The Other Calling
Theology, Intellectual Vocation and Truth
Published on 8. May 2008
248 pages
978-0-470-77548-6 (ISBN)
Description
What is the true calling of the intellectual? In this provocativenew book, Andrew Shanks presents a distinctive fresh answer. TheOther Calling is a systematic riposte both to the elitism ofphilosophy in the heritage of Plato, and to the typicalindividualism of Plato's philosophic opponents. Here, instead,intellectual integrity is identified with a form of priesthood.
* * Asserts that intellectuals are critical to bringing togetherthe common aspirations of a community
* * Offers a strikingly original approach to the moral andpolitical aspects of theology's relationship with philosophy,exploring the perspectives of both disciplines
* Draws on the work and thought of Christians, Muslims, Hindus,Buddhists, Agnostics, and Atheists
* Argues for a new, religiously multicultural "priesthoodof all thinkers", considering how once, all intellectualswere as a matter of course also priests
* Published in the new and prestigious Illuminationsseries
Reviews / Votes
"This book is a brave counter to both anti-intellectualism and intellectual élitism, and would be worth buying simply for the opening and closing chapters, where the essentials of the argument are clearly articulated. Nevertheless, those who wish to overhear the author coming to his conclusions in conversation with the likes of Plato, Hegel, Leo Strauss, Alexandre Kojève, Coleridge, and Girard will find the intervening chapters intellectually demanding, but also consistently enlightening." Church TimesMore details
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02/2008
Wiley
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12/2006
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12/2006
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Person
Andrew Shanks is the Canon Theologian for Manchester Cathedral. He is also the author of the following books: Hegel's Political Theology (1991), Civil Society, Civil Religion (Blackwell, 1995), God and Modernity (2000), What is Truth? (2001), and Faith in Honesty (2006).
Content
Introduction: Why Theology? / What is an Intellectual?.
PART I: PHILOSOPHY.
1. The Incompleteness of Philosophy Alone.
2. Philosophy and Folk Religion: Two 'Forms' for a Single'Content'.
3. 'Philosophic Politics' (i): Strauss amongst 'the Moderns' and'the Postmoderns'.
4. 'Philosophic Politics' (ii): Strauss and 'the Ancients'.
5. Anti-Philosophical Philosophy (i): Kojève's Critique ofthe 'Cloistered Mind'.
6. Anti-Philosophical Philosophy (ii): Epicurus, Rousseau.
PART II: THEOLOGY.
7. Beyond Metaphysics: 'the Science of the Sacralisation ofHonesty, in Theist, Catholic form'.
8. Coleridge's Notion of the 'Clerisy'.
9. Sacramentally Framed Thought.
10. 'The Conflict': From Amos to Hegel, and Girard.
11. What is an Intellectual? / Why Theology?.
Notes.
Index
