Deus e os Filósofos

by Keith Ward, Pedro Soares (Trad. por)

Uma viagem pela história das ideias ocidentais acerca de Deus.
Há mais de um quarto de século, Keith Ward tem sido uma referência obrigatória e fiável no estudo da espiritualidade e da religião.
Aqui, ele conduz um percurso pelos múltiplos conceitos do divino dentro do pensamento ocidental, começando por Homero e Descartes e prosseguindo com pensadores como Schopenhauer, Nietzsche e Kant e poetas como William Blake e Wordsworth. Pelo caminho, discute os profetas, os Dez Mandamentos, a ideia do mal e muito mais.
Ward não é anti-Deus. Para ele, a maior parte das pessoas que rejeita Deus está apenas a rejeitar o conceito tradicional e literalista de Deus. Acredita que podemos avançar para uma nova e mais profunda compreensão inter-religiosa, pela qual todos devíamos ansiar no actual clima político.

Genres: Theology, Philosophy, Religion

298 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Keith Ward was formerly the Regius Professor of Divinity and Head of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oxford. A priest of the Church of England and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, he holds Doctor of Divinity degrees from Cambridge and Oxford Universities. He has lectured at the universities of Glasgow, St. Andrew's and Cambridge.

Reviews

[Brad Kittle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. A great review of Western philosophy right up to the present day. Keith Ward is a very educational and entertaining writer. I learned a lot from his essays. He was able to take seemingly complex ideas and break them down and make them understandable. Very good.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a series of linked essays that argues against a number of what Ward says are misconceptions about the work of several prominent historical philosophers (Plato, Aquinas, Descartes, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche... what, no Kierkegaard?!). Not being well-versed in philosophy myself, I find that he is arguing against arguments I didn't know existed.

A compelling main thread is an exploration of how philosophers have touched on the concept of God. Contra perhaps modern revisionist readings, it transpires that the concept of 'God' (ie a transcendent other) has been a key (and very useful) element of Western philosophic thinking stretching at least as far back as Plato. The 'dominance' of the atheistic philosopher is a relatively recent trend (and even atheism, by the way, is defined in relation to a concept of God... 'pure' atheism would need a new name and never mention God again - instead it's obsessed with the concept of God (even if to argue against it) - this is especially true of the atheist evangelists).

This book exercised my mind but I won't pretend to have followed all the arguments in it. However, Ward is a teacher (a Professor, formerly at Oxford, and a member of the British Academy) and so he provides plenty of interest to glean along the way. I know that as far as books on philosophy go, this one is probably pretty accessible. I love it when philosophers write for a more general audience.

At one point Ward says about something,

"This argument is a good test for whether you are really a philosopher. If it seems like verbal trickery, then you are not a philosopher, and you should do something more useful. But if it seems irritatingly convincing, then you are a philosopher, and you are condemned to agonise about problems that most people have never even heard of for the rest of your life."

I think I might be somewhere in between.

Two things I particularly appreciate about Ward (I've now also listened to a couple of interviews with him): Firstly, he unashamedly professes a belief in God (the genesis of his faith and the root of his philosophical position are largely to do with a personal conversion experience). Secondly, he often makes recourse to quantum theory in his discussions about God and possibility. Any time Christian thinkers do this it beautifully undermines the idea that science might be about certainty or that science is universally definitive.

And that's about where the book ends, with a cracking riposte at Materialism (the idea that matter is all there is and is what generates all) in favour (understandably) of Ward's own philosophic homebase of Idealism: that things generate from consciousness and ultimately Consciousness, capital C, which Ward believes is God. It's not the only philosophic position a Christian might hold (Critical Realism is a popular one, for example) but it is an interesting one.

Conviction and humility intertwine at the end with a statement that also sums up why these kinds of thought journeys might be important:

"although I naturally believe that I am right, I entirely accept that the important thing is that we should go on asking the questions. It is, as Plato said, the process of enquiry itself that brings wisdom to the human mind."

[Matthew Cummings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Half of it went over my head, but what I gleaned was worth the time.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was alright. I got kinda bored with it.