
George S. Williamson, Florida State University
Dialectic and Analogy: A Theological Legacy
Rowan Williams, University of Cambridge"
Research Interests:
"Modern European thought' describes a wide range of philosophies, cultural programmes, and political arguments developed in Europe in the period following the French Revolution. Throughout this period, many of the wide range of... more
"Modern European thought' describes a wide range of philosophies, cultural programmes, and political arguments developed in Europe in the period following the French Revolution. Throughout this period, many of the wide range of 'modernisms' (and anti-modernisms) had a distinctly religious and even theological character-not least when religion was subjected to the harshest criticism. Yet for all the breadth and complexity of modern European thought and, in particular, its relations to theology, a distinct body of themes and approaches recurred in each generation. Moreover, many of the issues that took intellectual shape in Europe are now global, rather than narrowly European, and, for good or ill, they form part of Europe's bequest to the world-from colonialism and the economic theories behind globalisation through to democracy to terrorism. This volume attempts to identify and comment on some of the most important of these.
The thirty chapters are grouped into six thematic parts, moving from questions of identity and the self, through discussions of the human condition, the age of revolution, the world (both natural and technological), and knowledge methodologies, concluding with a section looking explicitly at how major theological themes have developed in modern European thought. The chapters engage with major thinkers including Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Schleiermacher, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Barth, Rahner, Tillich, Bonhoeffer, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Wittgenstein, and Derrida, amongst many others. Taken together, these new essays provide a rich and reflective overview of the interchange between theology, philosophy and critical thought in Europe, over the past two hundred years.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Part I: Identity
1: Clare Carlisle: The Self and the Good life
2: Stephen Backhouse: Community (1) The Nation
3: Graham Ward: Community (2): The City
4: Pamela Anderson: The Other
5: Steven Shakespeare: Language
6: Daphne Hampson: Freedom
Part II: The Human Condition
7: John Hughes: Work and Labour
8: Paul Fiddes: Suffering
9: George Pattison: Death
10: Jennifer Geddes: Evil
11: Werner Jeanrond: Love
Part III: The Age of Revolution
12: Luke Brotherton: Sovereignty
13: Tracey Rowland: Tradition
14: Judith Wolfe: Messianism
15: Connor Cunningham: Nihilism
16: Douglas Hedley: Sacrifice
17: Stanley Hauerwas: War and Peace
Part IV: The World
18: Michael Gillespie: Radical Philosophy and Political Theology
19: Gordon Graham: Nature
20: Ross Wilson: The Sublime and the Beautiful
21: Arne Grøn: Time and History
22: David Lewin: Technology
Part V: Ways of Knowing
23: Johannes Zachhuber: Wissenschaft
24: Jim Fodor: Hermeneutics
25: Merold Westphal: Phenomenology
26: William Desmond: The Metaphysics of Modernity
Part VI: Theology
27: Nicholas Adams: The Bible
28: David Law: Incarnation
29: David Brown: Sacramentality
30: Simeon Zahl: Atonement
31: David Fergusson: Eschatology and Providence"
The thirty chapters are grouped into six thematic parts, moving from questions of identity and the self, through discussions of the human condition, the age of revolution, the world (both natural and technological), and knowledge methodologies, concluding with a section looking explicitly at how major theological themes have developed in modern European thought. The chapters engage with major thinkers including Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Schleiermacher, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Barth, Rahner, Tillich, Bonhoeffer, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Wittgenstein, and Derrida, amongst many others. Taken together, these new essays provide a rich and reflective overview of the interchange between theology, philosophy and critical thought in Europe, over the past two hundred years.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Part I: Identity
1: Clare Carlisle: The Self and the Good life
2: Stephen Backhouse: Community (1) The Nation
3: Graham Ward: Community (2): The City
4: Pamela Anderson: The Other
5: Steven Shakespeare: Language
6: Daphne Hampson: Freedom
Part II: The Human Condition
7: John Hughes: Work and Labour
8: Paul Fiddes: Suffering
9: George Pattison: Death
10: Jennifer Geddes: Evil
11: Werner Jeanrond: Love
Part III: The Age of Revolution
12: Luke Brotherton: Sovereignty
13: Tracey Rowland: Tradition
14: Judith Wolfe: Messianism
15: Connor Cunningham: Nihilism
16: Douglas Hedley: Sacrifice
17: Stanley Hauerwas: War and Peace
Part IV: The World
18: Michael Gillespie: Radical Philosophy and Political Theology
19: Gordon Graham: Nature
20: Ross Wilson: The Sublime and the Beautiful
21: Arne Grøn: Time and History
22: David Lewin: Technology
Part V: Ways of Knowing
23: Johannes Zachhuber: Wissenschaft
24: Jim Fodor: Hermeneutics
25: Merold Westphal: Phenomenology
26: William Desmond: The Metaphysics of Modernity
Part VI: Theology
27: Nicholas Adams: The Bible
28: David Law: Incarnation
29: David Brown: Sacramentality
30: Simeon Zahl: Atonement
31: David Fergusson: Eschatology and Providence"
Research Interests:
Wo to thee Town of Cambridge, thy wickedness surmounteth the wickedness of Sodom; therefore repent whilst thou hast time , lest I consume thee with fire, as I have done it ; therefore harden not your hearts , lest I consume you and my... more
Wo to thee Town of Cambridge, thy wickedness surmounteth the wickedness of Sodom; therefore repent whilst thou hast time , lest I consume thee with fire, as I have done it ; therefore harden not your hearts , lest I consume you and my wrath burn like fire, and I consume you in my fierce angers and so be brought to nought; for thou hast joyned hands with thy sister Jerusalem; therefore will I uncover thy
Research Interests:
A historically informed account of the relationship between philosophy and theology in Europe in the period after the First World War.
Research Interests:
An homage to the Jewish Philosopher Peter Ochs. The main argument is that a shift from 'positions' to 'tendencies' enables a more significant shift from wholesale adoption or refusal of arguments to a more differentiated discernment... more
An homage to the Jewish Philosopher Peter Ochs. The main argument is that a shift from 'positions' to 'tendencies' enables a more significant shift from wholesale adoption or refusal of arguments to a more differentiated discernment between errant and incomplete arguments. The effect is to enable repair of arguments more than assent or rejection. A complementary argument to the paper 'Mitigating Theological Disputes' (https://www.academia.edu/45566747/Mitigating_Theological_Disputes_Collingwoods_Question_and_Answer)
A pre-publication draft for the volume Signs of Salvation, edited by Mark James and Randi Rashkover
A pre-publication draft for the volume Signs of Salvation, edited by Mark James and Randi Rashkover
Research Interests:
The field ‘religion and international relations’ is well-established within the discipline of IR. It marks a new (largely twenty-first century) set of interdiscipinary engagements, bringing together political science and the sociology of... more
The field ‘religion and international relations’ is well-established within the discipline of IR. It marks a new (largely twenty-first century) set of interdiscipinary engagements, bringing together political science and the sociology of religion. ‘Religion and IR’ and ‘Religious Studies’ continue to conduct their business independently, in different conferences, journals and book series, but their interests increasingly overlap. This enquiry interprets religion and IR as a ‘turn to the local’. This is displayed in its concern with concerns with events at the local level that have significance that travels up the scale of ‘levels of analysis’ to events that have international significance. The turn to the local offers compelling arguments for shifting the focus in IR away from states and on to relations between local, national, and international actors. Engaging here with influential works in religion and IR published over the last fifteen years, it is argued here that it is the turn to the local offers the most scope for collaboration between scholars of religion and IR and scholars in theology and religious studies.
Research Interests:
Timothy Jenkins is a master taxonomist. This involves constructing his own taxonomies-a kind of hobby for him as well as a professional interest-but it also involves investigating and probing the taxonomies of others. It is a... more
Timothy Jenkins is a master taxonomist. This involves constructing his own taxonomies-a kind of hobby for him as well as a professional interest-but it also involves investigating and probing the taxonomies of others. It is a characteristic move in his analyses of others' work to prod and manipulate their taxonomies before considering whether their claims have merit. Faced with a claim that 'S is P', Tim tends to suspend the question as to whether S is indeed P and observes instead, that in this case it is supposed that there are such subjects as S and such predicates as P. Things get out of hand for his opponents rather quickly, for he moves immediately to observe that not only are there supposed to be such subjects as S and such predicates as P, but that it is supposed that there are such kinds of subject as S represents, and such kinds of predicate as P represents. But are there such kinds? If there are, then some kind of taxonomy is at work, and it will profit the interpreter, he suggests, to bring to light what that taxonomy is. But it may well be that this taxonomy is a brittle or frail thing, and where that is so, Tim's characteristic pastoral response is to offer an alternative that might prove more durable. In this he shows himself to be a philosopher of anthropology (just as there are philosophers of hisory and philosophers of religion).
Research Interests:
Karl Barth was both appreciative and critical of Hegel. He was appreciative of Hegel’s bold insistence that knowledge of God is at the heart of philosophy, and of Hegel’s challenge to the theology of his time that it was too timid. He was... more
Karl Barth was both appreciative and critical of Hegel. He was appreciative of Hegel’s bold insistence that knowledge of God is at the heart of philosophy, and of Hegel’s challenge to the theology of his time that it was too timid. He was critical of Hegel’s philosophy for bringing human and divine subjectivity too close together, for reconciling the dualism between thinking and being on the side of thinking, and for producing an account of the absolute concept which dissolves all contradictions. In this essay I argue that Barth’s theological instincts obstruct his appreciation for some of Hegel’s key insights – insights to which Barth himself draws attention. I also demonstrate that Hegel and Barth were in key respects asking different questions. If one poses Barth’s questions and gives Hegel’s answers, one has indeed a monstrous theology; but equally to pose Hegel’s questions and give Barth’s answers yields an impoverished philosophy
Research Interests: Philosophy Of Religion, Systematic Theology, Philosophical Theology, G.W.F. Hegel, Karl Barth, and 6 more19th-century German philosophy, 20th Century German Theology, Theology, Karl Barth, Philosophy of Religion, Systematic and Philosophical Theology, Theology of Karl Barth, and German Protestant Theology
Philosophy has often served the public good. It has arguably done so when it is pursued within a specific discipline (economics, politics, law, religion). I offer the example of the 'philosophy of theology' (by analogy with 'philosophy of... more
Philosophy has often served the public good. It has arguably done so when it is pursued within a specific discipline (economics, politics, law, religion). I offer the example of the 'philosophy of theology' (by analogy with 'philosophy of history') and provide intellectual and institutional arguments about how it might be a model for philosophy undertaken for the public good.
Research Interests:
This paper explores some uncertainties arising from the question of what theology might contribute to social anthropology. It offers reflections on the proposal by Joel Robbins in ‘Theology and Anthropology: An Awkward Relationship’... more
This paper explores some uncertainties arising from the question of what theology might contribute to social anthropology. It offers reflections on the proposal by Joel Robbins in ‘Theology and Anthropology: An Awkward Relationship’ (2006) and contrasts its approach with some recent work by Timothy Jenkins. I read both anthropologists as bearers of the legacy of GWF Hegel (1770-1831). Robbins and Jenkins are described here as reprising Hegel’s account of the struggle of Enlightenment against superstition, but in different ways.
Research Interests:
A response to criticisms offered at a panel session at the American Academy of Religion in 2014. Papers by Randi Rashkover, Molly Farneth and Mark James proposed a more robust Hegelianism. This is my response. The papers and my response... more
A response to criticisms offered at a panel session at the American Academy of Religion in 2014. Papers by Randi Rashkover, Molly Farneth and Mark James proposed a more robust Hegelianism. This is my response. The papers and my response are published by the Journal of Scriptural Reasoning (http://jsr.shanti.virginia.edu/)
Research Interests:
Hegel's remarks on China are well-known. Had he considered art in China, some of his judgements would have been modified (on his own terms); but his 'structural trinitarianism' would not have been challenged.
Research Interests:
Hegel offers an interpretation of Genesis 1-3 in his /Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion/. It is a model for how philosophy maps the shape of reasoning exhibited in scripture, and is notable for its use of pairs of terms. (A draft... more
Hegel offers an interpretation of Genesis 1-3 in his /Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion/. It is a model for how philosophy maps the shape of reasoning exhibited in scripture, and is notable for its use of pairs of terms. (A draft contribution to a forthcoming volume of essays devoted to classical philosophers' readings of passages of scripture.)
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
"""'I had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith’ (Critique of Pure Reason B xxx).1 This remark, taken from the preface to the second version of the Critique of Pure Reason, is one of Kant’s most famous. The philosophy of... more
"""'I had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith’ (Critique of Pure Reason B xxx).1 This remark, taken from the preface to the second version of the Critique of Pure Reason, is one of Kant’s most famous. The philosophy of Immanuel Kant (17241804) has unparalleled significance for the theology and philosophy of the nineteenth century and beyond. The roles of knowledge and faith are central to that philosophy, a fact that until recently was heavily downplayed by philosophers who investigated epistemology and ethics in ways that ignored theological and historical questions. In this article, Kant’s philosophy will be presented in ways that make his theological commitments explicit, in two sections. The first section will sketch the shape of Kant’s thinking, and the second will present some of the technical arguments in relation to what are known technically as his theoretical, practical and aesthetic philosophy. These divisions will be explained in due course.
Theologians continue to be interested in Kant today because he transforms certain questions inherited from his predecessors, especially those related to clarifying types of investigation, a shift from intuition to discursive reasoning, his attempt to offer a ‘rational’ account of respectable habits of thought and action, exploring the character of human freedom, and reconceiving the relation of philosophy to theology. Kant’s influence extends far beyond his significance for particular subsequent individual thinkers. His thought has left its mark on the shape of the modern state, not least the university, and the place of religious life and theological reflection within it.""
Theologians continue to be interested in Kant today because he transforms certain questions inherited from his predecessors, especially those related to clarifying types of investigation, a shift from intuition to discursive reasoning, his attempt to offer a ‘rational’ account of respectable habits of thought and action, exploring the character of human freedom, and reconceiving the relation of philosophy to theology. Kant’s influence extends far beyond his significance for particular subsequent individual thinkers. His thought has left its mark on the shape of the modern state, not least the university, and the place of religious life and theological reflection within it.""
Research Interests:
This essay has as its focus Hegel’s contribution to our contemporary thinking about the relation between theology and philosophy, through an engagement with two of his most fascinating discussions. The first is his account of ‘the... more
This essay has as its focus Hegel’s contribution to our contemporary thinking about the relation between theology and philosophy, through an engagement with two of his most fascinating discussions. The first is his account of ‘the Enlightenment struggle against superstition’ in the Phenomenology of Spirit; the second is his retrieval of Anselm’s ontological argument in the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion. This discussion exhibits in some ways a curious lack of impact of idealism in contemporary thinking, in an area where Hegel has a distinctive and compelling – yet unfulfilled – contribution to make.
Research Interests:
The purpose of this essay is to describe some of the ways in which Hegel’s philosophy can serve contemporary theology. It is not concerned with Hegel’s relations to his own theological tradition, nor with Hegel’s own inventive recasting... more
The purpose of this essay is to describe some of the ways in which Hegel’s philosophy can serve contemporary theology. It is not concerned with Hegel’s relations to his own theological tradition, nor with Hegel’s own inventive recasting of central themes in theology, notably the concepts of God, Spirit, Trinity and the idea of evil. These are important, indeed central, topics that any theological account of Hegel must satisfactorily address. What follows is not a theological account of Hegel. I take it as generally agreed by the majority of Hegel’s interpreters that his own theology diverges significantly, but implicitly and probably unintentionally, from orthodox Christian doctrine, and that for this reason his theology (as opposed to the tools his philosophy offers to theology) is less relevant to the concerns displayed in this collection of essays. Those concerns (which Hegel shared too to a degree) presuppose a fidelity to doctrine, conceived within western broadly Catholic and Protestant tradition. The aim here is narrow. I leave to one side evaluations of Hegel’s explicit treatment of doctrinal themes, and present those aspects of his philosophical approach that can serve a doctrinally oriented theology today.
Research Interests:
This is the intro essay for the forthcoming CUP volume /The Impact of Idealism Volume 4: Religion/. It introduces the essays and includes some substantial discussion of atheism and evil.
Research Interests: Religion, Philosophy, Kant, Philosophy Of Religion, Atheism, and 12 moreTheology, Systematic Theology, Philosophical Theology, Idealism, Continental Philosophy, German Idealism, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, History of Atheism, G.W.F. Hegel, Problem of Evil, Evil, and Hegel (Philosophy) (Philosophy)
"The period from 1800 to 1945 saw some of the most turbulent changes to approaches to the Bible in modern European thought. It is a period of dramatic contrasts and unresolved contradictions. The contrasts arise because of the... more
"The period from 1800 to 1945 saw some of the most turbulent changes to approaches to the Bible in modern European thought. It is a period of dramatic contrasts and unresolved contradictions. The contrasts arise because of the increasing divergence between experts and lay persons: the historical and philological studies of Biblical scholars contrasted more and more strongly with performative and traditional figural reading of the Bible in Christian worship. Contradictions arise as a consequence of this. The question of whether and to what extent the Bible is like other books invites new, distinctively modern, attempts to account for the Bible’s status – and these attempts appeal to a broad range of criteria which are not necessarily in harmony with each other, such as the quality of the text, the use of the text in communities, and understandings of divine revelation. There is one repeated failed attempt to resolve the contradictions thrown up by competing criteria: the quest for a single framework within which to place the practices of expert Biblical scholarship and the practices of worshippers in churches – the most famous of these attempts being the quest for the historical Jesus. This essay approaches these issues by engaging with a series of classic texts, taking them chronologically, in three sections.
The first section considers the work of Hegel and Schleiermacher, and connects aspects of their philosophies to issues in Biblical interpretation. Hegel’s contribution to a range of topics is vast: here one small part will be treated, namely, the relation between ‘representation’ and ‘conceptual thinking’. Schleiermacher’s development of hermeneutics deserves its own essay as a contribution to theology and modern European thought. The remarks here will be restricted to the relation between the rule-bound nature of language and the spontaneous nature of the language-user, which come together in style and interpretation.
The second section considers three classic essays on the Bible (one German, one French and one English) by Strauss, Renan and Jowett. These essays articulate significant nineteenth-century cultural contradictions vis-à-vis the Bible, many of which persist in our own time. These include the increasing specialisation and professional expertise that is brought to bear on the Bible by scholars, and the increasing distance between scholars and laypersons that is a consequence of this; it also includes various failed attempts to find a single intellectual framework within which to place historical-critical inquiries into the plain sense of scripture, on the one hand, and into habitable narratives for worship, on the other, usually with the consequence that narrative is eclipsed (to echo Hans Frei’s felicitous phrase) in favour of the plain sense.
The third section considers two contrasting influential twentieth century approaches to the Bible: Barth’s expressionist commentary on Romans and Bultmann’s existentialist programme of ‘demythologization’."
The first section considers the work of Hegel and Schleiermacher, and connects aspects of their philosophies to issues in Biblical interpretation. Hegel’s contribution to a range of topics is vast: here one small part will be treated, namely, the relation between ‘representation’ and ‘conceptual thinking’. Schleiermacher’s development of hermeneutics deserves its own essay as a contribution to theology and modern European thought. The remarks here will be restricted to the relation between the rule-bound nature of language and the spontaneous nature of the language-user, which come together in style and interpretation.
The second section considers three classic essays on the Bible (one German, one French and one English) by Strauss, Renan and Jowett. These essays articulate significant nineteenth-century cultural contradictions vis-à-vis the Bible, many of which persist in our own time. These include the increasing specialisation and professional expertise that is brought to bear on the Bible by scholars, and the increasing distance between scholars and laypersons that is a consequence of this; it also includes various failed attempts to find a single intellectual framework within which to place historical-critical inquiries into the plain sense of scripture, on the one hand, and into habitable narratives for worship, on the other, usually with the consequence that narrative is eclipsed (to echo Hans Frei’s felicitous phrase) in favour of the plain sense.
The third section considers two contrasting influential twentieth century approaches to the Bible: Barth’s expressionist commentary on Romans and Bultmann’s existentialist programme of ‘demythologization’."
Research Interests:
"F.W. J. Schelling (1775–1851) is an unusual figure in this volume. He is significantly less well known and less read than his contemporaries Fichte and Hegel; there are thus fewer signs of the tendency, identified by Firestone and Jacobs,... more
"F.W. J. Schelling (1775–1851) is an unusual figure in this volume. He is significantly less well known and less read than his contemporaries Fichte and Hegel; there are thus fewer signs of the tendency, identified by Firestone and Jacobs, to treat theological questions as of secondary importance in interpretations of Schelling’s work. More importantly, Schelling wrote extensively and explicitly on topics such as divine creativity and the relation between evil and human freedom in An Essay on Human Freedom (hereafter, “the Freedom essay”) and The Ages of the World, as well as on the relation of philosophy to revelation (Philosophy of Revelation). Few commentators claim that Schelling’s interests in theology are matters of passing concern or mere pretence. I will suggest, nonetheless, that Schelling certainly belongs in a volume whose purpose is to rethink the theological dimension of Enlightenment philosophy.
I argue in this paper that Schelling turns to scripture in order to repair certain deficiencies in modern philosophy. These include the failure of modern philosophy to account for freedom and the tendency of modern philosophy to reduce life to what can be stated in concepts."
I argue in this paper that Schelling turns to scripture in order to repair certain deficiencies in modern philosophy. These include the failure of modern philosophy to account for freedom and the tendency of modern philosophy to reduce life to what can be stated in concepts."
Research Interests:
The purpose of this paper is to confront a well-known problem in interreligious engagement in European institutions, to diagnose problems produced not only by the problem but by certain solutions to it, and to propose in outline an... more
The purpose of this paper is to confront a well-known problem in interreligious engagement in European institutions, to diagnose problems produced not only by the problem but by certain solutions to it, and to propose in outline an alternative approach.
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The essays collected in this volume offer a rare opportunity to reflect on approaches to interreligious engagement taken in a sample of contrasting contexts with different histories in different languages. Geographically the spread is... more
The essays collected in this volume offer a rare opportunity to reflect on approaches to interreligious engagement taken in a sample of contrasting contexts with different histories in different languages. Geographically the spread is concentrated in Northern Europe and the participants reflect a mixture of long-term collegiality concentrated in the 'Religion and Dialogue in Modern Societies' project (ReDi) together with ad hoc contributions from those who were available at particular times for particular discussions. The geographical concentrations are in Amsterdam, Birmingham, Hamburg (the location of the ReDi project), Innsbruck, Markfield (a village near Leicester), Münster, Oslo, Potsdam, and Vienna. These represent five languages: English, Dutch, German, Norwegian, and Turkish. The contributions considered here are by one Jew, six Muslims, and seven Christians, five women and nine men, with white contributors roughly double the number of non-white, and with two of the contributors known to have changed religious affiliation. In this it is a microcosm of the contingencies of academic work done under pressure of time, displaying a desire for diversity and an outcome that reflects relations between majorities and minorities. Central and Southern Europe, as well as Switzerland, are in this particular discussion under-represented, as are French, Italian and Spanish languages. The contributions reflect on institutional developments and programmes and broadly reproduce the classifications advertised in the ReDi project: research, teaching, and engagement with religious communities-named by Weisse the 'three pillars'. The contributions also reflect, in different ways and to differing degrees, certain patterns in Northern European societies that shape research into religious traditions: the security interests of the state, the cultural interests of majorities, and the financial and reputational interests of universities. These are hard to disentangle. Universities are often funded by the state and their senior positions are often filled by those who represent the cultural interests of majorities.
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This essay will draw attention to a relatively new phenomenon in the study of interreligious relations, namely the extension of the concept of plurality from that of religions ('there are many religions') and of the study of relations... more
This essay will draw attention to a relatively new phenomenon in the study of interreligious relations, namely the extension of the concept of plurality from that of religions ('there are many religions') and of the study of relations between religions ('there are many approaches to the study of their relations') to the plurality of methods available to each of those approaches ('there are many philosophical methods available to the study of relations between religions'). While it is widely acknowledged that attention to the plurality of traditions and the relations between them is necessary for the understanding of religion in the contemporary world, there is less attention to the complex plurality of philosophical approaches. Those who pioneered attention to religious plurality, along with the invention of 'pluralism' as a guiding category for some of those pioneers, devoted little attention to matters of philosophical method, despite their focal interest in questions of truth, rival claims, multiple perspectives and matters of this kind. This is a notable lacuna which this discussion is intended to explore a little. Plurality extends not only to the phenomena to be investigated, and not only to the approaches available for those investigations, but also to the philosophical engines that power those approaches.
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This essay will develop a frame for considering the kind of plural society that is hospitable to both religious and non-religious members. It is adapted from lectures delivered in Dhaka and Lahore.
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"Peter Ochs' notion of ‘pragmatic reading’ and his wider project of articulating a ‘logic of scripture’ are described in the first part of this article. A distinction is made between Ochs' proposals for how to read scripture and his more... more
"Peter Ochs' notion of ‘pragmatic reading’ and his wider project of articulating a ‘logic of scripture’ are described in the first part of this article. A distinction is made between Ochs' proposals for how to read scripture and his more technical claims about how scripture itself models a ‘logic of repair’. The term ‘thirdness’ is explained in the contexts of the relations and axioms, hypotheses and communities. His readings of Hans Frei and George Lindbeck are rehearsed briefly in the second section. Their attempts to show that there is nothing ‘behind’ scripture or doctrine, to which the latter supposedly refer, are presented by Ochs as ‘pragmatic’ attempts to repair the rules which generate false oppositions in discussions of scripture and doctrine.
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A paper delivered at the Centre for Comparative Scripture, Minzu University, May 2013. A cross-tradition commentary on 2 Timothy 3:16, exploring the ways in which the meaning of 'scripture' (in 2 Timothy) can be extended when read in a... more
A paper delivered at the Centre for Comparative Scripture, Minzu University, May 2013. A cross-tradition commentary on 2 Timothy 3:16, exploring the ways in which the meaning of 'scripture' (in 2 Timothy) can be extended when read in a multi-tradition context.
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This is a pre-publication version of an essay on Scriptural Reasoning, published in Modern Theology in 2006. It makes six claims. These claims arise from reflection upon the practices of scriptural reasoning, in which members of... more
This is a pre-publication version of an essay on Scriptural Reasoning, published in Modern Theology in 2006. It makes six claims. These claims arise from reflection upon the practices of scriptural reasoning, in which members of different religious traditions meet together for study of their sacred texts. First, scriptural reasoning does not try to ground its own possibility. Its attempts at theory (such as this essay) are not attempts to explain how it is possible, but more modestly and usefully to describe its practices in an ordered way. Second, scriptural reasoning approaches metaphysics as an account of what is taken to be true, not as a means to demonstrate necessary truths. Third, scriptural reasoning relies on the luck of the moment. It is not minutely planned, executed and policed, but opens itself to surprising possibilities which are not prepared in advance. Fourth, scriptural reasoning models a practice of learning traditions’ languages. Fifth, scriptural reasoning values and promotes friendship above consensus and agreement. Sixth, scriptural reasoning is a practice of making deep reasonings public.
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"Many religious scholars critical of the Enlightenment are also critical of the notion of human rights because their warrants are over-generalised and insufficiently tied to any particular history of ethical discourse. This paper... more
"Many religious scholars critical of the Enlightenment are also critical of the notion of human rights because their warrants are over-generalised and insufficiently tied to any particular history of ethical discourse. This paper considers how the process associated with 'A Common Word' (www.acommonword.com) might encourage such scholars to consider human rights not as the product of Enlightenment claims about reason, but as attempts to establish minimal rules to enable different traditions to coexist side-by-side. Because different traditions are in play, appeals to minimal rules cannot appeal to just one tradition; but this does not mean they need be appeals that bypass all traditions in the name of reason.
http://us.macmillan.com/muslimandchristianunderstanding"
http://us.macmillan.com/muslimandchristianunderstanding"
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My task here is to answer the question: How fruitful might Scriptural Reasoning be as a model for intereligious hermeneutics? This question arises, in part, because of the perhaps surprising intensity with which scriptures are now at the... more
My task here is to answer the question: How fruitful might Scriptural Reasoning be as a model for intereligious hermeneutics? This question arises, in part, because of the perhaps surprising intensity with which scriptures are now at the heart of much interfaith encounter. Making sense of this phenomenon requires us to consider different forms of this intense focus on scriptures, to describe them as fully as possible, and to consider the ways in which they present opportunities and challenges to relations between members of religious traditions. I will claim that Scriptural Reasoning addresses certain quite specific needs among specific participants who share certain specific assumptions about their own traditions and their relations with others. Part of my task will be to elaborate those assumptions. The first part of my argument describes some of the features that I take Scriptural Reasoning to display. The second part discusses is sues of world-disclosure and problem-solving, and suggests why this way of thinking about interreligious hermeneutics might be fruitful. I argue that Scriptural Reasoning offers an important contribution to interfaith encounter in three ways. First, it offers a model for privileging understanding above agreement; second, it enables the pursuit of collegiality without requiring consensus; third, it embodies the right relation between world-disclosure and problem-solving.
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The two problems I wish to consider are (1) discursive extraterritoriality and (2) the notion of appropriating religious 'contents' or their 'semantic heritage'. I argue that Habermas' binary opposition between 'faith' and 'reason' has... more
The two problems I wish to consider are (1) discursive extraterritoriality and (2) the notion of appropriating religious 'contents' or their 'semantic heritage'. I argue that Habermas' binary opposition between 'faith' and 'reason' has the effect (unintended by him) of conceding too much to the rhetoric of the religious right. I share Habermas' concerns about this rhetoric and wish to reinforce his arguments by querying the justification of some of their key assumptions about religious life in modernity.
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Stories which explore evil often deal in magic. This is the obviously the point in explicitly magical tales like Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997) or its model A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), both of which have at their centre... more
Stories which explore evil often deal in magic. This is the obviously the point in explicitly magical tales like Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997) or its model A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), both of which have at their centre a boy who goes to a school for wizards to learn magic. But magic also plays a subordinate role in fantasy tales which have at their heart ordinary folk with no special abilities, like Lord of the Rings (1954) or Over Sea, Under Stone (1965), in which hobbits and children are plunged into a world of powers which they do not understand and, for the most part, do not wield.
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Disappointment is a neglected topic in theology. It's worth thinking about more. I propose a focus on ignorance, scale, and where disappointment fits in theology, especially with respect to the theological virtue of hope.
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In this article I make the bold claim that theologians should hesitate before judging whether other theologians’ claims are true and should be more reluctant to attribute theological ‘positions’ to each other. This claim serves a concern... more
In this article I make the bold claim that theologians should hesitate before judging whether other theologians’ claims are true and should be more reluctant to attribute theological ‘positions’ to each other. This claim serves a concern with truth. I make the reparative positive claim that theologians should instead consider the nexus of questions and answers in which claims are made. Instead of a focus on one item in the pair, the answer, the focus should I argue be shared across question and answer, with much greater emphasis to the question than is typically given. If taken seriously, this proposal might alter both the tone and substance of much theological writing, especially at the polemical end of the spectrum. I take the examples of the filioque dispute and recent work in apophatic theology as two salient cases.
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Oriented to an undergraduate readership, this essay explores the role arguing plays in the practice of theology, especially in relation to speech in the public sphere.
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THE purpose of this article is to suggest that dogmatic theology is best practised through description of the world. Its method is to marry two unlikely characters: Karl Barth, Swiss Reformed theologian, and Michel Foucault, French... more
THE purpose of this article is to suggest that dogmatic theology is best practised through description of the world. Its method is to marry two unlikely characters: Karl Barth, Swiss Reformed theologian, and Michel Foucault, French atheist philosopher and historian. The thesis we propose can be presented directly. Barth is well known for insisting, in his ethics lectures in Münster and Bonn (1928/29 and 1930/31 respectively) and volume II of his Church Dogmatics, that ethics is dogmatics. Foucault famously rejected ethics which makes universal normative claims in favour of producing descriptions of historical phenomena and letting the reader make moral judgements accordingly. His method, we suggest, understands ethics as ethnography. We have taken these two ways of thinking together and excluded the middle term: ethics. This has yielded the abbreviated form: ethnography is dogmatics.
The task we have set ourselves is not easy, however. Barth’s ‘ethics is dogmatics’ approach is far from straightforward. His idea that ethics is best understood as ‘a special elucidation of the doctrine of sanctification’, and that a general (philosophical) conception of ethics ‘coincides exactly with the conception of sin’ is not quickly explained. Saying something intelligent about Foucault’s ‘ethics is ethnography’ method (as we shall characterise it) is hazardous, because to summarise his approach theoretically is rather obviously to miss its point and to give an account of it in the very terms it rejects. The first and second parts of this article will nevertheless try to do justice to some of their insights about ethics and suggest what can be learned from them. The third and fourth parts will attempt to do what the previous sections advertise: describe things. They form the crux of the article. The final section will summarise our intentions and suggest how ‘ethnography is dogmatics’ might influence future dogmatic inquiry and, in particular, the part of dogmatic inquiry often called Christian ethics.
The task we have set ourselves is not easy, however. Barth’s ‘ethics is dogmatics’ approach is far from straightforward. His idea that ethics is best understood as ‘a special elucidation of the doctrine of sanctification’, and that a general (philosophical) conception of ethics ‘coincides exactly with the conception of sin’ is not quickly explained. Saying something intelligent about Foucault’s ‘ethics is ethnography’ method (as we shall characterise it) is hazardous, because to summarise his approach theoretically is rather obviously to miss its point and to give an account of it in the very terms it rejects. The first and second parts of this article will nevertheless try to do justice to some of their insights about ethics and suggest what can be learned from them. The third and fourth parts will attempt to do what the previous sections advertise: describe things. They form the crux of the article. The final section will summarise our intentions and suggest how ‘ethnography is dogmatics’ might influence future dogmatic inquiry and, in particular, the part of dogmatic inquiry often called Christian ethics.
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The Creed is the principal pattern for the Christian apprenticeship of signs. To say the Creed is to rehearse and trace out the shape of Christian reasoning in the interpretation of God’s signs. It is also a witness to the world in... more
The Creed is the principal pattern for the Christian apprenticeship of signs. To say the Creed is to rehearse and trace out the shape of Christian reasoning in the interpretation of God’s signs. It is also a witness to the world in which Christians become such signs for others to interpret. The Creed sets criteria for reasoning about, and patterns for describing, the one God whom Christians worship. Such description is, again, strange and unlike other forms of description. To repeat: its strangeness resides in its Trinitarian and prayerful character. It is worth considering this double strangeness in some detail, with the help of two contemporary theologians: Nicholas Lash and Rowan Williams.
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This essay treats one small question in the book of Job: is Job right to argue with God? This is a familiar question in the corpus of interpretations of Job, especially in the Christian tradition, but it is one that has often been... more
This essay treats one small question in the book of Job: is Job right to argue with God? This is a familiar question in the corpus of interpretations of Job, especially in the Christian tradition, but it is one that has often been answered negatively. I propose to investigate the arguments for and against condemning Job for arguing with God. This is bound up with the much larger, and correspondingly more complex, question of what exactly is meant when God says that Job spoke rightly. I will not treat this question in detail, but will attempt to draw attention to those aspects which bear upon the goodness of Job's argumentativeness. The background question for this enquiry is how people should argue in the public sphere today, and what the purpose of such debate is, beyond ventilating the concerns of various interest groups.
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An experimental paper from 2003 exploring George Herbert's /The Temple/. It was written as a response to the reflections by Peter Ochs on the relation between 'temple', 'house' and 'tent' as models for religious study. Through... more
An experimental paper from 2003 exploring George Herbert's /The Temple/. It was written as a response to the reflections by Peter Ochs on the relation between 'temple', 'house' and 'tent' as models for religious study. Through engagement with Herbert's poems, I show how the meaning of 'temple' is transformed in Christian theology. The essay also engages with Britten's setting of Herbert's 'Antiphon'.
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This was an experimental paper from 2002. It is an interpretation of a piece of organ music by the French composer Olivier Messiaen. The main argument is that Messiaen's piece is a model of a certain kind of theology. The incorporation... more
This was an experimental paper from 2002. It is an interpretation of a piece of organ music by the French composer Olivier Messiaen. The main argument is that Messiaen's piece is a model of a certain kind of theology. The incorporation of elements that are non-Christian (birdsong, rhythms from Hindu music) into a 'Christian' artifact reveals how porous and blurred the edges of a tradition are, at least when something truly beautiful is being fashioned.
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What kind of flourishing do we seek in relation to leadership and discipleship? That is the question I want to enquire into with the help of the Jewish German-American philosopher Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) through her 1958 book The Human... more
What kind of flourishing do we seek in relation to leadership and discipleship? That is the question I want to enquire into with the help of the Jewish German-American philosopher Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) through her 1958 book The Human Condition and with the help of the Anglican theologian Daniel Hardy (1930-2007). With some comments on Renewal and Reform. A lecture given at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield.
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R.G. Collingwood defends GWF Hegel against criticisms by Karl Barth and Charlotte von Kirschbaum
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A charitable interpretation of Milbank's diatribe against Protestantism in his 'After Brexit' piece on the ABC Religion and Ethics website: http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2016/06/24/4488874.htm
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A defence of Hegel's 'logic of reconciliation' in the light of O'Regan's critique of Hegel in /The Heterodox Hegel/ and in /The Anatomy of Misremebering I/. It is argued that Hegel makes valid claims about certain pairs of terms (e.g.... more
A defence of Hegel's 'logic of reconciliation' in the light of O'Regan's critique of Hegel in /The Heterodox Hegel/ and in /The Anatomy of Misremebering I/. It is argued that Hegel makes valid claims about certain pairs of terms (e.g. thinking/being, subject/object) but over-extends them into areas where those claims do not apply (e.g. prayer, doctrine). O'Regan (and Balthasar, in his account) make valid criticisms of Hegel but over-extend them to include his entire thought. This inhibits proper appreciation of where Hegel's generativity for theology lies, namely in his investigations into logical forms.
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Hegel is due for a theological reassessment, and such a reassessment is likely to be surprisingly positive. I confront two obstacles to this. The first is the perception that Hegel makes theological claims that are problematic. The... more
Hegel is due for a theological reassessment, and such a reassessment is likely to be surprisingly positive. I confront two obstacles to this. The first is the perception that Hegel makes theological claims that are problematic. The second is Hegel’s actual influence in theology, which may not reflect the influence he deserves to have. My argument is that where Hegel seems to be doing doctrine (rather badly) he is in fact doing logic (rather well.)
Research Interests: Metaphysics, Philosophy Of Religion, Logic, Theology, Systematic Theology, and 18 moreTheological Ethics, Hegel, Trinity, Christology, Charles Taylor, Pastoral Theology, G.W.F. Hegel, Dogmatic theology, 19th-century German philosophy, Trinity (Theology), Evangelical Theology, Analytic Theology, Robert Pippin, Doctrine of the Trinity, Theological Engagement with Culture, Doctrine of God, Christology, Soteriology, Historical Theology, Biblical Studies, Dogmatic Theology, Analytic Theology, Continental Theology, Biblical Theology, Thomas F. Torrance, Karl Barth, John Calvin, Systematic Theology, Missional Theology, and Doctrines of Scripture
We urgently need an alternative to Kant's proposals regarding the relation of theology and philosophy. Kant is an atomist about theology (he sees religions as utterly separate) and a holist about philosophy (he sees reason as universal... more
We urgently need an alternative to Kant's proposals regarding the relation of theology and philosophy. Kant is an atomist about theology (he sees religions as utterly separate) and a holist about philosophy (he sees reason as universal and whole). Kant's error is one of scale: he over-states both the separation of religious traditions (which are in fact constantly shaping each other) and the universality of reason (which is in fact deeply contextual). Current debates in Indonesia about Pancasila can fruitfully be investigated by considering them in Rawlsian and Habermasian frameworks and then by recasting them according to a contrasting, contextual, approach to philosophy.
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An interpretation of chapter iv of Iqbal's Reconstruction. A lecture given at the Dabistan e Iqbal in April 2013, to an adult education evening class.
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"The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam is a bold attempt to think about emphatically modern questions in a way that does justice to Islamic intellectual tradition. This short paper focuses on two questions that arise from... more
"The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam is a bold attempt to think about emphatically modern questions in a way that does justice to Islamic intellectual tradition. This short paper focuses on two questions that arise from Iqbal’s unusual use of sources in the Reconstruction: (1) Why does Iqbal cite so many newly published works? (2) Why is the Qur’an quoted so often in a work on modern thought? I suggest that in the first case Iqbal seeks to establish that he is addressing up-to-date questions in intellectual life, and that in the second case he is addressing a situation in which religious thought and philosophy are unable to correct each other, and in which a more radical source of repair - scripture - is needed.
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This essay will reflect a little on the kind of plural society that religious people need, from the perspective of an Anglican theologian. Currently in Britain there is something of a struggle going on in the public sphere, especially... more
This essay will reflect a little on the kind of plural society that religious people need, from the perspective of an Anglican theologian. Currently in Britain there is something of a struggle going on in the public sphere, especially in the press, between those who claim that our nation is too religious, and that it needs to become more secular, and those who claim that our nation is too secular, and that it needs to become more religious. This context is particular to Britain, and is different from Bangladesh or Pakistan, for example. But I wish to try out a train of reasoning that may have resonance in South Asia as well as in Northern Europe. I shall argue that if religious people are to flourish in our traditions, our society needs to be plural in a way that it currently is not, and that this plurality will include certain ‘secular’ dimensions – although these will need to be carefully circumscribed.
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A teaching tool for students and instructors, who are asked to grade both essays and then discuss their strengths and weaknesses.
"Three lectures responding to a request to present the cutting edge of inter-faith engagement, delivered to members of the congregation of Chelmsford Cathedral in November 2009 over three successive Tuesdays. (1) A Common Word (2) A... more
"Three lectures responding to a request to present the cutting edge of inter-faith engagement, delivered to members of the congregation of Chelmsford Cathedral in November 2009 over three successive Tuesdays.
(1) A Common Word
(2) A Muscat Manifesto
(3) Scriptural Reasoning
For the relevant materials discussed in lectures (1) and (2) see:
Pope Benedict XVI's Regensburg Address: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg_en.html
A Common Word: www.acommonword.com
Archbishop Rowan's Response: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1892
David Ford's Muscat Manifesto: www.acommonword.com/OmanFordMuscatManifestocircverapr09.pdf
Aref Ali Nayed: Growing Ecologies of Peace:
http://www.kalamresearch.com/images/documents/ecologiesofpeace_web.pdf"
(1) A Common Word
(2) A Muscat Manifesto
(3) Scriptural Reasoning
For the relevant materials discussed in lectures (1) and (2) see:
Pope Benedict XVI's Regensburg Address: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg_en.html
A Common Word: www.acommonword.com
Archbishop Rowan's Response: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1892
David Ford's Muscat Manifesto: www.acommonword.com/OmanFordMuscatManifestocircverapr09.pdf
Aref Ali Nayed: Growing Ecologies of Peace:
http://www.kalamresearch.com/images/documents/ecologiesofpeace_web.pdf"
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The best theological engagement with Kant in print.
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A fascinating series of meditations on interreligious encounters, marred by unnecessary intrusions of too-brief theoretical asides.
Research Interests: Interfaith Discourse, Catholic Theology, Interreligious Dialogue, Interfaith Theology, Comparative Theology, and 9 moreTheology of Religions, Interfaith Dialogue, Ecumenical and Interfaith Dialogue, Ecumenism, Interfaith Studies, Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue Theology of Reception Receptive Ecumenism Church History Pentecostalism and neo-Pentecostalism Catholic Charismatic Renewal Catholic Social Teaching Judaism Theology of the Laity Natural Law Yves Congar, A Common Word, Interreligious Studies, and Interreligious Relations
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Review marking the paperback edition.
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Saying the Creed together is an act of Christian witness. It is addressed to all, both Christians and strangers. To witness is not just to say something or show something. It is to become a sign. Christian witness means becoming a sign of... more
Saying the Creed together is an act of Christian witness. It is addressed to all, both Christians and strangers. To witness is not just to say something or show something. It is to become a sign. Christian witness means becoming a sign of Christ, who shows the God of Abraham, ...
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The field religion and international relations (IR) has been established over the last twenty years within the discipline of IR. It marks a new (largely twenty-first century) set of interdisciplinary engagements, bringing together... more
The field religion and international relations (IR) has been established over the last twenty years within the discipline of IR. It marks a new (largely twenty-first century) set of interdisciplinary engagements, bringing together political science and the sociology of religion. “Religion and IR” and “religious studies” continue to conduct their business independently, in different conferences, journals, and book series, but their interests increasingly overlap. This enquiry interprets religion and IR as a “turn to the local.” This is displayed in its concern with events at the local level that have significance that travels up the scale of levels of analysis to events that have international significance. The turn to the local offers compelling arguments for shifting the focus in IR away from states and on to relations between local, national, and international actors. Engaging here with influential works in religion and IR published over the last fifteen years, I argue that it is ...
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The two problems I wish to consider are (1) discursive extraterritoriality and (2) the notion of appropriating religious 'contents' or their 'semantic heritage'. I argue... more
The two problems I wish to consider are (1) discursive extraterritoriality and (2) the notion of appropriating religious 'contents' or their 'semantic heritage'. I argue that Habermas' binary opposition between 'faith' and 'reason' has the effect (unintended by him) of conceding too much to the rhetoric of the religious right. I share Habermas' concerns about this rhetoric and wish to reinforce his arguments by querying the justification of some of their key assumptions about religious life in modernity.
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This essay will make six claims. These claims arise from reflection upon the practices of scriptural reasoning, in which members of different religious traditions meet together for study of their sacred texts. First, scriptural reasoning... more
This essay will make six claims. These claims arise from reflection upon the practices of scriptural reasoning, in which members of different religious traditions meet together for study of their sacred texts. First, scriptural reasoning does not try to ground its own possibility. Its attempts at ...
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The purpose of this article is to suggest that dogmatic theology is best practised through description of the world. Its method is to marry two unlikely characters: Karl Bardi, Swiss Reformed theologian, and Michel Foucault, French... more
The purpose of this article is to suggest that dogmatic theology is best practised through description of the world. Its method is to marry two unlikely characters: Karl Bardi, Swiss Reformed theologian, and Michel Foucault, French atheist philosopher and historian. The thesis we propose can be presented directly. Barth is well known for insisting, in his ethics lectures in Münster and Bonn (1928/29 and 1930/31 respectively) and volume II of his Church Dogmatics, that ethics is dogmatics. Foucault famously rejected ethics which makes universal normative claims in favour of producing descriptions of historical phenomena and letting the reader make moral judgments accordingly. His method, we suggest, understands ethics as ethnography. We have taken these two ways of thinking together and excluded the middle term: ethics. This has yielded the abbreviated form: ethnography is dogmatics.
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It is well-known that Karl Rahner studied with Heidegger, but although there has been some recent interest in Rahner's eschatology, it is rarely recognised how substantially Rahner's discussion of the future draws on... more
It is well-known that Karl Rahner studied with Heidegger, but although there has been some recent interest in Rahner's eschatology, it is rarely recognised how substantially Rahner's discussion of the future draws on Heidegger's earlier writings on time. At the same time, it is increasingly desirable to show how technical issues in theology bear upon concrete political practice in the public sphere. This article shows the extent of Rahner's use of Heidegger and explains how Rahner's understanding of the future relates to concrete questions of ethics and Christian self-understanding.
This is a response given at the book launch for Christopher Insole’s Kant and the Divine: From Contemplation to the Moral Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), hosted jointly, in November 2020, by the Centre for Catholic Studies,... more
This is a response given at the book launch for Christopher Insole’s Kant and the Divine: From Contemplation to the Moral Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), hosted jointly, in November 2020, by the Centre for Catholic Studies, Durham University, and the Australian Catholic University. The response considers the gap between the textual Kant (as set out by Insole), and the received Kant, and reflects on how theologians have been too quick either to condemn and dismiss (a poorly interpreted) Kant, or to rehabilitate Kant for theological projects, which Kant would have been opposed to, given his deepest philosophical commitments.