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Leonardo Messinese,
The Problem of God in Modern Philosophy
Philosophical and Cultural Studies in Religion
Messinese examines the ideas of God at work within modern
philosophy, including Descartes, Hume, Kant and Hegel, and
demonstrates their contemporary significance for thinking about God.
Ultimately, Hegel's thought is the site of greatest opportunity for
understanding the relationship and the difference between philosophy
and theology. For Hegel, God is understood as "immanent
transcendence," and this is the highest achievement of modern
philosophy, in contrast to a theology that sees God as pure
transcendence in faith.
Contents
Preface by Armando Rigobello
Introduction —
What is Modern
Philosophy?
Chapter 1 —
Modern
Philosophy and the Problem of God
Chapter 2 — The
Problem of God. The Rationalist and Empiricist Perspectives
Chapter 3 — The
Kantian Critique and the Hegelian Solution to the Problem of God
Chapter 4 — Philosophical Theology and the
Demonstration of God’s Existence
Conclusion —
Questioning the Immanentist
Interpretation of Modern Philosophy
Appendix —
Modern Thought
and the Search for God
Review
"Messinese begins his analysis by reflecting on two interpretations
of modern philosophy: one, which views modern philosophy from a
strongly systematic point of view; the other, which considers it as
an implicit nihilism; yet both interpretations dovetail in that they
see modern philosophy as placed in radical opposition to
‘Christian-Medieval’ thought.
The
Author then hypothesizes another less radical interpretation, thus
bringing to the conversation a strictly immanentistic interpretation
that a consolidated tradition offers concerning modern thought.
Hence, he arrives at this conclusion: “In the modern period, upon
close examination, beyond a certain configuration of philosophy as
‘separate’ from religion, other frameworks have been given, in which
Christianity has shown even more its ability to favor the
development of an authentic ‘philosophy’, particularly, in valuing
the ‘interior’ way of man’s relation to God in allowing such a
reflection about God so as to develop a ‘richer’ concept of him on
the strictly rational level.”
We are
grateful to Messinese because, with his argumentative strength, he
has allowed us to see with greater depth and accuracy that which
perhaps we were tempted to consider already acquired and
indubitable."
Rivista di scienze dell'educazione
Author
Leonardo Messinese is Full Professor and occupies
the Chair of History of Modern Philosophy at the Pontifical Lateran
University in Rome. His publications include Essere e divenire
nel pensiero di E. Severino. Nichilismo tecnologico e domanda
metafisica [Being and Becoming in the Thought of E. Severino:
Technological Nihilism and Metaphysical Questioning], considered
one of the most accomplished works concerning the renowned Italian
philosopher, Severino; Pensiero e tras-cendenza. La disputa
Carlini-Olgiati del 1931-1933 [Thought and Transcendence: The
Carlini-Olgiati debate from 1931-1933]; Invito alla lettura
di Cartesio [Guide to Reading Descartes]; Heidegger e
la filosofia dell’epoca moderna. L’«inizio» della soggettività:
Descartes [Heidegger and the Philosophy of the Modern Age.
The “Beginning” of Subjectivity: Descartes] (he received the
Capri–San Michele Award for this work on Heidegger); and
Fondamento e fondamentalismi. Filosofia, religione, religioni [Foundation
and Fundamentalism: Philosophy, Religion, Religions], which he
co-edited. He is Coordinator of the international philosophical
journal Aquinas and Secretary for the Rome section of the
journal Filosofia e Teologia [Philosophy and Theology].
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