Schleiermacher and Whitehead: Open Systems in Dialogue (Theologische Bibliothek Topelmann) (Theologische Bibliothek Topelmann (Walter de Gruyter))

This collection of essays stages a dialogue between Friedrich Schleiermacher and Alfred North Whitehead on significant features of 'open' system. The volume offers new options for rehabilitating system for future theological and philosophical thinking by opening system to a flexible relation with changing reality. Key ingredients for system are discussed in three areas of contact between Schleiermacher and Whitehead. One such ingredient concerns historical precedents figuring crucially in Western systematic philosophy. Another feature is the systematic categorization of experience that relates epistemology, metaphysics, and the empirical sciences. System is also brought to bear on pressing contemporary issues, such as ethics and religious pluralism. Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Mapping the Land of Beginning Again I. System and Historical Context Whitehead at Infinite Speed: Deconstructing System as Event Schleiermacher between Kant and Leibniz: Predication and Ontology Relative Freedoms: The Influence of Spinoza on the Systems of Whitehead and Schleiermacher System without Certainty II. System and Categorization System and Dynamism in Whitehead’s Thought: The Category of the Ultimate and the Concept of God Novelty and System in Schleiermacher’s Thought Open Interpretation: Whitehead and Schleiermacher on Hermeneutics Systematizing Agency: Toward a Panentheistic-Participatory Theory of Agency III. System and Contemporary Themes The Force of Dialogue and a Dialogue of Forces: Resources for Open Theological Systems Feeling and Morality in Whitehead’s System Process and God in Whitehead and Schleiermacher Schleiermacher and Whitehead on Religious Pluralism Indices Index of Names Index of Subjects Contributors