Divine Teaching and the Way of the World : A Defense of Revealed Religion

Samuel Fleischacker defends what the Enlightenment called "revealed religion": religions that regard a certain text or oral teaching as sacred, as wholly authoritative over one's life. At the same time, he maintains that revealed religions stand in danger of corruption or fanaticism unless they are combined with secular scientific practices and a secular morality. The first two parts of Divine Teaching and the Way of the World argue that the cognitive and moral practices of a society should prescind from religious commitments -- they constitute a secular "way of the world," to adapt a phrase from the Jewish tradition, allowing human beings to work together regardless of their religious differences. But the way of the world breaks down when it comes to the question of what we live for, and it is this that revealed religions can illumine. Fleischacker first suggests that secular conceptions of why life is worth living are often poorly grounded, before going on to explore what revelation is, how it can answer the question of worth better than secular worldviews do, and how the revealed and way-of-the-world elements of a religious tradition can be brought together. Cover Contents Abbreviations Introduction Part I. The Way of the World I: Truth 1. Introductory 2. Truth in the State of Nature 3. Socialized Truth 4. Experts and Authorities Part II. The Way of the World II: Ethics 1. Introductory 2. Application 3. Motivation 4. Transformation 5. Teleology Part III. Beyond the Way of the World: Worth 1. Dissolving the Question 2. Dismissing the Question 3. Worth as Attached to Specific Activities 4. Worth as Attached to General Features of Life 5. Kantian Accounts of Worth 6. Secular versus Religious Visions of Worth Part IV. Divine Teaching 1. Models of Faith: Trust, Orientation, Receptivity 2. Revelation 3. Aspects of Revelation I: Moral Teaching 4. Aspects of Revelation II: Beauty 5. Aspects of Revelation III: A Path 6. Receiving Revelation 7. Multiple Revelations Part V. Divine Teaching and the Way of the World 1. Truth Again 2. Morality Again 3. Politics Epilogue Appendix I: Proofs of God Appendix II: Maimonides on the Evidence for Revelation Appendix III: Kant on Art and Natural Beauty Notes Index Locorum Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z Samuel Fleischacker offers a defense of 'revealed religion' - religions that regard a certain text or teaching as wholly authoritative over one's life. By reconciling it with secular cognitive and moral practices that allow people to work together regardless of religious difference, he shows how these two worldviews can be brought together.