Robert Cummings Neville 
Ultimates [EPUB ebook] 
Philosophical Theology, Volume One

Finalist for the 2015 John N. Findlay Award in Metaphysics presented by the Metaphysical Society of America



Robert Cummings Neville offers a new theology of the ultimate and a new theory of religion to back it up. The first volume in a trilogy, this book and companion volumes treating existence and religion advance a systematic philosophical theology to address first-order questions found in the array of Axial Age religions. Questions generally arising in the major religious traditions are interrogated with a dialectic of philosophical approaches. This volume begins the project with a consideration of ultimacy defined philosophically and illustrated in a wide range of traditions. To the question of how or why there is something rather than nothing, Neville answers with an elaborate hypothesis about the ontological act of creation that creates all determinate things as related to but different from one another. The result is the claim that there are five ultimates: the ontological act, the form of determinate things, the components of determinate things, the existential location of determinate things relative to one another, and the value-identity of ultimate things, giving rise to five universal religious problematics of ultimacy respectively: the question of existence, the ground of obligation, the quest for wholeness, engaging others, and finding meaning. Neville analyzes what can and cannot be known about each of these ultimates. Readers will find Neville’s theory of religion and philosophy a bold one, running counter to dominant trends while richly informed by a long and fruitful engagement with theology, philosophy, and religion, East and West.

Tabella dei contenuti

Cross References

Preface

Acknowledgments



Introduction

I. The Hypothesis

II. Defining Religion

III. Identifying Religion in Public Discourse

IV. Distinguishing Marks of
Philosophical Theology




Part I. Ultimates Defined



Part I. Preliminary Remarks



1. Sacred Canopies



I. A Theory of Sacred Canopies

II. Finite/Infinite Contrasts

III. World-Defining Human Problems

IV. Truth in Sacred Canopies



2. Reference, Reduction, Philosophy, and Metaphysics



I. The Presupposition of Real Reference

II. The Scientific Bracketing of Real Reference

III. Philosophy’s Control for Reductionism

IV. Metaphysics Explained and Defended



3. Symbolic Engagement



I. Interpretation as Engagement

II. The Pragmatic Heritage

III. Iconic, Indexical, and Conventional Reference in Extension and Intention

IV. Engaging Finite/Infinite Contrasts



4. Worldviews



I. Orientation and Worldviews: The Sacred/Mundane Continuum

II. The Transcendence/Intimacy Continuum

III. The Sophistication/Popular Culture Continuum

IV. The Existential Continua: Sharing, Comprehensiveness, Intensity



Part I. Summary Implications




Part II. Ultimates Symbolized



Part II. Preliminary Remarks



5. Ultimate Reality and Ultimate Concern



I. Ultimate and Proximate Concerns

II. Ultimacy and Dialectic

III. Ultimate Concern as a Function of True Ultimacy

IV. Tensions along the Worldview Continua



6. Toward Transcendent Symbols of Ultimacy



I. Scale

II. Idolatry

III. Explanation: Metaphysics

IV. Experience



7. Toward Intimate Symbols of Ultimacy



I. Nature’s Depths

II. The Uncanny Familiar

III. Human Meaning

IV. Human Correction



8. Ultimacy in Theological Framing: Ontology and Narrative



I. Narrative of the Divine

II. Narrative of the People

III. The Symbolic Falsehood of All Narratives

IV. Living with Broken Narratives and Humanized Transcendents



Part II. Summary Implications




Part III. Ultimates Demonstrated



Part III. Preliminary Remarks



9. The Metaphysics of Ontological Ultimacy



I. Ultimate Reality, Being, and the Problem of the One and the Many

II. Whether Being Is One or Many

III. Whether Being Is Analogical or Univocal

IV. Whether Being Is Determinate or Indeterminate



10. The Metaphysics of Cosmological Ultimacy



I. Determinates as Harmony: Essential and Conditional Components

II. Transcendental Elements of Harmony: Form and Components

III. Transcendental Elements of Harmony: Existential Location

IV. Transcendental Elements of Harmony: Achieved Value-Identity



11. Proof of an Ultimate Ontological Creative Act



I. Radical Contingency and the Ontological Context of Mutual Relevance

II. Proof of an Ontological Creative Act

III. The Determinate World as the End of the Act

IV. Abyss in the Act: Symmetry of the Concept versus Asymmetry of What Is Conceived



12. The Ontological Ultimate: An Act of Creation



I. The Nature of the Ultimate Act as Created

II. The Eternity of Creation

III. Time and Eternity in the Three Modes of Time

IV. Eternity as Ontological and Cosmological Ultimate Reality



Part III. Summary Implications




Part IV. Ultimates Known



Part IV. Preliminary Remarks



13. What Can Be Known about Ultimacy



I. The Ultimate as Modeled: God, Consciousness, Emergence

II. Ultimacy and the Transcendentals: Form, Components, Existential Location, Value-Identity

III. Eternity and the Divine Life

IV. Ultimacy in Extension and Intension



14. What Cannot Be Known about Ultimacy



I. The Ultimate Has No Intrinsic Nature apart from Creation

II. The Ultimate and Other Possible Worlds

III. The Ultimate is Not a Person

IV. The Ultimate and Intelligibility



15. Symbolic Engagement as Praying the Ultimate



I. Theological Understanding as a Sign

II. Multiple Symbols along the Sophistication/Popular Religion, Transcendence/Intimacy, and Sacred/Mundane Continua

III. Systematic Thinking for Controlling Symbols

IV. Thinking the Ultimate



16. Mystical Engagement



I. The Path of Meditation: Nondualism

II. The Path of Contemplation: Suchness

III. The Path of the Mystical Abyss

IV. The Path of Love



Part IV. Summary Implications



Notes

Bibliography

Index

Circa l’autore

Robert Cummings Neville is Professor of Philosophy, Religion, and Theology and Dean Emeritus of the School of Theology at Boston University. He is the author of many books, including
Realism in Religion: A Pragmatist’s Perspective;
Ritual and Deference: Extending Chinese Philosophy in a Comparative Context; and
Religion in Late Modernity, all published by SUNY Press.