Religious Experience and Truth [antikvár]

PREFACEOne of the most impressive features of the intellectual scene in midcentury America is the revival of interest in theology among philosophers and the concern of theologians with modern trends in philosophical analysis.On the part of philosophers, the revival of interest in theology has been fed by various sourcessome friendly to, and some critical of, theological traditions. Existentialism as a philosophy, whether in its religious Kierkegaardian form, or in its irreligious Sartrian expressions, raises issues which are similar to those over which profound religious thinkers from Augustine to Pascal have pondered and agonized. The continuing crisis of modern civilization, which after two world wars lies in the shadows of sudden death by nuclear holocaust or the living death of a totalitarian takeover, has turned the thought of multitudes to religious salvation in the hope of finding an assurance and comfort that earthly history cannot give. Since man's reason cannot be denied, this has led, among some philosophers, to a renewed quest for a concept of metaphysical intelligibility which will vindicate belief in God, freedom, and immortality in the face of modern skepticism.On the other hand, both naturalist and rationalist philosophers, who have observed the revival of supernaturalism in popular religious thought, and see the secular and humanist gains of the last few centuries threatened in consequence, have returned with vigor to the critique of the old theology and the new. They base their critique, not merely on the progress of modern theoretical science which all sophisticated forms of religion now profess to accept, but on theories of meaning and confirmation that call into question the very significance of some central doctrines of theological beUef.XI