65. Encountering Jesus Christ: Rethinking Christological Faith and Commitment, by Donald L. Gelpi, S.J. ISBN-13: 978-0-87462-742-8 & ISBN-10: 0-87462-742-7. Paper. 640 pp. $47. Bibliography. Glossary. Index.
"In this book I argue, in agreement with the great American philosopher of religion Josiah Royce, that Christianity exemplifies a religion in search of a metaphysics, i.e., of an integrated, rational way of talking about God, self, other people, and the world—in other words, about any reality whatever. I also argue that in the past theologians have tried to interpret Christian religious experience with seriously flawed philosophical categories which lead to theological dead ends. In my judgment, dualistic patterns of philosophical thinking have in the past caused the greatest theological havoc and have brought Christian faith into needless disrepute.
Dualistic patterns of thinking conceive two interrelated realities in such a way as to make their relationship to one another subsequently unintelligible. Dualism roots itself in another philosophical fallacy: namely, essentialism. Essentialism fallaciously transforms human cognitive modes of perception into realities which exist apart from thought."
— From the author’s Preface
Donald Gelpi, S.J., is Professor Emeritus at The Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, and author of the 3-volume work, The Firstborn of Many: A Christology for Converting Christians ( see below volumes 20, 21, & 22 in this series from Marquette University Press), Varieties of Transcendental Experience: A Study of Constructive Postmodernism; The Gracing of Human Experience: Rethinking the Relationship of Nature and Grace; Peirce and Theology: Essays in the Authentication of Doctrines.
Marquette University Press
