THEISM AND REALISM: GOD IN THE (HUMANLY CONSTITUTED) WORLD

Authors

  • Carlos Miguel Gómez Universidad del Rosario
  • Angel Rivera-Novoa Universidad de Antioquia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.2022.3770

Keywords:

Anti-realism, Hermeneutic realism, Trascendence, Co-creation, continuous creation

Abstract

This   paper   attempts   to   delineate   a   kind   of   realism,   which   incorporates some anti-realistic insights regarding the perspective, situated, and  historical  character  of  our  forms  of  knowing  and  being  in  the  world,  and which resonates with the basic tenets of Christian theism. The first part of the paper analyzes the challenges anti-realism poses to Christian theism, particularly  regarding  the  role,  which  the  doctrine  of  creation  played  in  securing  the  correspondence  theory  of  truth  as  well  as  the  fundamental  experience of God as the foundation of order and meaning. Using Heidegger’s hermeneutics in the second part, it is shown that epistemic pluralism can be made compatible with realism. Given that this form of hermeneutic realism still has problems with integrating the transcendence of God, as well as his/her presence and action in the “world,” the notion of continuous co-creation as  the  basis  for  a  pluralist  realism  that  is  amenable  to  Christian  theism  is  explored in the final part.

References

Barnes, Barry, and David Bloor. 1982. ‘Relativism, Rationalism and Sociology of Knowledge’. In Rationality and Relativism, edited by Martin Hollis and Steven Lukes, 21–48. Oxford: Blackwell.

Boghossian, Paul Artin. 2006. Fear of Knowledge: Against Relativism and Constructivism. Oxford: New York: Clarendon Press; Oxford Univ. Press.

Brooke, John Hedley. 2014. Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives. Canto classics edition. Canto Classics. United Kingdom: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Descartes, René. 1984. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. Vol. II. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire]; New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Dreyfus, Hubert L., and Charles Taylor. 2015. Retrieving Realism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

Foucault, Michel. 2019. ‘Truth and Juridical Forms’. In Power: The Essential Works of Michel Foucault, 1954–1984, 1–90. UK: Penguin.

Goodman, Nelson. 1975. ‘Words, Works, Worlds’. Erkenntnis 9, no. 1: 57–73. doi:10.1007/BF00223133.

Gómez Rincón, Carlos Miguel. Racionalidad y trascendencia. Investigaciones en epistemología de la religión. Maliaño, Bogotá: Sal Terrae, Universidad del Rosario.

—. 2021. “Diversity and Interpretation. Toward a Pluralist Realist Description of Religious Experience.” Religions 12, no. 10: 848. doi:10.3390/rel12100848.

Hacking, Ian. 1999. The Social Construction of What? Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Univ. Press.

Hefner, Philip. 1993. The Human Factor. Evolution, Culture, and Religion. Minneapolis: Fortress.

Heidegger, Martin. 2001. Being and Time. Translated by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson. Oxford: Blackwell.

—. 2000. ‘Hölderlin and the Essence of Poetry’. In Elucidations of Hölderlin’s Poetry, translated by Keith Hoeller, 51–65. New York: Humanity Books.

—. 1969. Identity and Difference. New York: Harper & Row.

—. 1998. ‘Letter on “Humanism”’. In Pathmarks, 239–76. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Kehl, Medard. 2009. Contempló Dios toda su obra y estaba muy bien: una teología de

la creación. Barcelona: Herder.

Kuhn, Thomas S. 1970. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. [2d ed., Enl. International Encyclopedia of Unified Science. Foundations of the Unity of Science, v. 2, No. 2. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Kukla, André. 2000. Social Constructivism and the Philosophy of Science. Philosophical Issues in Science. London ; New York: Routledge.

Marion, Jean-Luc. 2012. God without Being. Translated by Thomas Carlson. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

McGrath, Alister. 2014. Scientific Theology Nature: Volume 1. London: T&T Clark.

Pannenberg, Wolfhart. 1985. Anthropology in Theological Perspective. Edinburgh: T&T Clark.

—. 1971. ‘What Is Truth?’ In Basic Questions in Theology, II:1–27. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

Peters, Ted. 2000. God-The World’s Future: Systematic Theology for a New Era. 2nd ed. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

Plantinga, Alvin. 2011. Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

Putnam, Hilary. 1981. Reason, Truth, and History. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Rahner, Karl. 2009. ‘Welt in Gott’. In Anstösse Systematischer Theologie. Beiträge Zur Fundamentaltheologie Und Dogmatik, Vol. 30, edited by Sämtliche Werke, 497–507. Freiburg: Herder.

Rorty, Richard. 2006. ‘Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism’. In A Companion to Pragmatism, edited by John R. Shook and Joseph Margolis, 257–66. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Smith, Christian. 2010. What Is a Person? Rethinking Humanity, Social Life, and the Moral Good from the Person Up. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Stein, Edith. 2007. ‘Martin Heidegger’s Existential Philosophy’. Translated by Mette Lebech. Maynooth Philosophical Papers 4: 55–98

Published

2022-12-16

How to Cite

Gómez, Carlos Miguel, and Angel Rivera-Novoa. 2022. “THEISM AND REALISM: GOD IN THE (HUMANLY CONSTITUTED) WORLD”. European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 14 (4):96-122. https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.2022.3770.

Issue

Section

Research Articles