Theology

Passion and Passivity

Claremont Studies in the Philosophy of Religion, Conference 2009
Ed. by Ingolf U. Dalferth and Michael Ch. Rodgers

[Passion und Passivität.]

2011. VIII, 214 pages.

Religion in Philosophy and Theology 61

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ISBN 978-3-16-151025-0
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Published in English.
Does religion have a single emotional center? Are there specific religious emotions or spiritual affects as Plato, Luther and Calvin, R. Otto or R. Rolland have thought? Or are religious fear, religious love, or religious joy only the normal emotions of fear, love, or joy directed to a religious object, as William James has argued? These and related questions were addressed at the 30th Claremont Philosophy of Religion Conference on Passion and Passivity, held in 2009 at Claremont Graduate University.
The interplay between activity and passivity in religious practices in general and religious beliefs and emotions in particular is a central and controversial issue in philosophical, theological and psychological thought past and present. This conference volume is organized around Schleiermacher's central idea of the 'feeling of ultimate dependence' and Kierkegaard's existential analysis of the fundamental passivity of passion. Three studies elucidate important strands in the theological and philosophical background of these insights in Paul the Apostle, Luther, Melanchthon, Hobbes and Spinoza. Three further studies look at concrete examples of affects, emotions, or passions in religious life such as anxiety, fear of God, wonder, and pathos of faith that move the debate in distinct ways beyond Schleiermacher and Kierkegaard. All contributions do not restrict what they say to historical analyses but aim at making a contribution to contemporary debates.

Contributors:
Ingolf U. Dalferth, C.J. Dickson, M. Jamie Ferreira, Arne Grøn, Teri Merrick, Michael Moxter, Cornelia Richter, Robert C. Roberts, Michael Rodgers, Amy M. Schmitter, Philipp Stoellger, Thandeka
Survey of contents
Ingolf U. Dalferth: Introduction – Robert C. Roberts: Emotions in the Epistemology of Paul the Apostle – Cornelia Richter: Melanchthon on Affectivity – Performative Passion – Amy M. Schmitter: Natural Passions, Reason and Religious Emotion in Hobbes and Spinoza – Michael Moxter: Feeling and Symbolic Expression. Schleiermacher's Feeling of Ultimate Dependency Reconsidered – Thandeka: Neuropassion Plays: Schleiermacher and Affective Neuroscience – C.J. Dickson: Schleiermacher Through Wittgenstein – M. Jamie Ferreira: Passion, Passivity, and Imagination – Arne Grøn: Subjectivity, Passion and Passivity – Michael Rodgers: Anxiety and the Fear of God – Teri Merrick: Wonder as a Characteristically Religious Attitude – Philipp Stoellger: Passions' Performance. On the Effects of Affects
Authors/Editors

Ingolf U. Dalferth Geboren 1948; 1977 Promotion; 1982 Habilitation; Professor Emeritus für Systematische Theologie, Symbolik und Religionsphilosophie an der Universität Zürich; Danforth Professor Emeritus für Religionsphilosophie an der Claremont Graduate University in Kalifornien.

Michael Ch. Rodgers is Senior Research Advisor and Higher Education Consultant at Hanover Research in Washington, D.C.

Reviews

The following reviews are known:

In: Dialogo Filosofico — 29 (2013), S. 215
In: Theologische Literaturzeitung — 139 (2014), S. 97–99 (Jochen Schmidt)
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