The God We Seek - Softcover

Weiss PhD, Professor Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080930628X ISBN 13: 9780809306282

Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press, 1973

The major topic of Professor Weiss’s present work is the experience of and concern with God in privacy and in community. His purpose is to reveal the primary nuances and distinctions essential to an adequate grasp of the nature of religion, and he seeks to isolate the pure, undistorted relation men have to God. The God we seek is thus, in Mr. Weiss’s viewpoint, no distillate, no abstract desiccated element but something at least as rich and as concrete as the specialized forms of experience and concerns exhibited in particular religions but without their bias.

Presupposing only those rudimentary experiences which are shared by everyone, Mr. Weiss focuses on that pure, rich, concrete relation which connects men and God, a relation which is diversely ritualized and specialized by the various religions.” Mr. Weiss makes evident that there are many ways in which men make contact with God, apart from special revelations, messages, or miracles.” God, he shows, is enjoyed in dedicated communities, is reached through the fissures of experience, and is present in sacred objects and in service.

Written in Professor Weiss’s usual incisive, clear style and addressed to the general reader as well as to the theologian, minister, and philosopher, the work as a whole is challenging and highly quotable in its observations. The virtues and limitations of the different religions, the nature of faith, prayer and worship, mysticism and religious language are some of the topics dealt with in a fresh and illuminating spirit. Mr. Weiss’s discussion of religious history is particularly noteworthy for sharply marking out an area that is neglected in most modern religious and historical studies.

An independent work, The God We Seek serves also as the capstone of Paul Weiss’s entire philosophic system: a philosophic system dealing with the whole of being and knowledge, both in a highly abstract form (The Modes of Being), and in concrete, specialized guises (The World of Art, Nine Basic Arts, History: Written and Lived). His intellectual diary, Philosophy in Process, is now appearing in a series of twelve fascicles, published at intervals of three months.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Paul Weiss is Sterling Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. Some of Mr. Weiss’s previous books, all published by Southern Illinois University Press, are Modes of Being, The World of Art, Nine Basic Arts, History: Written and Lived, and Philosophy in Process.

Review:

Paul Weiss is a lucid writer. Most paragraphs begin with meaty, topical sentences. His style and language make this good reading, and, for philosophy, easy reading. This study is the cream of thirty years of teaching at Yale University.” George Earle Owen, The Christian

Anyone familiar with the philos�ophy of religion will be stimulated by this book. The strong aspect in this book is in the author’s sharp analytical power revealed as he deals with reli�gious language There is an amazing range of resources provided in these pages. For that reason it will be valuable to the clergy and to the layman inter�ested in keeping up with the times.” M. J. Timbs, Religious Education

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.