Pragmatic Theology: Negotiating the Intersections of an American Philosophy of Religion and Public Theology

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SUNY Press, Jan 29, 1998 - Religion - 172 pages
Pragmatic Theology argues for a vision of religious life that is derived from the tradition of American pragmatism (James, Dewey, Royce); empirical theology (Chicago School, D.C. Macintosh, H. Richard Niebuhr); and American philosophy of religion (Stone, Frankenberry, Corrington). The author argues that there is a divine reality in human experience that when encountered gives meaning and value to a person's need for cultural fulfillment and to his or her religious need for self-transcendence. The book commends the openness of nature, the world, and human experience to creative transformation and growth. It supports the increase of human capacities to create morally livable and fulfilling communities, the enhancement of the free play of interpretation, and a social order where democratic utopian expectations are envisioned and actualized.

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Contents

The Pragmatic Secularization of Theology
13
The Pragmatic Reconstruction of Theology
29
The Vitalist Argument in Theology
53
Pragmatism and Religious Realism
68
Relational Value Theory in Theology
80
Pragmatism and Theology Prospects of Rapprochement
93
Pragmatic Naturalism and Public Theology
110
Conclusion
133
Critical Bibliography
135
Works Cited
153
Index
161
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About the author (1998)

Victor Anderson is Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics, Vanderbilt University, the Divinity School. He is the author of Beyond Ontological Blackness: An Essay in African American Religious and Cultural Criticism.

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