The History of Religious Imagination in Christian Platonism: Exploring the Philosophy of Douglas Hedley
Ebook
This collection provides the first in-depth introduction to the theory of the religious imagination put forward by renowned philosopher Douglas Hedley, from his earliest essays to his principal writings. Featuring Hedley's inaugural lecture delivered at Cambridge University in 2018, the book sheds light on his robust concept of religious imagination as the chief power of the soul's knowledge of the Divine and reveals its importance in contemporary metaphysics, ethics and politics.
Chapters trace the development of the religious imagination in Christian Platonism from Late Antiquity to British Romanticism, drawing on Origen, Henry More and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, before providing a survey of alternative contemporary versions of the concept as outlined by Karl Rahner, René Girard and William P. Alston, as well as within Indian philosophy. By bringing Christian Platonist thought into dialogue with contemporary philosophy and theology, the volume systematically reveals the relevance of Hedley's work to current debates in religious epistemology and metaphysics. It offers a comprehensive appraisal of the historical contribution of imagination to religious understanding and, as such, will be of great interest to philosophers, theologians and historians alike.
Introduces Douglas Hedley's doctrine of the religious imagination and charts its development from Late Antiquity to British Romanticism.
Provides a historical and systematic account of the religious imagination and its contribution to religious understanding
Relates the work of various historically important figures, including Origen and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, to contemporary debates in the philosophy of religion
Features Douglas Hedley's inaugural lecture delivered at Cambridge University in 2018 and complements his three previously published works with Bloomsbury
Preface
Introduction: “Devout Contemplation and Sublime Fancy” of the Cambridge Platonists and their Legacy, Douglas Hedley (Cambridge University, UK)
Part I: The Religious Philosophy of Douglas Hedley
1. The Chariot, the Temple and the City: The Imaginative Idealism of Douglas Hedley, Christian Hengstermann (Münster University, Germany)
Part II: Spiritual Sensation in Ancient and Early Modern Christian Platonism
2. Origen's Epistemological Concept of Spiritual Sensation, Alfons Fürst (Münster University, Germany)
3. Cogitatione Attingere: Divine Sensation in René Descartes and the Cambridge Platonists, Christian Hengstermann (Münster University, Germany)
4. Aids to Reflection and Imagining God: Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Concept of the Imagination, Friedrich A. Uehlein (Freiburg University, Germany)
Part III: The Religious Imagination in Contemporary Philosophy of Religion
5. God in World and Ourselves in God: Panentheistic Speculation in the young Karl Rahner, Klaus E. Müller (Münster University, Germany)
6. René Girard and Douglas Hedley on Violence, Sacrifice and Imagination, Per Bjørnar Grande (Bergen University, Norway)
7. Perceptions of God: Reflections on William P. Alston's Theory of Religious Experience, Margit Wasmaier-Sailer (Lucerne University, Switzerland)
Part IV: The World Religions: Spiritual Sensation in Christian Platonism and Hinduism
8. From Cambridge to Calcutta: The Presence of Indian Thought in Douglas Hedley's Christian Platonism, Daniel Soars (Cambridge University, UK)
Epilogue: Concluding Shakespearean Reflections, Douglas Hedley (Cambridge University, UK)
Index
This book makes a compelling case for the important contribution of the Cambridge Platonists to the history of ideas and their relevance for contemporary philosophy. Douglas Hedley's erudite work is well represented and critically engaged with by seven outstanding scholars. Hengstermann is to be congratulated for this brilliant collection.
- Title: The History of Religious Imagination in Christian Platonism: Exploring the Philosophy of Douglas Hedley
- Author: Christian Hengstermann
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2021
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781350172982, 9781350217690, 1350217697, 1350172987
- Resource ID: LLS:9781350172982
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-04-09T05:35:05Z
Christian Hengstermann is Associate Lecturer in the Department of Classics at the University of Wuppertal, Germany, and Fellow of the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism at the University of Cambridge, UK.