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

✍ Scribed by Christopher J. Insole

• Publisher: Ashgate Publishing
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 221
• Series: Heythrop Studies in Contemporary Philosophy, Religion and ... Philosophy, Religion and Theology
• Category: Library

✦ 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.