Ricoeur On Moral Religion

In Ricoeur on Moral Religion, James Carter argues that Paul Ricoeur's later philosophical writings provide a highly instructive interpretive key with which to assess his philosophical project as a whole. This first systematic study of the 'later Ricoeur' offers a critical yet sympathetic reconstruction of Ricoeur's hermeneutics of ethical life, which demonstrates his significant contribution to contemporary philosophy of religion and moral philosophy. What emerges is a clear and distinctive moral religion that binds humans together universally on the basis of the life they share as capable beings. Carter also uncovers a hitherto unforeseen thread in Ricoeur's writings concerning ethical life, pulled through his own readings of Spinoza, Aristotle, and Kant. Ricoeur's hermeneutics is structured by a Kantian architectonic informed at different levels by these three philosophers, who ground a rich, holistic, and ultimately rationalist account of ethical life and religion that resists the trappings of both positivism and postmodernism.

This text examines the distinctive and significant contribution of the great French philosopher, Paul Ricoeur to contemporary debates in ethics and philosophy of religion. James Carter argues that Ricoeur's later writings in particular offer a vision of ethical life that can be understood as a moral religion.

This book explores and proposes new avenues for contemporary moral thought. It defines and assesses the significance of the writings of French philosopher Paul Ricoeur for ethics. The book also explores what matters most to persons and how best to sustain just communities.

Looks at Ricoeur’s writings on love and justice, prominent toward the end of his life, and how these serve as an interpretive key to his thought as a whole.

Paul Ricoeur (1913), prominent French philosopher, is one of the most versatile thinkers of our time. Moreover, he is known to be an extremely gifted lecturer, who is able to set forth ethical issues very lucidly. His erudition and profundity are also evident in the two texts that are central to this book, i.e. 'The Problem of the Foundation of Moral Philosophy' and 'Can Forgiveness Heal?' These lectures constitute a remarkable effort on the part of Ricoeur to find an original and more radical foundation of ethics than can be expressed in any law. He demonstrates quite convincingly why the law is not the primary category of ethics. He further deals with the question of what might be the evangelical orientation of ethics. Finally, he sheds light on the specific role of forgiveness. The two lectures by Ricoeur, which have been translated here from French into English, and to which an introduction and three multi-disciplinary commentaries have been added, not only elucidate a fundamental question in the field of ethics, but, in a more general sense, they are also fine examples of philosophical reasoning.

Paul Ricoeur (1913--2005) remains one of philosophy of religion's most distinctive voices. Ricoeur was a philosopher first, and while his religious reflections are very relevant to theology, Boyd Blundell argues that his philosophy is even more relevant. Using Ricoeur's own philosophical hermeneutics, Blundell shows that there is a way for explicitly Christian theology to maintain both its integrity and overall relevance. He demonstrates how the dominant pattern of detour and return found throughout Ricoeur's work provides a path to understanding the relationship between philosophy and theology. By putting Ricoeur in dialogue with current, fundamental, and longstanding debates about the role of philosophy in theology, Blundell offers a hermeneutically sensitive engagement with Ricoeur's thought from a theological perspective.

The thought of Paul Ricoeur continues its profound effect on theology, religious studies and biblical interpretation. The 28 papers contained in this volume constitute the most comprehensive overview of Ricoeur's writings in religion since 1970. Ricoeur's hermeneutical orientation and his sensitivity to the mystery of religious language offer fresh insight to the transformative potential of sacred literature, including the Bible.