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Redemptive Hope : From the Age of Enlightenment to the Age of Obama /
"This is a book about the need for redemptive narratives to ward off despair and the dangers these same narratives create by raising expectations that are seldom fulfilled. The quasi-messianic expectations produced by the election of President Barack Obama in 2008, and their diminution, were st...
| Autor principal: | |
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| Formato: | Electrónico eBook |
| Idioma: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
New York :
Fordham University Press,
2015.
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| Colección: | Book collections on Project MUSE.
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| Temas: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Texto completo |
| Sumario: | "This is a book about the need for redemptive narratives to ward off despair and the dangers these same narratives create by raising expectations that are seldom fulfilled. The quasi-messianic expectations produced by the election of President Barack Obama in 2008, and their diminution, were stark reminders of an ongoing struggle between ideals and political realities. Redemptive Hope begins by tracing the tension between theistic thinkers, for whom hope is transcendental, and intellectuals, who have striven to link hopes for redemption to our intersubjective interactions with other human beings. Lerner argues that a vibrant democracy must draw on the best of both religious thought and secular liberal political philosophy. By bringing Richard Rorty's pragmatism into conversation with early-twentieth-century Jewish thinkers, including Martin Buber and Ernst Bloch, Lerner begins the work of building bridges, while insisting on holding crucial differences in dialectical tension. Only such a dialogue, he argues, can prepare the foundations for modes of redemptive thought fit for the twenty-first century"-- "The quasi-messianic expectations produced by the election of President Obama in 2008 (America's first African-American president)--followed by the diminution of these expectations--was a stark reminder that redemptive hope is seldom satisfactorily fulfilled. The struggle between idealism and realism currently playing out within the political arena reflects the history of intellectual debates over the role of hope narratives within liberal democratic society. This book begins by tracing the history of the tension between thinkers who have taken a theistic approach to hope by linking it to a transcendental signifier--usually God--versus those intellectuals who have striven to link hopes for redemption to our inter-subjective interactions with other human beings. This book argues that the best way to address the importance and challenge of redemptive narratives in a vibrant democracy is to draw on the best of both religious thought and secular liberal political philosophy. In the 21st century, secular liberal culture needs elements of religion to survive, and conversely religion cannot thrive without adopting insights from secular thought. This book contributes to the building of bridges between religious and liberal social thought by bringing together Richard Rorty, one of America's most profound and controversial neo-pragmatic philosophers of the late 20th century, with early 20th century modern Jewish thinkers, such as Martin Buber and Ernst Bloch. Bringing these different thinkers and traditions together allows for a better appreciate of the need to maintain, rather than overcome, the dialectical tensions between religious and liberal thought. An appreciation of these tensions can prepare the foundations for an alternative redemptive narrative for the 21st century"-- |
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| Descripción Física: | 1 online resource (216 pages). |
| ISBN: | 9780823267941 |