Critical Realism and Spirituality

Critical Realism and Spirituality contextualizes, delineates, explores and critiques the turn to spirituality and religion in critical realism, which has been under way since the mid-1990s, as well as telling its story. It provides incisive discussion and anaysis of the following broad questions:

How does critical realism allow and facilitate the resolution of problems in the area of comparative religion?
Can it help you to justify your own faith or belief?
What are the implications of the new philosophy of meta-Reality for traditional religious studies and how we organize and conduct our lives?
A range of distinguished critical realists, theological critical realists and scholars working with related approaches (Roland Benedikter, Roy Bhaskar, Terry Eagleton, Mervyn Hartwig, Alister McGrath, Markus Molz, Jamie Morgan, Andrew Wright and others) bring their talents to bear on this task. While their personal beliefs span the whole spectrum from theism to atheism, they are united by the desire to open up a space for dialogue of one kind or another (intra-faith, inter-faith and/or extra-faith), promoting mutual understanding, respect and the unity and capability for collective emancipatory action on a global scale that humanity is so sorely in need of. This book is therefore, essential reading for students and academics alike in Religous Studies, Theology and Philosophy.

Mervyn Hartwig is founding editor of Journal of Critical Realism and editor and principal author of Dictionary of Critical Realism. He taught history and philosophy of the social sciences for many years in Sydney. He is now retired and lives in London. His recent publications include a book of interviews with Roy Bhaskar, The Formation of Critical Realism (2010) and a series of introductions to many of Bhaskar’s books, currently being reissued by Routledge.
Jamie Morgan teaches social theory and Asia-Pacific studies at the Open University in the North West, UK, and the University of Helsinki, and is Review Editor, Journal of Critical Realism. His research interests include contemporary China, philosophy and critical realism, and political economy and Marxism. He has published numerous journal articles in these areas.

Introduction Jamie Morgan and Mervyn Hartwig Part I The Resurgence of Religion and Spirituality 1. The rise of neo-integrative worldviews: towards a rational spirituality for the coming planetary civilization? - Roland Benedikter and Markus Molz 2. Beyond fundamentalism: spiritual realism, spiritual literacy and education - Andrew Wright 3. Realism, literature and spirituality - Terry Eagleton Part II Theism and Atheism 4. Judgemental rationality and the equivalence of argument: realism about God - Jamie Morgan 5. Response to Morgan’s critique - Doug Porpora 6. Transcendence and God: reflections on critical realism, the ‘New Atheism’, and Christian theology - Alister McGrath 7. Human sciences at the edge of panentheism: God and the limits of ontological realism - Sebastian Job 8. Beyond East and West - Roy Bhaskar with Mervyn Hartwig Part III Spirituality and meta-Reality 9. Meta-Reality (re-)contextualized - Roy Bhaskar with Mervyn Hartwig 10. Anti-anthropic spirituality: dualism, duality and non-duality - Seo MinGyu 11. ‘The more you kick God out the front door, the more he comes in through the window’: Sean Creaven’s critique of transcendental dialectical critical realism and the philosophy of meta-Reality - Mervyn Hartwig 12. Resisting the theistic turn - Sean Creaven 13. The pulse of freedom and the existential dilemma of alienation - Hans Despain 14. Meta-Reality, creativity and the experience of making art - Melanie McDonald