Irony and Religious Belief
by Gregory L. Reece
The concept of irony is difficult to pin down, difficult to capture. This book is a critical examination of how Soren Kierkegaard and the pragmatist Richard Rorty approach the complex subject of irony. Gregory L. Reece traces the development of the philosophical concept of irony from Socrates to Hegel, Schlegel, Kierkegaard and Rorty, while addressing the very question that is central for both Kierkegaard and Rorty, the question of the relationship of ironic philosophy to an ironic life. Must ironic philosophy result in what Kierkegaard calls infinite, absolute negativity or in what Rorty describes as doubt and meta-stability? Gregory L. Reece argues that the answer is no, and that the belief that it must is based on an important philosophical mistake which in different forms is committed by both the early Kierkegaard and by Rorty. The insights of these philosophers, as well as those developed by Wittgenstein, are used to develop the beginning of an ironic philosophy of religion. Specifically, this work follows Kierkegaard and pursues these questions with special concern for the relation of ironic philosophy to religious belief.
Gregory L. Reece, Born 1967; M.Div. degree from the Vanderbilt University Divinity School; Graduate of Samford University and Martin Methodist College; 1999 Ph.D. in religious studies from the Claremont Graduate University; currently teaches Religion and Philosophy at the University of Montevallo, near Birmingham, AL.
- By (author) Gregory L Reece
Other Titles in this Series
Schuld und Narration
Zur anthropologischen Bedingtheit und narrativen Aufarbeitung von Schuld in Auseinandersetzung mit Soren Kierkegaard, Hannah Arendt und Paul Ricoeur
Volume 124
Redeeming Relationship, Relationships that Redeem
Free Sociability and the Completion of Humanity in the Thought of Friedrich Schleiermacher
Volume 99
Interpreting Religion
The Significance of Friedrich Schleiermacher's 'Reden über die Religion' for Religious Studies and Theology
Volume 57
The Ghost of Totalitarianism
Deconstructing the Pneumatological Nature of Christian Political Theology
Volume 132
Works of Love in a World of Violence
Feminism, Kierkegaard, and the Limits of Self-Sacrifice
Volume 89
Der Eine oder der Andere
Gott in der klassischen deutschen Philosophie und im Denken der Gegenwart
Volume 44
Das Versprechen
Studien zur Verbindlichkeit menschlichen Sagens in Soren Kierkegaards Werk Die Taten der Liebe
Volume 39
Humanity
An Endangered Idea?: Claremont Studies in the Philosophy of Religion, Conference 2019
Volume 125
The Meaning and Power of Negativity
Claremont Studies in the Philosophy of Religion, Conference 2017
Volume 110
Das Wagnis des Gewohnlichen
Ein Versuch uber den Glauben im Gesprach mit Ludwig Wittgenstein und Stanley Cavell
Volume 32
Analogie statt Ubersetzung
Eine theologische Selbstreflexion auf den inneren Zusammenhang von Glaubensgrund, Glaubensinhalt und Glaubensweise in Auseinandersetzung mit Jurgen Habermas
Volume 86
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