Pragmatism and religion classical sources and original essays

Synopsis

This unparalleled collection of classical and contemporary readings comes at a time when pragmatism is undergoing a strong renaissance across a spectrum of disciplines. Pragmatism and Religion addresses an important but overlooked issue: whether the deep passions and commitments of American pragmatism's central figures are completely independent of Western religious traditions. The first of the book's three sections samples pragmatism's religious roots. "Classical Sources" includes works by John Winthrop, Jonathan Edwards, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, as well as Charles Sanders Peirce's "Evolutionary Love, " William James's "Philosophy" (chapter 18 of The Varieties of Religious Experience), and selections by John Dewey, W. E. B. Du Bois, John McDermott, and Richard Rorty. The contemporary essays in parts 2 and 3 feature Richard Bernstein, Stuart Rosenbaum, Robert Westbrook, Raymond D. Boisvert, Sandra B. Rosenthal, Carl Vaught, and Steven C. Rockefeller, and others. The contributors are among the best in the fields of pragmatism and pragmatism in religion.