Creation, Nature and Political Order in the Philosophy of Michael Foster (1903-1959)
Author: | Wybrow, Cameron |
Year: | 1993 |
Pages: | 376 |
ISBN: | 0-7734-9207-0 978-0-7734-9207-3 |
Price: | $239.95 |
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The present volume fills a gap in scholarship in three ways. First, it provides the reader with a concise introduction to Foster's life and thought, by means of a biographical essay and a complete bibliography of Foster's published work. Second, it contains unabridged reprints of the seven Foster articles (including the classic Mind trio) which are most concerned with the relations between religion and science. Third, and perhaps most important, it contains a number of responses to Foster by contemporary scholars representing a wide range of academic disciplines and theological persuasions. Stanley Jaki, Francis Oakley and others have contributed lively critiques and further theoretical explorations, stimulated by Foster, concerning nature, creation, science, Christianity, and modernity. This volume is an absolute prerequisite for all further work on Foster. It also makes a vital contribution to the areas of theology, philosophy, and intellectual history, especially regarding the concepts of `creation' and `nature', two notions which have become increasingly important to serious philosophical and religious discourse about the human situation today.
Reviews
"This collection of essays has an absorbing layout and structure: The book begins with Wybrow's essay on Foster's life and the enigma of his suicide in Oxford in 1959. Wybrow's research in this area is impressive and original. . . . the implications of Foster's thought are deeply present and everywhere around us in the world-view articulated by modern philosophy. . . . When Foster dances on the grave of Greek thought, Wybrow asks, 'is the primary reason for his celebration that Greek thought was sub-Christian? Or is it, perhaps, that it was sub-modern?' The darkening aspects of this good question set the stage for a foray into a fascinating and important dialogue between Michael Foster and his critics." -- Sophia
"This is an excellent book. The highest quality scholarship is coupled with an issue of substance and importance. . . . it brings together important essays by Foster, some of which are quite difficult to get otherwise, and provides a crucial and enlightening apparatus criticus of notes, corrected readings, and bibliography." - Carl Mitcham