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The Other Calling: Theology, Intellectual Vocation and Truth

ISBN: 978-0-470-77548-6

April 2008

Wiley-Blackwell

248 pages

Description
What is the true calling of the intellectual? In this provocative new book, Andrew Shanks presents a distinctive fresh answer. The Other Calling is a systematic riposte both to the elitism of philosophy in the heritage of Plato, and to the typical individualism of Plato's philosophic opponents. Here, instead, intellectual integrity is identified with a form of priesthood.

  • Asserts that intellectuals are critical to bringing together the common aspirations of a community

  • Offers a strikingly original approach to the moral and political aspects of theology’s relationship with philosophy, exploring the perspectives of both disciplines
  • Draws on the work and thought of Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Agnostics, and Atheists
  • Argues for a new, religiously multicultural “priesthood of all thinkers”, considering how once, all intellectuals were as a matter of course also priests
  • Published in the new and prestigious Illuminations series
About the Author
Andrew Shanks is the Canon Theologian for Manchester Cathedral. He is also the author of the following books: Hegel's Political Theology (1991), Civil Society, Civil Religion (Blackwell, 1995), God and Modernity (2000), What is Truth? (2001), and Faith in Honesty (2006).
Features

  • A provocative and unique book which questions what the true calling is of the intellectual, identifying intellectual integrity with a form of priesthood
  • Asserts that intellectuals are critical to bringing together the common aspirations of a community
  • Offers a strikingly original approach to the moral and political aspects of theology’s relationship with philosophy, exploring the perspectives of both disciplines
  • Draws on the work and thought of Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Agnostics, and Atheists
  • Argues for a new, religiously multicultural “priesthood of all thinkers”, considering how once, all intellectuals were as a matter of course also priests
  • Published in the new and prestigious Illuminations series