Transcendence, Creation and Incarnation: From Philosophy to Religion

by Anthony O'Hear

Overview

This book expounds and analyses notions of transcendence, creation and incarnation reflectively and personally, combining both philosophical and religious insights. Preferring tender-minded approaches to reductively materialistic ones, it shows some ways in which reductive approaches to human affairs can distort the appreication of our lives and activities.

In the book’s first half it examines a number of aspects of human life and experience in the thought of Darwin, Ruskin, and Scruton with a view to exploring the extent to which there could be intimations of transcendence. The second half is then devoted to outlining an account of divine creation and incarnation, deriving initially, though not uncritically, from the thought of Simone Weil. The text concludes by examining the extent to which grace is needed to engage in religious practice and belief.

Taking in art, literature, music and classical Greek writings, this is a multifaceted thesis on transcendence. It will, therefore, will be of keen interest to any scholar of Philosophy of Religion, Theology, Aesthetics and Metaphysics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781000164107
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/11/2020
Series:	Transcending Boundaries in Philosophy and Theology
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Anthony O’Hear is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Buckingham, UK. From 1994-2019 he was Director of the Royal Institute of Philosophy and Editor of Philosophy, its academic journal. He is the author of many books and articles on philosophy, including Karl Popper (1980), What Philosophy Is (1984), The Element of Fire (1988), Introduction to the Philosophy of Science (1989), Beyond Evolution (1997), Philosophy in the New Century (2001) and The Landscape of Humanity (2008). Picturing the Apocalypse (2015), co-authored with Natasha O’Hear, won the ACE/Mercers prize in 2017 as the best book internationally on art and religion. Anthony O’Hear was appointed OBE in 2018.

Table of Contents

Preface; Part One: Transcendence; Chapter One The Scope of Philosophy; Chapter Two Darwinian Tensions; Chapter Three Epistemology and the Anthropic Principle; Chapter Four The Lost Amazing Crown: The Meaning of Ruskin’s Theoretic Faculty; Chapter Five The Great Absence: Scruton’s Cognitive Dualism; Part Two: Creation and Incarnation; Chapter Six Why? Creation and Incarnation; Chapter Seven This is the Place: Reflections on the Reality of the Incarnation; Chapter Eight Conclusion; Appendix ‘The Night’ by Henry Vaughan and ‘Love’ by George Herbert