E-Book Overview
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.
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THE REALIST HOPE
This book analyses, and finally rejects, various forms of anti-realism which have had a wide influence in theology over the past two centuries. I have no hesitation in recommending this book to readers. Professor Richard Swinburne, Oxford This book is written in a lively style, pursuing energetic and irreverent arguments against the philosophical and theological mandarins with a persuasive reasonableness and an urgent sense of conviction. Professor Oliver O’Donovan, Oxford
Taking into consideration analytical, continental, historical, post-modern and contemporary thinkers, Christopher J. 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