Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

I'm not sure whether the theological/Christological views of John D. Caputo count as fideism in the sense in which that term attaches to, say, Tertullian, Pascal, Kierkegaard, or Karl Barth. Whether he joins that august company or not, as the significance of his works comes to be sorted by time, I'm glad he recently came within my ken. Caputo's works include: AGAINST ETHICS (1993) THE WEAKNESS OF GOD (2003) And at essay length, "Temporal Transcendence," in TRANSCENDENCE AND BEYOND (2007). The title of the anthology to which I've just referred reminds me a bit of Buzz Lightyear's expression, "To Infinity and Beyond."  But that is probably unfair to them both. One quote. Caputo is often quoted saying this, though I don't know the sourcing specifics for it. "I am seeking to know what religion would look like, what form it would take, if it were wrested free from people who consider themselves authorities in matters in whic...

I'll here continue yesterday's discussion on William James' skepticism about  the argument from design, which was in turn continuing a discussion from the week before. In my recent exchange in the comments section of this blog with Henry, I observed that there has been an alliance, in the development of the philosophy of religion, between fideists and unbelievers. A fideist by standard definition is one who embraces a religious creed and who sees that embrace (Faith) as valuable in itself, and  again who sees it as "in some sense independent of, if not outright adversarial toward, reason." James's essay on the "will to believe" is a rather moderate expression of fideism. He is certainly not advocating an adversarial relationship with reason, but he does argue that there are matters reason doesn't decide, and that in these matters an intellectualized expression of human will -- Faith -- may and in fact must step in. It is good that Faith ...