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书名: Moral Creativity: Paul Ricoeur and the Poetics of Possibility (Aar Reflection and Theory in the Study of Religion)
作者: John Wall (Author)
出版社: An American Academy of Religion Book (August 11, 2005)
语言: English
ISBN-10: 0195182561
ISBN-13: 978-0195182569
Book Description
John Wall argues that moral life is inherently creative. Creativity, he says, is an element not just in the expression of moral sentiments, the application of moral principles, or the formation of moral cultures, but also the very activity of living morally itself. He supports his argument by means of an examination and critique of the moral thought of the French hermeneutical phenomenologist Paul Ricoeur, especially his poetics of will. Wall places Ricoeur's work in the larger context of historical and contemporary conversations about moral transformation. In the process, he draws new connections between morality and tragedy, ethics and poetics, and the moral life and religious mythology. If moral life is creative at its core, Wall argues, it challenges all of these inherited oppositions and demands some fundamental rethinking of the nature and meaning of moral life itself.
Review
"A provocative primer rich and thoughtful in current phenomenological conversations related to major questions debated today." -- Horizons
"John Wall's Moral Creativity is a thoughtfully written, carefully researched, and insightful book that makes an original contribution to religious ethics through a critical reading of the work of Paul Ricoeur. Wall successfully crafts a poetic moral philosophy in relation to the narratological and tragic dimensions of human existence. Through careful and sensitive readings of important Continental and postmodern thinkers, Wall calls the reader to create a narrative unity of life amidst the complexities and incommensurabilities of daily, lived existence. A stunning achievement and must read for students and scholars interested in the moral life in the face of radical evil and the loss of hope in our time." -- Mark I. Wallace, author of Finding God In The Singing River: Christianity, Spirit, Nature and The Second Naivete: Barth, Ricoeur, and the New Yale Theology
"Paul Ricoeur is one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th and now 21st centuries. In this lively book, John Wall engages Ricoeur's work, especially the 'poetics of the will,' and, just as importantly, advances an account of the moral life as inherently creative. Wall insightfully addresses major debates within current ethics and deftly demonstrates the significance of "moral creativity" for providing a depiction of human life appropriate for the current situation. Anyone interested in contemporary moral thought as well as Ricoeur's philosophy will be instructed and challenged by this important volume." -- William Schweiker, author of Theological Ethics and Global Dynamics: In the Time of Many Worlds
"John Wall is dealing here with one of the most urgent philosophical questions of our time. He manages to combine a lively, anecdotal, engaging syle with a lucid sense of argument and a wide range of scholarly reference. Ricoeur is his guiding spirit but by no means an exclusive one. This is much more then a critical monograph or missionary declaration of intent. It is a deeply reflective, personally engaged, intellectually robust journey into the very meaning of 'creativity' in its cultural, ontological, aesthetic and ethical dimensions." -- Richard Kearney, author of The God Who May Be: A Hermeneutics of Religion and On Paul Ricoeur: The Owl of Minerva
About the Author
John Wall is Assistant Professor of Religion at Rutgers University. He is author of numerous articles in religious ethics and co-editor of Paul Ricoeur and Contemporary Moral Thought (2002).
