The Realist Hope: A Critique of Anti-Realist Approaches in Contemporary Philosophical Theology (Heythrop Studies in Contemporary Philosophy, Religion and Theology) - Hardcover

Insole, Christopher J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0754654877 ISBN 13: 9780754654872

Publisher: Routledge, 2006

Synopsis

Taking into consideration analytical, continental, historical, post-modern and contemporary thinkers, Insole provides a powerful defence of a realist construal of religious discourse. Insole argues that anti-realism tends towards absolutism and hubris. Where truth is exhausted by our beliefs about truth, there is no conceptual space for doubting those beliefs; only a conception of truth as absolute, given and accessible can guarantee the very humility, sense of fallibility and sensitivity to difference that the anti-realist rightly values. Cutting through some of the tired and well-rehearsed debates in this area, Insole provides a fresh perspective on approaches influenced by Wittgenstein, Kant, and apophatic theology. The defence of realism offered is unusual in being both analytically precise, and theologically sensitive, with a view to some of the wider and less well-explored cultural, ethical and political implications of the debate.

About this title

About the Author

Christopher J. Insole is Professor in Philosophical Theology and Ethics at the University of Durham, UK, and Professorial Fellow at the Australian Catholic University. He has published extensively on realism and anti-realism, religious epistemology, the relationship between theology, metaphysics, and political philosophy, and on Immanuel Kant's philosophy of religion.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0754654877
• ISBN 13: 9780754654872
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 220