Written throughout Louis Dupre's life, Thinking the Unknowable explores the relationship between faith and metaphysics, charting the course for an innovative Christian philosophy of religion. Louis Dupre's Thinking the Unknowable offers a sophisticated response to the subjectivist ills of modern philosophy. Drawing on a diverse host of philosophers, theologians, and phenomenologists, Dupre seeks to open up a space for faith in contemporary philosophy of religion by arguing that metaphysics cannot claim authority in the realm of the transcendent. Instead, Dupre shows that philosophers must learn to accommodate mystery in their metaphysical frameworks. Edited and introduced by Peter J. Casarella, prominent theologian and student of Dupre, the book unfolds in four parts. Dupre establishes the foundations for a new theology of language, drawing inspiration from two sources: humanist theological hermeneutics and deist biblical spirituality. The second part addresses the idea of God in modern philosophy, taking Hegel's philosophy of religion as its starting point. The third deals with the phenomenology of religion, focusing primarily on the work of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. In the fourth part, Dupre turns to the concept of mysticism, offering a sophisticated reflection on the possibility of acknowledging a transcendent horizon to human knowing in a secular age. Readers of this volume will be guided across the bridge from philosophy to faith and back again, discovering new worlds of meaning and expressions of truth.
Louis Dupre was the T. Lawrason Riggs Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Yale. He was the author of Religion and the Rise of Modern Culture and The Quest of the Absolute: Birth and Decline of European Romanticism. Peter J. Casarella is a professor of theology at Duke Divinity School. He is the author of multiple books, including The Whole Is Greater Than Its Parts: Ecumenism and Inter-religious Encounters in the Age of Pope Francis.
Foreword by Peter Casarella 1. Philosophy and Faith Part 1. Farewell to a Symbolic World 2. The Modern Idea of Culture and Its Opposition to Its Classical and Medieval Origins 3. The Fragmentation of the Symbolic World 4. The Sources of Modern Atheism Part 2. Philosophical Reinterpretations of Theology 5. Hegel's Spirit and the Religious Idea of God as Spirit 6. Philosophical Reflections on the Mystery of Creation 7. Evil and the Limits of Theodicy 8. Intimations of Immortality Part 3. Phenomenology: Philosophy Reopens its Doors to Mystery 9. Phenomenology of Religion: Limits and Possibilities 10. Phenomenology and Religious Truth 11. The Enigma of Religious Art 12. Ritual: The Sacralization of Time Part 4. Mysticism: The Silence of Faith 13. Is a Natural Desire of God Possible? 14. Mysticism and Philosophy 15. Justifying the Mystical Experience
"A marvel of intellectual probity and learning. It's safe to say that Thinking the Unknowable will become a standard introduction for anyone seeking an informed, efficient, and clearly argued introduction to the field of philosophical theology." -Thomas Pfau, author of Incomprehensible Certainty
