Nineteenth Century Religious Thought In The West

The successful three volumes of Nineteenth Century Religious Thought in the West provide a fresh appraisal of the most important thinkers of that time. Soames essays centre on major figures of the period; others cover topics, trends and schools of thought between the French Revolution and the First World War.

A fresh appraisal of the most important religious thinkers of the nineteenth century.

This is the first of a set of three volumes which provide a fresh appraisal of the most important thinkers of the nineteenth century in the West. Some essays centre on major figures of the period; others cover topics, trends and schools of thought between the French Revolution and the First World War. The contributors are among the leading scholars in their field in Europe and North America. They seek to engage their subjects not only in order to see what was said but also why it was said and explore what is of lasting value in it. Readers, therefore, will find the essays not only highly informative about their subject matter but also distinctively personal contributions to the task of re-evaluating the thought of the nineteenth century. Contributions are sufficently clear to be of use to students in religious studies and cognate disciplines but have enough depth and detail to appeal to scholars.

The nineteenth century was a turbulent period in the history of the philosophical scrutiny of religion. Major scholars - such as Hegel, Fichte, Schelling, Newman, Caird and Royce - sought to construct systematic responses to the Enlightenment critiques of religion carried out by Spinoza and Hume. At the same time, new critiques of religion were launched by philosophers such as Schopenhauer and Nietzsche and by scholars engaged in textual criticism, such as Schleiermacher and Dilthey. Over the course of the century, the work of Marx, Freud, Darwin and Durkheim brought the revolutionary perspectives of political economy, psychoanalysis, evolutionary theory and anthropology to bear on both religion and its study. These challenges played a major role in the shaping of twentieth-century philosophical thought about religion. "Nineteenth-Century Philosophy of Religion" will be of interest to scholars and students of Philosophy and Religion, and will serve as an authoritative guide for all who are interested in the debates that took place in this seminal period in the history of philosophical thinking about religion.

This is a clear picture of the main currents of Western religious thought in the nineteenth century.

In this second of three volumes which survey the dynamic interplay of Christianity and Western thought from the earliest centuries through the twentieth century, Steve Wilkens and Alan Padgett tell the story of the monumental changes of the nineteenth century.

Mr Reardon begins with a substantial introduction characterizing the age as a whole, contrasting it with the previous century and assessing its permanent achievements. The book is divided into two parts. The first deals with twelve writers from continental Europe, with an account of the chosen author's life, work and opinions. The second deals with British and American writers and again each of the twelve chapters is introduced by an essay of about 1500 words. Mr Reardon gives special attention to the philosophical interpretation of religion and of Christianity in particular. Traditional dogma and ecclesiastical politics, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant, have been avoided and emphasis is given to ideas and interests that are characteristic of the period. Not all the thinkers introduced (e.g. Feuerbach, Comte, J. S. Mill) are themselves Christian. The result is a clear picture of the main currents of Western religious thought in the nineteenth century. It is a century which the student of religion today is likely to find of great interest and to which many will feel a close affinity.