Transcendence, Creation, and Incarnation: From Philosophy to Religion

249 Pages·2020·10.19 MB·English

by  Anthony O'Hear

Transcendence, Creation and
Incarnation
This book expounds and analyses notions of transcendence, creation and
incarnation reflectively and personally, combining both philosophical and
religious insights. Preferring tender-minded approaches to reductively mate-
rialistic ones, it shows some ways in which reductive approaches to h uman
affairs can distort the appreciation of our lives and activities.
In the book’s first half, it examines a number of aspects of human life
and experience in the thought of Darwin, Ruskin and Scruton with a view
to exploring the extent to which there could be intimations of transcend-
ence. The second half is then devoted to outlining an account of divine
creation and incarnation, deriving initially, though not uncritically, from
the thought of Simone Weil. The text concludes by examining the extent to
which grace is needed to engage in religious practice and belief.
Taking in art, literature, music and classical Greek writings, this is a
multifaceted thesis on transcendence. It will, therefore, will be of keen
interest to any scholar of philosophy of religion, theology, aesthetics and
metaphysics.
Anthony O’Hear is professor of philosophy at the University of Bucking-
ham, UK. From 1994 to 2019, he was the director of the Royal Institute of
Philosophy and editor of Philosophy, its academic journal. He is the author
of many books and articles on philosophy, including Karl Popper (1980),
What Philosophy Is (1984), The Element of Fire (1988), Introduction to the
Philosophy of Science (1989), Beyond Evolution (1997), Philosophy in the
New Century (2001) and The Landscape of Humanity (2008). Picturing
the Apocalypse (2015), co-authored with Natasha O’Hear, won the Art
and Christianity Enquiry/Mercers prize in 2017 for the best book interna-
tionally on art and religion. Anthony O’Hear was appointed OBE in 2018.
Transcending Boundaries in Philosophy and Theology
Series Editors:
Martin Warner, University of Warwick, UK
Kevin Vanhoozer, Trinity Evangelical School, USA
Transcending Boundaries in Philosophy and Theology is an interdisciplinary
series exploring new opportunities in the dialogue between philosophy and
theology that go beyond more traditional ‘faith and reason’ debates and take
account of the contemporary reshaping of intellectual boundaries. For much
of the modern era, the relation of philosophy and theology has been con-
ceived in terms of antagonism or subordination, but recent intellectual de-
velopments hold out considerable potential for a r enewed dialogue in which
philosophy and theology have common cause for revisioning their respective
identities, reconceiving their relationship, and combining their resources.
This series explores constructively for the 21st century the resources availa-
ble for engaging with those forms of enquiry, experience and sensibility that
theology has historically sought to address. Drawing together new writing
and research from leading international scholars in the field, this high-profile
research series offers an important contribution to contemporary research
across the interdisciplinary perspectives relating theology and philosophy.
Renewing Spiritual Perception with Jonathan Edwards
Contemporary Philosophy and the Theological Psychology of
Transforming Grace
Ray S. Yeo
Wonder, Value and God
Robin Attfield
Slavoj Žižek and Christianity
Edited by Sotiris Mitralexis and Dionysios Skliris
Transcendence, Creation and Incarnation
From Philosophy to Religion
Anthony O’Hear
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.
com/religion/series/APHILTHEO
Transcendence, Creation and
Incarnation
From Philosophy to Religion
Anthony O’Hear
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2020 Anthony O’Hear
The right of Anthony O’Hear to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-85690-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-01440-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra
For Tricia
‘pietosa colei che me soccorse’

Contents
List of illustrations ix
Preface xi
PART I
Transcendence 1
1 The scope of philosophy 3
2 Darwinian tensions 23
3 Epistemology and the anthropic principle 62
4 The lost amazing crown – the meaning of Ruskin’s
theoretic faculty 76
5 The great absence: Scruton’s cognitive dualism 100
PART II
Creation and incarnation 115
6 Why? Creation and incarnation? 117
7 This is the place: reflections on the reality of incarnation 185
8 Conclusion 205
Appendix 215
References 218
Index 225

Illustrations
Image 1 N ewton, 1795-c.1805, William Blake (1757–1827)
© Tate, London 2019 9
Image 2 S tone Pines at Sestri, Gulf of Genoa, 1845, John
Ruskin (1819–1900) Ashmolean Museum,
University of Oxford, UK/Bridgeman Images 83
Image 3 J upiter and Io, c.1530, Correggio (Antonio Allegri),
(1489–1534) Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna,
Austria/Bridgeman Images 136
Image 4 T he Flaying of Marsyas, c.1570–1576, Titian (Tiziano
Vecellio), (c.1488–1576), Kromeritz, Erzbischöfliches
Schloss, Photo © Derek
Baynes/Bridgeman Images 143
Image 5 T he Virgin with the Infant St John the Baptist adoring
the Christ Child accompanied by an Angel
(‘The Virgin of the Rocks’), c.1506–8, Leonardo da
Vinci (1452–1519) © The National Gallery, London 148
Image 6 T he Birth of Venus, c.1485, Sandro Botticelli
(1445–1510) Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence,
Tuscany, Italy/Bridgeman Images 176
Image 7 T ondo Taddei, c.1504–6, Michelangelo Buonarroti
(1475–1564). Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Photo © Luisa Ricciarini/Bridgeman Images 187
Image 8 T he Deposition, 1547–1555, Michelangelo Buonarroti
(1475–1564). Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence,
Tuscany, Italy, Ghigo Roli/Bridgeman Images 190
Image 9 H abakkuk (called lo Zuccone), 1425, Donatello
(Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi), (1386–1466)
Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence, Tuscany, Italy.
Photo © Luisa Ricciarini/Bridgeman Images 192
Image 10 The Penitent Magdalene, 1453–5, Donatello
(Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi), (1386–1466).
Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence, Tuscany,
Italy. G. Dagli Orti/De Agostini Picture
Library/Bridgeman Images 194