What is the true calling of the intellectual? In this provocative
new book, Andrew Shanks presents a distinctive fresh answer. The
Other Calling is a systematic riposte both to the elitism of
philosophy in the heritage of Plato, and to the typical
individualism of Plato's philosophic opponents. Here, instead,
intellectual integrity is identified with a form of priesthood.
* * Asserts that intellectuals are critical to bringing together
the common aspirations of a community
* * Offers a strikingly original approach to the moral and
political aspects of theology's relationship with philosophy,
exploring the perspectives of both disciplines
* Draws on the work and thought of Christians, Muslims, Hindus,
Buddhists, Agnostics, and Atheists
* Argues for a new, religiously multicultural "priesthood
of all thinkers", considering how once, all intellectuals
were as a matter of course also priests
* Published in the new and prestigious Illuminations
series
Autorentext
Andrew Shanks is the Canon Theologian for Manchester Cathedral. He is also the author of the following books: Hegel's Political Theology (1991), Civil Society, Civil Religion (Blackwell, 1995), God and Modernity (2000), What is Truth? (2001), and Faith in Honesty (2006).
Zusammenfassung
What is the true calling of the intellectual? In this provocative new book, Andrew Shanks presents a distinctive fresh answer. The Other Calling is a systematic riposte both to the elitism of philosophy in the heritage of Plato, and to the typical individualism of Plato's philosophic opponents. Here, instead, intellectual integrity is identified with a form of priesthood.
- Asserts that intellectuals are critical to bringing together the common aspirations of a community
- Offers a strikingly original approach to the moral and political aspects of theology's relationship with philosophy, exploring the perspectives of both disciplines
- Draws on the work and thought of Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Agnostics, and Atheists
- Argues for a new, religiously multicultural priesthood of all thinkers, considering how once, all intellectuals were as a matter of course also priests
- Published in the new and prestigious Illuminations series
Inhalt
Introduction: Why Theology? / What is an Intellectual?.
PART I: PHILOSOPHY.
1. The Incompleteness of Philosophy Alone.
2. Philosophy and Folk Religion: Two 'Forms' for a Single
'Content'.
3. 'Philosophic Politics' (i): Strauss amongst 'the Moderns' and
'the Postmoderns'.
4. 'Philosophic Politics' (ii): Strauss and 'the Ancients'.
5. Anti-Philosophical Philosophy (i): Kojève's Critique of
the 'Cloistered Mind'.
6. Anti-Philosophical Philosophy (ii): Epicurus, Rousseau.
PART II: THEOLOGY.
7. Beyond Metaphysics: 'the Science of the Sacralisation of
Honesty, in Theist, Catholic form'.
8. Coleridge's Notion of the 'Clerisy'.
9. Sacramentally Framed Thought.
10. 'The Conflict': From Amos to Hegel, and Girard.
11. What is an Intellectual? / Why Theology?.
Notes.
Index