Religious Critic in American Culture

Inbunden, Engelska, 1994

AvWilliam Dean

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This book provides a new rationale for "religious criticism" in American society. First, Dean shows why today's academic intellectuals are relatively indifferent to questions of meaning in America, pointing to the loss of American "exceptionalism," the professionalization of the academy, and the rise of post-structural criticism. He then shows how intellectuals may reclaim a prophetic role by offering a new theory of the nature of religious thought. Tracing this theory to a twentieth-century emphasis on conventions, Dean provides a way to understand how imaginative social constructions can become active historical conventions, with real historical force. He suggests that the sacred itself begins as an imaginative construct and becomes a convention, thus working as an active, "living" force in history. Finally, Dean argues that religious critics must now reclaim a responsibility for shaping their society's sacred conventions.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum1994-08-24
Mått152 x 229 x 25 mm
Vikt535 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor256
FörlagState University of New York Press
ISBN9780791421130

Tillhör följande kategorier

Religion och tro inom Filosofi och religion
Kristendom inom Filosofi och religion

William Dean is Professor of Religion at Gustavas Adolphus College. He is currently Chair, Philosophy of Religion Section of the American Academy of Religion and Vice President of the Highlands Institute for American Religious Thought. He is also the author of American Religious Empiricism, and History Making History: The New Historicism in American Religious Thought, both published by SUNY Press.

Preface Introduction Part I: Abandoning American Culture 1. The Religious Critic and the End of an Era 2. The Rise of the Professional Intellectual 3. William James, Public Intellectual Part II: Recovering Religious Theory 4. Religious Narrative and the Avoidance of Nature 5. Religious Naturalism and the Avoidance of Ambiguity 6. The Religious Thinker and the Acceptance of History Part III: Grounding Religious Theory 7. The Reality of Conventions 8. The Reality of the Sacred Convention Part IV: Reclaiming American Culture 9. The Religious Critic in the Third Sector 10. The Religious Critic and a Myth of America Notes Bibliography Index

"William Dean has written a powerful book for our time—the best case for serious public intellectuals we have!" — Cornel West, Harvard University"This book engages the reader in an exploration of a related set of ideas, ideas that are timely, complex, challenging, and open-ended. Every page, including many of the footnotes, is an invitation to look further and to reconsider received opinion. Few readers will have read as widely or as carefully." — Robert L. Payton, Indiana University"A thoughtful, persuasive case for the overdue reunion of religion with intellect in the public square. William Dean restores perspective to the most important debate of our time." — Hodding Carter