Atheism, Morality, and the Kingdom of God : A Philosophical and Literary Investigation [1 ed.] 9781527522404, 9781527519633

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Atheism, Morality, and the Kingdom of God



Atheism, Morality, and the Kingdom of God: A Philosophical and Literary Investigation By

David K. Clark

Atheism, Morality, and the Kingdom of God: A Philosophical and Literary Investigation By David K. Clark This book first published 2019 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2019 by David K. Clark All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-1963-5 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-1963-3

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Author’s Preface

hope of going to a better place after we are dead—but as full dedication to a deity. The reader will be able to appreciate the stunning result: the life of virtue and the life of faith are radically, conceptually, incompatible. We are then poised to discover for ourselves that the world is morally charged. With or without God, guidance about how to live rightly and well is embedded within the very fabric of the universe. So, both the nihilist—who believes that without God, morality is at best a human contrivance; and the person of faith—who believes that all morality either originates or is grounded in God, are profoundly misguided. And now we are poised for the question: is the summum bonum—the highest good for humans—available only as an afterlife reward for the faithful, or is it instead a real-time domain which emerges solely as a committed and distinctive way of dwelling here and now. Parts II and III provide an answer to this final question through a unique literary analysis of the biblical text itself. It is profoundly ironic that such careful examination is itself sufficient to decisively undercut the theology which has held the text hostage for two millennia. This scrutiny yields a long-sought prize: the principle of selection by which to discern the chaff from the wheat—the authentic words of Jesus himself. We will find that the genuine parables of Jesus—when tied to their inspirational and richly storied tradition—will present us with a vision of a kingdom of human flourishing which is inspiring and compelling, even if vulnerable. Its urgent message is that this domain—though worthy of a deity—must be achieved here and now or not at all. The best we can be is radically up to us; not even a God can save us. And it is the traditional stories together with the parables delivered from the mouth of Jesus himself, which show us the way. Finally, I should here offer a comment to those who may harbor a deep suspicion about taking the step into literary analysis as an invaluable guide through the deep and often murky problems of human existence. My philosophical presupposition is as follows. Philosophical Rationalism (the notion that we can have a priori knowledge about the world, i.e., constitutive knowledge of reality independently of our experience of it) has run its course. Not because philosophers are tired of it (although they are worn from tinkering about with all the implications for Philosophical Idealism and Relativism), but because it has been exposed. There is no a priori knowledge about the world, and thus no a priori knowledge about what the highlights of the good life for humans consists in. Therefore, we must learn from our own experience. And there is little which serves to illuminate the salient features thereof— thereby rendering these available for philosophical inspection—like great literature.

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