Publisher's Synopsis
In this book Vincent A. McCarthy examines the work of four philosophers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries-Rousseau, Kant. Hegel, and Schelling-who were committed to no lesser goal than the philosophical rehabilitation of Christianity and its Christ in the wake of the Enlightenment. They sought the elusive philosophical formula for reconciling reason and revelation and then elaborated it in a philosophy of religion that would rearticulate the religion of Jesus in a positive light, as against the destructive momentum and dark shadows cast by Enlightenment religious thought. This was, however, no modern apologetics, and traditional Christians were largely displeased and disturbed by the results. For what becomes of Christianity and its Christ in the works of these philosophers occurs not for the sake of Christianity but for the sake of philosophy. Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, and Schelling spearheaded an audacious attempt to fulfill philosophy's program in a philosophy of religion and to save religion from philosophy and for philosophy. Professor McCarthy examines in detail the philosophies of Christianity and the philosophical Christologies they created. Their work did not issue in unqualified success; yet the influence, reaction, rejection, and revival that each has generated, as well as the lessons of their failures, commend them to critical attention still.
