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Rethinking Philosophy in Light of the Bible analyzes the ideas that
are central to the philosophy of Kant, Hegel, and Kierkegaard in
order to show that they are biblical in origin, both ontologically
and historically. Brayton Polka argues that Schopenhauer has an
altogether false conception of the fundamental ideas of the
Bible-creation, the Fall of Adam and Eve, and covenantal love-and
of Christianity, which leaves his philosophy irredeemably
contradictory, as he himself acknowledges. The aim, then, is to
show that our modern values, the values that constitute modernity,
are biblical in origin. It is only when we come to understand that
modernity is biblical from the beginning and that the Bible is
modern unto the end that we are able to overcome the opposition, so
evident today, between philosophy and theology, between reason and
faith, and between the secular and the religious. Polka makes
central the distinction that Kierkegaard draws between Christianity
and Christendom: Christianity represents the coming into historical
existence of the single individual; Christendom represents
Christian values that are rationalized in pagan terms. As
Kierkegaard shows us, if God has always existed eternally, then he
has never existed eternally, then he has never come into historical
existence for the single individual. The distinction between
Christianity and Christendom is the distinction not between faith
and reason, but between truth and idolatry. While theology and
philosophy each represent the truth of Christianity, Schopenhauer's
idolatrous concepts of faith, no less than of reason, represent
Christendom.
The principal thesis that the author advances in this book is that
paradox and contradiction constitute the two ways of the world.
Paradox represents the way of the people of the Bible, and
contradiction represents the way of all peoples who, having lived
without knowledge of the Bible, have traditionally been known as
gentiles or pagans. The two ideas that are central to the biblical
way of life (as known historically by Jews, Christians, and
Muslims) are creation and covenant, while the contradictory way of
paganism has precisely been marked by the absence of these two
concepts. In his book the author distinguishes the paradoxical way
of the world from the contradictory way of the world through the
examination of principal texts of four of the most significant
early modern, European thinkers from the later sixteenth century to
the earlier eighteenth century: Montaigne, Descartes, Spinoza, and
Vico. He shows that each of these four authors, in distinctive yet
fundamentally interrelated fashion, provides us with profound
insight into how absolutely different the paradoxical way of the
world as biblical is from the contradictory way of the world as
found, primarily and specifically, in Greek and Roman antiquity.
Modernity between Wagner and Nietzsche analyzes the operas and
writings of Wagner in order to prove that the ideas on which they
are based contradict and falsify the values that are fundamental to
modernity. This book also analyzes the ideas that are central to
the philosophy of Nietzsche, demonstrating that the values on the
basis of which he breaks with Wagner and repudiates their common
mentor, Schopenhauer, are those fundamental to modernity. Brayton
Polka makes use of the critical distinction that Kierkegaard draws
between Christianity and Christendom. Christianity represents what
Nietzsche calls the faith that is presupposed in unconditionally
willing the truth in saying yes to life. Christendom, in contrast,
represents the bad faith of nihilism in saying no to life. Polka
then shows that Wagner, in following Schopenhauer, represents
Christendom with the demonstration in his operas that life is
nothing but death and death is nothing but life. In other words,
the purpose of the will for Wagner is to annihilate the will, since
it is only in and through death that human beings are liberated
from life as willfully sinful. Nietzsche, in contrast, is
consistent with the biblical concept that existence is created from
nothing, from nothing that is not made in the image of God, that
any claim that the will can will not to will is contradictory and
hence false. For not to will is, in truth, still to will nothing.
There is then, Nietzsche shows, no escape from the will. Either
human beings will the truth in saying yes to life as created from
nothing, or in truly willing nothing, they say no to life in
worshiping the God of Christendom who is dead.
Philosophy, when understood to embody the values that are
fundamental to modernity, is biblical in origin, both historically
and ontologically. Central to this idea is the question famously
posed by Tertullian: What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?
The answer - as based on a comprehensive and systematic discussion
of the key texts and ideas of Spinoza, Vico, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel,
Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche - is that we can overcome the
conventional opposition between reason and faith, between
philosophy and theology, and between the secular and the religious
only if we learn to see that, as Spinoza shows us, both philosophy
(reason) and theology (faith) are based on caritas: love - on the
divine command to do unto others what you want others to do unto
you. Provided throughout is a commentary on how fundamentally
different philosophy is in the Greek and in the biblical traditions
(in Athens and in Jerusalem). Whereas Socrates argues that (human)
desire and the (divine) good are contradictory opposites, Spinoza
shows that it is human desire that truly constitutes the divine
good of all. This book would be indispensable to courses (both
undergraduate and graduate) in philosophy, religious studies, and
the history of ideas - in interdisciplinary courses in the
humanities, generally - that focus on the values that are central,
both historically and ontologically, to modernity.
Rethinking Philosophy in Light of the Bible analyzes the ideas that
are central to the philosophy of Kant, Hegel, and Kierkegaard in
order to show that they are biblical in origin, both ontologically
and historically. Brayton Polka argues that Schopenhauer has an
altogether false conception of the fundamental ideas of the
Bible-creation, the Fall of Adam and Eve, and covenantal love-and
of Christianity, which leaves his philosophy irredeemably
contradictory, as he himself acknowledges. The aim, then, is to
show that our modern values, the values that constitute modernity,
are biblical in origin. It is only when we come to understand that
modernity is biblical from the beginning and that the Bible is
modern unto the end that we are able to overcome the opposition, so
evident today, between philosophy and theology, between reason and
faith, and between the secular and the religious. Polka makes
central the distinction that Kierkegaard draws between Christianity
and Christendom: Christianity represents the coming into historical
existence of the single individual; Christendom represents
Christian values that are rationalized in pagan terms. As
Kierkegaard shows us, if God has always existed eternally, then he
has never existed eternally, then he has never come into historical
existence for the single individual. The distinction between
Christianity and Christendom is the distinction not between faith
and reason, but between truth and idolatry. While theology and
philosophy each represent the truth of Christianity, Schopenhauer's
idolatrous concepts of faith, no less than of reason, represent
Christendom.
Modernity between Wagner and Nietzsche analyzes the operas and
writings of Wagner in order to prove that the ideas on which they
are based contradict and falsify the values that are fundamental to
modernity. This book also analyzes the ideas that are central to
the philosophy of Nietzsche, demonstrating that the values on the
basis of which he breaks with Wagner and repudiates their common
mentor, Schopenhauer, are those fundamental to modernity. Brayton
Polka makes use of the critical distinction that Kierkegaard draws
between Christianity and Christendom. Christianity represents what
Nietzsche calls the faith that is presupposed in unconditionally
willing the truth in saying yes to life. Christendom, in contrast,
represents the bad faith of nihilism in saying no to life. Polka
then shows that Wagner, in following Schopenhauer, represents
Christendom with the demonstration in his operas that life is
nothing but death and death is nothing but life. In other words,
the purpose of the will for Wagner is to annihilate the will, since
it is only in and through death that human beings are liberated
from life as willfully sinful. Nietzsche, in contrast, is
consistent with the biblical concept that existence is created from
nothing, from nothing that is not made in the image of God, that
any claim that the will can will not to will is contradictory and
hence false. For not to will is, in truth, still to will nothing.
There is then, Nietzsche shows, no escape from the will. Either
human beings will the truth in saying yes to life as created from
nothing, or in truly willing nothing, they say no to life in
worshiping the God of Christendom who is dead.
In Between Philosophy and Religion Volumes I and II, Brayton Polka
examines Spinoza's three major works-on religion, politics, and
ethics-in order to show that his thought is at once biblical and
modern. Polka argues that Spinoza is biblical only insofar as he is
understood to be one of the great philosophers of modernity and
that he is modern only when it is understood that he is unique in
making the interpretation of the Bible central to philosophy and
philosophy central to the interpretation of the Bible. This book
and its companion volume are essential reading for any scholar of
Spinoza.
In Between Philosophy and Religion Volumes I and II, Brayton Polka
examines Spinoza's three major works_on religion, politics, and
ethics_in order to show that his thought is at once biblical and
modern. Indeed, Polka argues that Spinoza is biblical only insofar
as he is understood to be one of the great philosophers of
modernity and that he is modern only when it is understood that he
is unique in making the interpretation of the Bible central to
philosophy and philosophy central to the interpretation of the
Bible. This book and its companion volume are essential reading for
any scholar of Spinoza.
In Between Philosophy and Religion Volumes I and II, Brayton Polka
examines Spinoza's three major works-on religion, politics, and
ethics-in order to show that his thought is at once biblical and
modern. Indeed, Polka argues that Spinoza is biblical only insofar
as he is understood to be one of the great philosophers of
modernity and that he is modern only when it is understood that he
is unique in making the interpretation of the Bible central to
philosophy and philosophy central to the interpretation of the
Bible. This book and its companion volume are essential reading for
any scholar of Spinoza.
In Between Philosophy and Religion Volumes I and II, Brayton Polka
examines Spinoza's three major works-on religion, politics, and
ethics-in order to show that his thought is at once biblical and
modern. Indeed, Polka argues that Spinoza is biblical only insofar
as he is understood to be one of the great philosophers of
modernity and that he is modern only when it is understood that he
is unique in making the interpretation of the Bible central to
philosophy and philosophy central to the interpretation of the
Bible. This book and its companion volume are essential reading for
any scholar of Spinoza.
Brayton Polka takes both a textual and theoretical approach to
seven plays of Shakespeare: Macbeth, Othello, Twelfth Night, All's
Well That Ends Well, Julius Caesar, Troilus and Cressida, and
Hamlet. He calls upon the Bible and the ideas of major European
thinkers, above all, Kierkegaard and Spinoza, to argue that the
concept of interpretation that underlies both Shakespeare's plays
and our own lives as moderns is the golden rule of the Bible: the
command to love your neighbor as yourself. What you will (the
alternative title of Twelfth Night ) thus captures the idea that
interpretation is the very act by which we constitute our lives.
For it is only in willing what others will-in loving
relationships-that we enact a concept of interpretation that is
adequate to our lives. Polka argues that it is the aim of
Shakespeare, when representing the ancient world in plays like
Julius Caesar and Troilus and Cressida, and also in his long
narrative poem "The Rape of Lucrece," to dramatize the fundamental
differences between ancient (pagan) values and modern (biblical)
values or between what he articulates as contradiction and paradox.
The ancients are fatally destroyed by the contradictions of their
lives of which they remain ignorant. In contrast, we moderns in the
biblical tradition, like those who figure in Shakespeare's other
works, are responsible for addressing and overcoming the
contradictions of our lives through living the interpretive paradox
of "what you will," of treating all human beings as our neighbor.
Shakespeare's comedies and tragedies, notwithstanding their
dramatically different form, share this interpretive framework of
paradox. As the author shows in his book, texts without
interpretation are blind and interpretation without texts is empty.
Published by University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by
Rutgers University Press.
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