Thinking nature and the nature of thinking : from Eriugena to Emerson / Willemien Otten.
| Author/creator | Otten, Willemien author. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication | Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2020] |
| Description | xv, 284 pages ; 23 cm. |
| Subjects |
| Series | Cultural memory in the present Cultural memory in the present. ^A403800 |
| Contents | Thinking nature in Eriugena and Emerson -- Panchristology and the liturgical cosmos of Maximus the Confessor -- Taking place : creation and the hexaemeron in Augustine -- Postscript to part 1 : nature as conversation -- Nature as dispositive thought in Schleiermacher's speeches on religion -- William James and the science of religious selfhood -- Conclusion : (thinking nature) and the nature of thinking |
| Abstract | "This book takes a humanistic and theological approach to the religious culture of the West by emphasizing the importance of thinking about nature. It argues that in the current environmental crisis, our thinking about nature is under siege, for nature is too quickly seen as victimized and humanity too often considered the culprit. Turning to theology as a way out of this bind, the author examines an old tradition of Western religious thought about nature in which God, the self, and nature are placed on a continuum. Engaging various thinkers who have previously (and unduly, to her way of thinking) been left out of religious discussions, the author privileges an unusual pair of protagonists, John the Scot Eriugena, the early medieval theologian and author of the Periphyseon, or The Division of Nature (considered a final word in the tradition of ancient philosophy but also condemned at the Council of Sens in 1225), and modern American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. Arguing that these two thinkers shed light on each other while offering a third way between the objectified, instrumentalized nature of contemporary science and environmentalism and the mystical nature that is the exclusive alternative we find in most eco-religious and eco-philosophical thinking, the book rehabilitates the importance of reflecting on nature in terms of nature's own relevance and agency. As she puts her protagonists in conversation with both each other and with a range of further interlocutors, the author casts a wide net, bringing in figures both secular and confessional, remote in time and in space. This coming together of congenial minds makes for a Platonic Symposium of sorts, as she puts it. Eriugena is illuminated via Augustine and Maximus the Confessor, representing the Western and Eastern Christian traditions, respectively; Emerson is at the center of a wider circle, in dialogue with both the continental founder of modern theology, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and the American thinker of religious experience, William James. The result is not a new natural theology, the tradition of which this book to some extent deconstructs, but rather a religious reconceptualization of the meaning and development of nature in the West"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Issued in other form | Online version: Otten, Willemien, Thinking nature and the nature of thinking 1. Stanford : Stanford University Press, 2020. 9781503611689 |
| LCCN | 2019028970 |
| ISBN | 9781503606708 hardcover |
| ISBN | 1503606708 hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781503611672 paperback |
| ISBN | 1503611671 paperback |
| ISBN | electronic book |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joyner | General Stacks | BD581 .O76 2020 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |