In this collection of essays, written over the past decade, Robert Cummings Neville addresses contemporary debates about the concept of religion and the importance of the comparative method in theology, while advancing and defending his own original definition of religion. Neville's hypothesis is that religion is a cognitive, existential, and practical engagement of ultimate realities—five ultimate conditions of existence that need to be engaged by human beings. The essays, which range from formal articles to invited lectures, develop this hypothesis and explore its ramifications in religious experience, philosophical theology, religious studies, and the works of important thinkers in philosophy of religion. Defining Religion is an excellent introduction to Neville's work, especially to the systematic philosophical theology presented in his magisterial three-volume set Philosophical Theology.
Neville returns eternity to the center of consideration by analyzing the obsessive culture that attempts to get along denying it; and he analyzes the nature of time's flow itself, the nature of divine eternity, and the subtle problems of personal immortality. He argues that time and eternity constitute one topic and that, therefore, time itself is beyond understanding, beyond personal grasp, and beyond civilized orientation without a proper comprehension of eternity.
The second volume in a trilogy advancing a systematic philosophical theology, this book explores the realities of human existence articulated by religion. Religion, writes Robert Cummings Neville, articulates existential predicaments and provides venues for ecstatic fulfillment. Like its companion volumes treating ultimacy and religion, Existence advances a systematic philosophical theology to address first-order questions found in the array of Axial Age religions. Issues arising in the major religious traditions are explored through a complex array of philosophical approaches. This second volume shows religion to be the engagement of ultimate realities common to all human beings. Neville finds five problematics relative to ultimate boundary conditions of the human world: the contingency of existence, living under obligation, the quest for wholeness, engagement with others, and the meaning or value in life. Common to all human beings and hence religion, the engagement with realities is also historically and culturally bound, becoming simultaneously socially constructed religions. Readers will find Nevilles philosophical theology both bold and enlightening, running counter to dominant intellectual trends while richly informed by a long and fruitful engagement with theology, philosophy, and religion, East and West.
A textbook for an advanced undergraduate seminary course in theology. Assumes the reader has not studied theology before. Also suitable for rigorous adult courses and individual study. Paper edition (unseen), $12.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
The other problem is how to exercise practical reason across cultures expressive of different civilizations. How can human beings be responsible in a world where all values seem culture-bound and the obvious solution seems to be moral relativism that trivializes responsibility? Neville presents a theory of practical reason oriented to objective norms determined cross-culturally and based on a Confucian sense of the ritual character of the most important levels of moral life
Complete 3 volume set available for special price: Philosophical Theology Set (Volumes 1, 2 and 3) The concluding volume in a trilogy advancing a systematic philosophical theology, this book presents a plausible sacred worldview for religious participation. Religion is the third and final volume in Robert Cummings Nevilles systematic development of a new philosophical theology. Unfolding through his earlier volumes, Ultimates and Existence, and now in Religion, philosophical theology considers first-order questions generally treated by religious traditions through philosophical methods while reflecting Nevilles long engagement with philosophy, theology, and Eastern and Western religious traditions. In this capstone to the trilogy, Neville provides a theory of religion and presents a sacred worldview to guide religious participation. His philosophical theory of value enlightens religions approaches to ethics, spirituality, and religious institutional living and collaboration. With a detailed examination of plausibility conditions for sacred worldviews, the book concludes with an exploration of religionless religion for which institutions of religion are of penultimate value. Through the development of philosophical theology, Neville has built a unique, multidisciplinary, comparative, nonconfessional theological system, one that addresses concerns and provides tools for scientific and humanistic scholars of religion, postmodern thinkers, intellectuals from both secular and religious backgrounds, and those interested in the global state of religion today.
This book provides a cross-cultural analysis of how religious symbols function from a theological and philosophical perspective. Showing how religious symbols can be true in various qualified senses, Neville presents a theory of religious symbolism in the American pragmatic tradition extending and elaborating Tillich's claim that religious symbols participate in the divine realities to which they refer and yet must be broken in order not to be idolatrous or demonic. The Truth of Broken Symbols offers a theory of religious symbolism treating reference, meaning, and interpretation, and discussing different functions of religious symbols in theological, practical, and devotional contexts. It shows that religious symbols are to be properly understood as true or false and that symbol-systems such as myths, theologies, or liturgical symbols are to be used to engage divine realities while internally exhibiting semiotic structures of reference, meaning, and interpretation.
This is a philosophic study of some aspects of spiritual development, broadly defined. Professor Neville has been influenced significantly by comparison between several of the world's great spiritual traditions, and he has tried to be faithful to experiences in those traditions. Readers whose interest in spiritual development come out of non-Western traditions will find this book congenial. But this is a philosophical study, and the book puts forward a philosophical theory of spiritual development, paying attention to personal, social, and metaphysical concerns, and analyzing three central images of spiritual "heroism." The central contribution attempted here is a way of understanding the quest for spiritual liberation or perfection through the models of the spiritual soldier, the sage, and the saint. At times the argument aims, not just to understand, but to promote spiritual liberation, and to do so through philosophic understanding.
Neville's most significant scholarly contribution is arguably his metaphysical theory of being (or being-itself): a new theory that involves an original solution to the ancient problem of the one and the many. He developed this theory for his PhD dissertation at Yale University (graduated 1963), of which his first book, God the Creator, constitutes a substantial revision. Exploring the implications of that theory has enabled him to produce a philosophy of nature that rivals Alfred North Whitehead's in scope and power, as can be seen from his three-volume Axiology of Thinking. The first volume in that trilogy, Reconstruction of Thinking (1981), was hailed by Donald W. Sherburne?editor of the corrected edition of Whitehead's Process and Reality?as "a truly important book. It is the first genuinely neo-Whiteheadian offering on a large, systematic scale."The second volume of the trilogy, Recovery of the Measure: Interpretation and Nature (1989), was also well received. The prominent Confucian scholar and philosopher David L. Hall wrote of it as follows: "Because of its timeliness, the brilliance of its arguments, and the profundity of its conclusions,
Neville returns eternity to the center of consideration by analyzing the obsessive culture that attempts to get along denying it; and he analyzes the nature of time's flow itself, the nature of divine eternity, and the subtle problems of personal immortality. He argues that time and eternity constitute one topic and that, therefore, time itself is beyond understanding, beyond personal grasp, and beyond civilized orientation without a proper comprehension of eternity.
To distinguish and to relate these senses of freedom, a broad philosophical perspective is required. Neville provides a functional philosophical cosmology that shows how all the senses of freedom are functions of the natural cosmos. In conjunction with his theory of divine creation in God the Creator, this book is an important argument for reconciling human freedom and divine creativity
This book provides a cross-cultural analysis of how religious symbols function from a theological and philosophical perspective. Showing how religious symbols can be true in various qualified senses, Neville presents a theory of religious symbolism in the American pragmatic tradition extending and elaborating Tillich's claim that religious symbols participate in the divine realities to which they refer and yet must be broken in order not to be idolatrous or demonic. The Truth of Broken Symbols offers a theory of religious symbolism treating reference, meaning, and interpretation, and discussing different functions of religious symbols in theological, practical, and devotional contexts. It shows that religious symbols are to be properly understood as true or false and that symbol-systems such as myths, theologies, or liturgical symbols are to be used to engage divine realities while internally exhibiting semiotic structures of reference, meaning, and interpretation.
Discussions of modernism and postmodernism in philosophy and the arts are usually based on a narrow reading of the Western tradition and are not conscious of the narrowness. The modern period, beginning with the European Renaissance, spawned many developments, not just the modernist one in terms of which the tradition has been read. From the standpoint of the highroad around modernism, both modernism and post-modernism look like nothing more than two late modern movements, perhaps too preoccupied with themselves and their historical place to engage a swiftly changing world containing more than the Western tradition. The Highroad Around Modernism develops and defends an explicitly non-modernist and non-postmodernist extension of modernity applicable to the problems of world-wide cultural interactions.
This book develops a contemporary metaphysics of morals. Currently the liberal tradition defines the field of moral and political theory. It contains the popular utilitarian, the deontological, and the virtue-ethics approaches to normative theory; and by a broad dialectical negation, it also defines the historical materialism of Marx. The Puritan Smile circumvents the Liberalism-Marxism dialectic with the Puritan emphasis on responsibility and their social definition of individuality. To this core of classical puritanism is added the deeply rooted sense of culture and the vast historical experience of Confucianism with which it resonates strongly. The need for tolerance and the celebration of liberty is asserted by Neville in order to offset the tendencies toward dogmatism and totalitarianism inherent within the Puritan and Confucian views. The book integrates a Puritan sense of participation with a Confucian sense of moral obligation and a liberal appreciation of freedom and tolerance.
Behind the Masks of God develops an abstract concept of creation ex nihilo to compare and contextualize many of the symbols and more concrete ideas of divinity in world religions. The first focus is Christianity, and the book is put forward as an essay in Christian theology. In addition, the essay asks how creation ex nihilo serves to relate Christianity to other religions, particularly those of China. Neville addresses both Buddhism and Christianity, and to a lesser extent Taoism, as test cases for the applicability of creation ex nihilo as a fundamental comparative category for connecting theistic religions with non-theistic ones.
Religion in Late Modernity runs against the grain of common suppositions of contemporary theology and philosophy of religion. Against the common supposition that basic religious terms have no real reference but are mere functions of human need, the book presents a pragmatic theory of religious symbolism in terms of which the cognitive engagement of the Ultimate is of a piece with the cognitive engagement of nature and persons. Throughout this discussion, Neville develops a late-modern conception of God that is defensible in a global theological public. Against the common supposition that religion is on the retreat in late modernity except in fundamentalist forms, the author argues that religion in our time is a stimulus to religiously oriented scholarship, a civilizing force among world societies, a foundation for obligation in politics, a source for healthy social experimentation, and the most important mover of soul.
What is comparative philosophy? This question is ultimately a methodological one according to this much-needed book. The cultivation of area studies in diverse traditions has opened up opportunities for cross-cultural understanding that have rarely existed before, and comparative philosophy is a rapidly emerging area of inquiry. Yet, surprisingly little has been written on comparative methodology in philosophy. Of course, there is much at stake in how we compare things: how comparison is done determines what comparison is. Author Robert W. Smid provides a critical review of four of the most influential comparative methodologies within the American pragmatist and process philosophical traditions, those of William Ernest Hocking, F. S. C. Northrop, Robert Cummings Neville, and David L. Hall in collaboration with Roger T. Ames. Discussing the history of each methodology's development and critically assessing its strengths and weaknesses, Smid demonstrates that it is possible to compare methods as well as traditions and encourages those interested to join the contemporary conversation.
Creativity and God is a sympathetic criticism of process theology. Neville shows that process thought is deeply mistaken to distinguish as it does so sharply between creativity and God and thus falls into both metaphysical and religious difficulties. Metaphysically, it cannot give an adequate account of temporality in God, and Lewis Ford's attempt to do so is analyzed here; nor can it give an account of eternity in God, and Charles Hartshorne's efforts are analyzed. Schubert Ogden has argued that a process neo-classical conception of God is both philosophically superior to alternatives and adequate for representing the religious dimensions of human experience, and Neville argues in detail that this is not so. Charles Winquist has argued that process theology can be made compatible with transcendental theology and its contemporary heirs, and Neville argues that this diminishes the contributions of both sides. John Cobb Jr. has pioneered in the use of process theology for establishing dialogues with East Asian religions, but Neville warns against the biases in its categories. Where process theology seeks to preserve both divine benevolence and human freedom by separating God's creativity from that in human individuals, Neville argues that this makes God unworthy of worship and the human heart empty of the divine. Whereas process theologians look on Neville's theology of divine creation ex nihilo of everything determinate as a peculiar kind of mystical atheism, Neville argues that process theology makes God just another cosmological object, not God at all. Creativity and God joins these issues.
This is a philosophic study of theory and practical reason focusing on social obligation and personal responsibility. It draws on Chinese as well as Western Traditions of philosophy.
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The Tao and the Daimon examines a central theme in religious studies: the question of the authority and authenticity of traditional religious faith and practice (tao) in light of the challenge from the spirit of critical reason (Socrates' daimon). From a non-judgmental, historical standpoint, it develops the dialectical relation between religion and rational inquiry. Neville employs a philosophical system to set a task for reflection, making it possible to see how Eastern and Western religious traditions differ, overlap, contradict, and reinforce one another. The central chapters are detailed studies of theologically interesting elements in Christianity, Buddhism, taoism, and Neoconfucianism. How can one judge of the higher truths of another religion without having practiced it? Can the tao and the daimon, after all, be reconciled purely in the conceptual realm of speculative philosophy? Neville recognizes the very real differences between conceptualizing and practicing and the very real differences in understanding that can result. At the same time, he transcends the problem by identifying (and exemplifying in his own work) speculative philosophy as a tao in itself, "a new locus of religious significance, our own scholarly interpretation, new creations of the holy out of practiced scholarly piety toward the old.
Trivia Why's will make you trivia wise with these great features: 1) Over 2,000 questions with multiple-choice answers are each accompanied by a related factoid. Why is this answer correct (and not that one)? Why else is this person famous (or infamous)? Why was this event historically significant? 2) By cycling through six standard genus categories, this book makes an excellent supplement to your favorite trivia board game while providing a healthy variety of topics for your reading pleasure. Answers are hidden from view while the questions are being read and appear in the same block on the same side of the book two pages later. 3) Every question and answer has been carefully researched for accuracy and recently updated to include the latest available data. Since trivia is a moving target, however, updates and corrections will be posted to the triviawhys.com web site.
Robert Harrison and Robert Browne were the initiators of the principles of English Separatism and Congregationalism. The ideas of these two men profoundly influenced the Puritan movement both of England and America.
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