The religious critic in American culture

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

The religious critic in American culture

William Dean

State University of New York Press, c1994

  • : alk paper
  • pbk. : alk. paper

Available at  / 10 libraries

Search this Book/Journal

Note

Bibliography: p. 227-247

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This book provides a new rationale for "religious criticism" in American society. First, Dean shows why today's academic intellectuals are relatively indifferent to questions of meaning in America, pointing to the loss of American "exceptionalism," the professionalization of the academy, and the rise of post-structural criticism. He then shows how intellectuals may reclaim a prophetic role by offering a new theory of the nature of religious thought. Tracing this theory to a twentieth-century emphasis on conventions, Dean provides a way to understand how imaginative social constructions can become active historical conventions, with real historical force. He suggests that the sacred itself begins as an imaginative construct and becomes a convention, thus working as an active, "living" force in history. Finally, Dean argues that religious critics must now reclaim a responsibility for shaping their society's sacred conventions.

Table of Contents

Preface Introduction Part I: Abandoning American Culture 1. The Religious Critic and the End of an Era 2. The Rise of the Professional Intellectual 3. William James, Public Intellectual Part II: Recovering Religious Theory 4. Religious Narrative and the Avoidance of Nature 5. Religious Naturalism and the Avoidance of Ambiguity 6. The Religious Thinker and the Acceptance of History Part III: Grounding Religious Theory 7. The Reality of Conventions 8. The Reality of the Sacred Convention Part IV: Reclaiming American Culture 9. The Religious Critic in the Third Sector 10. The Religious Critic and a Myth of America Notes Bibliography Index

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

Page Top