Louis Dupré Knihy

Religion and the Rise of Modern Culture describes and analyzes changing attitudes toward religion during three stages of modern European the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Romantic period. Louis Dupré is an expert guide to the complex historical and intellectual relation between religion and modern culture. Dupré begins by tracing the weakening of the Christian synthesis. At the end of the Middle Ages intellectual attitudes toward religion began to change. Theology, once the dominant science that had integrated all others, lost its commanding position. After the French Revolution, religion once again played a role in intellectual life, but not as the dominant force. Religion became transformed by intellectual and moral principles conceived independently of faith. Dupré explores this new situation in three the literature of Romanticism (illustrated by Goethe, Schiller, and Hölderlin); idealist philosophy (Schelling); and theology itself (Schleiermacher and Kierkegaard). Dupré argues that contemporary religion has not yet met the challenge presented by Romantic thought. Dupré’s elegant and incisive book, based on the Erasmus Lectures he delivered at the University of Notre Dame in 2005, will challenge anyone interested in religion and the philosophy of culture.

Focusing on Kant's critique, the essays explore its profound influence on the study of religion and the challenges it presents. Professor Dupre examines how Kant's work raises crucial questions about restoring the theoretical basis for faith, developing a philosophical method grounded in experience, and legitimizing that experience within human autonomy. The collection also analyzes the contributions of thinkers like Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard, and Hegel regarding religious experience, while addressing the justification of faith through various philosophical arguments.

A woman has her cat euthanized, a decision that causes her to become aware of her ability to kill. She writes, hand haunted by history, and returns to the forgotten memory of the time when her ancestors were animals. By writing, she tries to understand the psyche and its obvious manifestations of cruelty, which she sees every day in the media: rapes, murders, bombings of civilians, indifference towards the powerless, humans and animals that are made to suffer without remorse. This book is a cry provoked by existential questions: how to deal with the wickedness in the world, how to see one's own wickedness without sinking into despair. By writing, by openness to others, by compassion, she seems to be able to face life believing that, if she recognizes the presence of evil both in her and in the world, she will be able to respond by standing among the living.

In allen Bereichen menschlichen Lebens trifft man auf religiöse und mythische Vorstellungen und Zeichen, deren Bedeutungen sich oft nicht mehr von selbst erschließen. Sind sie deshalb aber für das heutige Denken sinnlos geworden? Louis Dupré legt dar, wie heilige Zeichen in eine göttliche Sphäre weisen, von der sie etwas mitteilen und genau dadurch einen Zugang zu den Grundfragen menschlicher Existenz ermöglichen. Er untersucht die Symbole des Heiligen, wie sie in Zeichen (Riten, Sakramente, Opfer), in der Sprache, in der Kunst und im Mythos begegnen und bringt Literatur- und Symboltheorie, Sprach- und Kunstphilosophie sowie Theologie miteinander ins Gespräch.