From Faith in Reason to Reason in Faith: Transformations in Philosophical Theology from the Eighteenth to Twentieth Centuries

If the philosophers of the Enlightenment had hoped to establish, once and for all, that reason is the primary source of human orientation, twentieth century philosophy has demonstrated all too clearly that reason is far from having clear boundaries. In this respect, Immanuel Kant’s contemporaries and critics, Johann Georg Hamann and Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, look surprisingly modern. Faith is now increasingly recognized as intrinsic to social identity and thus no more capable of taking a permanently subordinate role to reason—whatever that may be—than reason is capable of an existence free from social embodiment. This collection of thirteen essays focuses upon major philosophical and theological debates from the past three hundred years. Written by leading international scholars, this remarkable text takes the reader through major transitions in the modern understanding of faith and reason. It thus provides an invaluable guide to the history of modern philosophical theology whilst informing readers why the relationship between faith and reason remains an issue of major social and philosophical importance.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Heung-wah Wong Introduction Wayne Cristaudo 1Faith and Reflexivity: Reflections on Language and the “Semiotic Turn” Christopher Hutton 2The Destructive Potential of the God of Reason (Reimarus) Englehard Weigl 3The Material God in Diderot’s D’Alembert’s Dream Miran Bozovic 4Anthropologist of Enlightenment: Purity, Pollution, and Forbidden Mixtures in Hamann’s Metacriticism Peter J. Leithart 5Hegel on Kant, Fichte, Jacobi: Being Reasonable about Faith and Knowledge Wayne Cristaudo 6Beyond Paradox: Faith and Reason in the Thought of Søren Kierkegaard Murray Rae 7Nature, Nurture and Nietzsche’s Faith in Life Nalin Ranasinghe 8Reason and Faith: A Comparison of Immanuel Kant and Albert Schweitzer Predrag Cicovacki 9Faith and Reason: Shestov and Gilson Mathew Del Nevo 10Karl Barth: Reason Beyond Autonomy? Phillip Tolliday 11Consciousness and Transcendence: Voegelin and Lonergan on the Reasonableness of Faith Glenn Hughes 12Reason and Violence in Girard’s Mimetic Theory: The Anthropology of the Cross Robert Hamerton-Kelly 13The Spirit Has Reasons That Rationalists Cannot Fathom: The Emergence of Christian Dao-ology in Late Twentieth Century China Lauren Pfister Index Contributors

About the Author :
Wayne Cristaudo is the director of European studies at the University of Hong Kong. He has written and edited a dozen books, including Great Ideas in the Western Literary Canon (with Peter Poiana) and Power, Love and Evil: Contribution to a Philosophy of the Damaged. He is also the author of two forthcoming books: Religion, Redemption, and Revolution and A Philosophical History of Love. Heung-wah Wong, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist and associate professor of Japanese studies at the University of Hong Kong. He has written numerous articles in leading scholarly journals and is the author and editor of a number of books, including the highly acclaimed Japanese Bosses, Chinese Workers. Wong is the series editor of Culture, Society, and Business in East Asia and the co-editor of St. Augustine: His Relevance and Legacy (with Wayne Cristaudo). His focuses lie in business, the pornographic culture in Asia, and creative industries in Asia.