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Critical Realism and Spirituality contextualizes, delineates, explores and critiques the turn to spirituality and religion in critical realism, which has been under way since the mid-1990s, as well as telling its story. A range of distinguished critical realists, theological critical realists and scholars working with related approaches bring their talents to bear on this task. While their personal beliefs span the whole spectrum from theism to atheism, they are united by the desire to open up a space for dialogue of one kind or another (intra-faith, inter-faith and/or extra-faith), promoting mutual understanding, respect and the unity and capability for collective emancipatory action on a global scale that humanity is so sorely in need of. This book is therefore, essential reading for students and academics alike in Religous Studies, Theology and Philosophy.
List of contents
Introduction
Part I The Resurgence of Religion and Spirituality 1. The rise of neo-integrative worldviews: towards a rational spirituality for the coming planetary civilization? 2. Beyond fundamentalism: spiritual realism, spiritual literacy and education 3. Realism, literature and spirituality
Part II Theism and Atheism 4. Judgemental rationality and the equivalence of argument: realism about God 5. Response to Morgan's critique 6. Transcendence and God: reflections on critical realism, the 'New Atheism', and Christian theology 7. Human sciences at the edge of panentheism: God and the limits of ontological realism 8. Beyond East and West
Part III Spirituality and meta-Reality 9. Meta-Reality (re-)contextualized 10. Anti-anthropic spirituality: dualism, duality and non-duality 11. 'The more you kick God out the front door, the more he comes in through the window': Sean Creaven's critique of transcendental dialectical critical realism and the philosophy of meta-Reality 12. Resisting the theistic turn 13. The pulse of freedom and the existential dilemma of alienation 14. Meta-Reality, creativity and the experience of making art
About the author
Mervyn Hartwig is founding editor of
Journal of Critical Realism and editor and principal author of
Dictionary of Critical Realism. He taught history and philosophy of the social sciences for many years in Sydney. He is now retired and lives in London. His recent publications include a book of interviews with Roy Bhaskar,
The Formation of Critical Realism (2010) and a series of introductions to many of Bhaskar's books, currently being reissued by Routledge.
Jamie Morgan teaches social theory and Asia-Pacific studies at the Open University in the North West, UK, and the University of Helsinki, and is Review Editor,
Journal of Critical Realism. His research interests include contemporary China, philosophy and critical realism, and political economy and Marxism. He has published numerous journal articles in these areas.
