Faithful to the Earth: Nietzsche and Whitehead on God and the Meaning of Human Life - Softcover

Howe, Thomas J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0742514455 ISBN 13: 9780742514454

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002

Synopsis

On the surface, Friedrich Nietzsche and Alfred North Whitehead represent very different positions on God and the meaning of human life. Put simply, Nietzsche is an atheist--belief in God, he argues, denies the value and meaning of human life. Whitehead says the opposite--human life finds no meaning unless God exists. Faithful to the Earth, winner of the Bross Prize for Christian Scholarship that is awarded only once every 10 years, goes way beyond contrasting the theist with the atheist. J. Thomas Howe argues that Whitehead's understanding of God lays the foundation for a religious life strikingly similar to that described in Nietzsche's tragic, but affirmative, philosophy. In Howe's eyes, the theology of Whitehead provides a doctrine of God that is not subject to Nietzsche's criticism of Christianity. For Whitehead, religious life is not opposed to life in the world.

About this title

About the Author:

J. Thomas Howe is adjunct assistant professor of theology at Georgetown University. He serves on the Board of Distinguished Visitors: Council of Protestant Studies at the School of Religion at Claremont Graduate University.

Review:

Good comparative philosophy is insightful in the contrasts drawn as well as the significant comparisons. Howe's study of Nietzsche and Whitehead succeeds on both accounts. Howe is especially persuasive in rejecting Nietzsche's unilateral value creation as opposed to Whitehead's reciprocal approach to a value laden world. (Nicholas F. Gier)

Howe has done a remarkable job in bringing together two very unlikely but important thinkers. Thanks to his pervasive reading and fine writing skills, Howe's thesis goes far beyond a mere comparison and contrast of Whitehead and Nietzsche and offers some forceful and informed thoughts about human life. (Tad Beckman)

J. Thomas Howe has now, in an insightful and eminently readable study, produced the first full-scale comparison of the thought of Nietzsche and Whitehead. Showing that they do indeed have much in common, Howe gives equal attention to their basic difference: whether affirmation of life in the world requires the death of God or only the death of supernaturalism. (Griffin, David Ray)

About this edition

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0742514455
• ISBN 13: 9780742514454
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200