Paul Ricœur (Author) Paul Ricoeur is one of the most important twentieth-century French philosophers, who taught both in France and in the United States. He was the author of many books, including The Voluntary and the Involuntary, Fallible Man, and The Symbolism of Evil, Freud and Philosophy, The Rule of Metaphor, Time and Narrative, Oneself as Another, Memory History, Forgetting, and The Course of Recognition, as well as many essays, including ones on the philosophy of religion.David Pellauer (Translator) David Pellauer is professor emeritus of philosophy at DePaul University. He is the author of Paul Ricoeur: A Guide for the Perplexed and other essays on the work of Paul Ricoeur. He has also translated or co-translated many books and essays by Paul Ricoeur. He currently serves as a corresponding member on the Comité scientifique of the Ricoeur Archive in Paris.

"Like an acorn, Ricoeur’s master’s thesis anticipates ideas that will mature several decades later in his philosophy of the will. Through a careful comparison of two lesser-known 19th century French spiritualists - Lagneau and Lachelier--Ricoeur explores the question of the relation between reason and faith, arriving at a conclusion that becomes a mantra for the rest of his career: "immanence always includes some transcendence." This book, superbly translated by David Pellauer, brings a fresh perspective that remaps our understanding of the entire trajectory of Ricoeur’s thought." - Scott Davidson, University of Massachusetts Amherst, author of Pathos and Praxis: An Integrated Phenomenology of Life

• Translator’s Note ixForeword by Philippe Capelle-Dumont xiPreface by Jean Greisch xiiiEditorial Note by Catherine Goldenstein xxiiiAuthor’s Preface xxvIntroduction: Reflexive Method 1PART I: LACHELIERIntroduction 15Naturalism and the Problem of God 17The Formal God or the Idea of God 35The Living God 57PART II: LAGNEAUIntroduction 73I. Awakening Thought 75II. The Conditions of Certainty: The Monism of Thought 88III. Certainty and Action 103Conclusion: The Method of Immanence and the Doctrine of Immanence 119Notes 131Index 141