Louis Dupré - Böcker

Religion and the Rise of Modern Culture describes and analyzes changing attitudes toward religion during three stages of modern European culture: the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Romantic period. Louis Dupré is an expert guide to the complex historical and intellectual relation between religion and modern culture. Dupré begins by tracing the weakening of the Christian synthesis. At the end of the Middle Ages intellectual attitudes toward religion began to change. Theology, once the dominant science that had integrated all others, lost its commanding position. After the French Revolution, religion once again played a role in intellectual life, but not as the dominant force. Religion became transformed by intellectual and moral principles conceived independently of faith. Dupré explores this new situation in three areas: the literature of Romanticism (illustrated by Goethe, Schiller, and Hölderlin); idealist philosophy (Schelling); and theology itself (Schleiermacher and Kierkegaard). Dupré argues that contemporary religion has not yet met the challenge presented by Romantic thought. Dupré's elegant and incisive book, based on the Erasmus Lectures he delivered at the University of Notre Dame in 2005, will challenge anyone interested in religion and the philosophy of culture.

This eagerly awaited study brings to completion Louis Dupré's planned trilogy on European culture during the modern epoch. Demonstrating remarkable erudition and sweeping breadth, The Quest of the Absolute analyzes Romanticism as a unique cultural phenomenon and a spiritual revolution. Dupré philosophically reflects on its attempts to recapture the past and transform the present in a movement that is partly a return to premodern culture and partly a violent protest against it. Following an introduction on the historical origins of the Romantic Movement, Dupré examines the principal Romantic poets of England (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats), Germany (Goethe, Schiller, Novalis, Hölderlin), and France (Lamartine, de Vigny, Hugo), all of whom, from different perspectives, pursued an absolute ideal. In the chapters of the second part, he concentrates on the critical principles of Romantic aesthetics, the Romantic image of the person as reflected in the novel, and Romantic ethical and political theories. In the chapters of the third, more speculative, part, he investigates the comprehensive syntheses of romantic thought in history, philosophy, and theology.The Quest of the Absolute is an important work both as the culmination of Dupré's ongoing project and as a classic in its own right. The book will meet the expectations of the specialist as well as appeal to more general readers with philosophical, cultural, and religious interests.

Written throughout Louis Dupré's life, Thinking the Unknowable explores the relationship between faith and metaphysics, charting the course for an innovative Christian philosophy of religion.Louis Dupré's Thinking the Unknowable offers a sophisticated response to the subjectivist ills of modern philosophy. Drawing on a diverse host of philosophers, theologians, and phenomenologists, Dupré seeks to open up a space for faith in contemporary philosophy of religion by arguing that metaphysics cannot claim authority in the realm of the transcendent. Instead, Dupré shows that philosophers must learn to accommodate mystery in their metaphysical frameworks.Edited and introduced by Peter J. Casarella, prominent theologian and student of Dupré, the book unfolds in four parts. Dupré establishes the foundations for a new theology of language, drawing inspiration from two sources: humanist theological hermeneutics and deist biblical spirituality. The second part addresses the idea of God in modern philosophy, taking Hegel's philosophy of religion as its starting point. The third deals with the phenomenology of religion, focusing primarily on the work of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. In the fourth part, Dupré turns to the concept of mysticism, offering a sophisticated reflection on the possibility of acknowledging a transcendent horizon to human knowing in a secular age. Readers of this volume will be guided across the bridge from philosophy to faith and back again, discovering new worlds of meaning and expressions of truth.

This study sheds new light on Marx’s achievement by presenting a critical reading of his interpretation of culture.  Dupré discusses the relation of Marx to previous philosophers, especially Hegel; the stages of development and contradictions within Marx’s conception of culture; and the contributions of the various Marxists who followed Marx.“An intelligent, discerning, and carefully nuanced reading of Marx. . . . Dupré presents a fluidity and diversity that is lacking in many other interpretations of Marx.”-- Peter Stillman, The American Political Science Review“What makes the book notable is that it handles its subject more clearly, thoroughly, and indeed elegantly than most of its predecessors.”-- Michael J. Kerlin, Theological Studies“Dupré is undoubtedly one of the most knowledgeable scholars of Marxism. . . . His study counts among the best ones written on the modern Prometheus.” -- Max Wildiers, De Standard“A major work on Marx, displaying familiarity with the vast scope of his work and characterized by thoughtful and insightful analysis.” -- Carol Gould“This book is very learned, well-written and readable. . . . Its value lies in its attempt to subordinate the basic tenets of Marx’s thought to the question of how man’s cultural activity is to be understood within the general framework of Marxism and how some of Marx’s ideas concerning culture can be adapted apart from the dogmas of ‘historical materialism.’”-- Leszek Kolakowski

“Louis Dupré’s study of the Enlightenment, ranging as it does over art, morality, religion, science, philosophy, social theory, and a good deal besides, is a marvel of scholarly erudition. . . . A formidably well-researched book, which would make an excellent introduction to Enlightenment ideas for the general reader.”—Terry Eagleton, Harper’s MagazineAn eminent scholar of modern culture argues that the Enlightenment―the importance of which has been vigorously debated in recent years―was a more complex phenomenon than either its detractors or advocates assume.

In this revised edition of a longtime best selling anthology of Christian mysticism, editors Louis Dupré and James Wiseman bring together selections from the writings of twenty-three of the most important Christian mystics, from Origen of Alexandria in the third century to Thomas Merton in the twentieth. This edition retains most of the authors included in the first addition, but has replaced some authors from that edition with ones that will be of greater interest to readers today, e.g., Francis and Clare of Assisi, Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal, and Evelyn Underhill. A general introduction discusses the place of mysticism within the Christian life as a whole, while individual chapter introductions place the mystical writers in their historical context and relate their works to others in the anthology. In addition, the editors have completely updated the bibliographies at the end of each chapter. Students and teachers of spirituality, as well as persons interested in their own spiritual growth, will welcome this popular revised resource, because it makes readily available in one volume major works by important Christian mystical writers. Like its predecessor, it is sure to be welcomed in the academic world and spiritual and devotional circles.†

From the World Spirituality series, this is a broad-ranging, illustrated, scholarly treatment of core topics in Christian spirituality in the period after the Reformation.