American Philosophers Read Scripture

Jacob L. Goodson is assistant professor of philosophy at Southwestern College.

This collection of explorations into the manner and purpose of American philosophers’ reading of Scripture pushes back against trends in academic philosophy that seek to block this path of inquiry. The authors investigate the question with acuity, inventiveness, and care, such that the reader wants to learn more about the philosophers, previously known or unknown, whose use of Scripture has gone unnoticed or ignored. The book is a welcome invitation to a rich and longer conversation.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionSection 1. Reading Genesis and Job with American Philosophers1. Ann W. Duncan & Jacob L. Goodson, “Immortal Eve”? Genesis 1-3 in Margaret Fuller’s Woman in the Nineteenth Century 2. Edward F. Mooney, “In Demonstration of the Spirit”: Henry Bugbee’s Meditations on the Book of JobSection 2. Reading the Prophets with American Philosophers 3. William J. Danaher Jr., “Fire Enfolding Itself”: Jonathan Edwards and the Merkabah 4. Willie Young, Gathering the Wild Fruits of Scripture: Henry David Thoreau’s Philosophical Interpretations of Scripture5. Lawrence Ware, The Black Prophetic Tradition: Cornel West, Abraham Heschel, and the Biblical Prophets Section 3. Philosophical Interpretations of the Synoptic Gospels6. Jacob L. Goodson, “Ye Shall Know Them By Their Fruits”: Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Interpretation of Jesus’ Logical Rule7. John R. Shook, Let the Philosophers Bury Their Own Dead: Matthew 8 and Luke 9 in John Dewey’s PhilosophySection 4.