- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Acknowledgements
- Preface to the Fordham University Press Edition
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chronology
- Bibliographic Abbreviations
- Editor's Note on the Text
- Part I An Autobiographical Sketch
- 1 Words of Professor Royce at the Walton Hotel at Philadelphia December 29,1915
- Part II The American Context
- 2 The Struggle for Order: Self-Government, Good-Humor and Violence in the Mines
- 3 An Episode of Early California Life: The Squatter Riot of 1850 in Sacramento
- 4 The Settlers at Oakfield Creek
- 5 The Pacific Coast: A Psychological Study of the Relations of Climate and Civilization
- 6 William James and the Philosophy of Life
- Part III The European Background
- 7 Shelley and the Revolution
- 8 Pessimism and Modern Thought
- 9 The Rediscovery of the Inner Life: From Spinoza to Kant
- 10 The Concept of the Absolute and the Dialectical Method
- Part IV Religious Questions
- 11 The Possibility of Error
- 12 The Conception of God Address by Professor Royce
- 13 Immortality
- 14 Monotheism
- Part V The World and the Individual
- 15 Self-Consciousness, Social Consciousness and Nature
- 16 The Religious Problems and the Theory of Being
- 17 The Internal and External Meaning of Ideas
- 18 The Fourth Conception of Being
- 19 The Linkage of Facts
- 20 The Temporal and the Eternal
- American Philosophy Series Douglas R. Anderson and Jude Jones, series editors
The Religious Problems and the Theory of Being
The Religious Problems and the Theory of Being
- Chapter:
- (p.463) 16 The Religious Problems and the Theory of Being
- Source:
- The Basic Writings of Josiah Royce, Volume I
- Author(s):
- John J. McDermott
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
This chapter, taken from Josiah Royce's Gifford Lectures of 1899, begins by setting out the three conceptions of natural religion. The first regards natural religion as a search for what a well-known phrase has called “the way through nature to God.” The second views religion less as a doctrine to be proved or disproved through a study of the external world than as a kind of consciousness whose justification lies in its rank amongst the various inner manifestations of our human nature. The third conception identifies the doctrine in question with the fundamental philosophy of religion. The chapter then states that the focus of these lectures is the most neglected and arduous of the methods of studying the relations between religion and the ultimate problems of the Theory of Being. The central problem of the discussion will be the question: What is Reality?
Keywords: natural religion, philosophy, Josiah Royce, theory of being, reality
Fordham Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Acknowledgements
- Preface to the Fordham University Press Edition
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chronology
- Bibliographic Abbreviations
- Editor's Note on the Text
- Part I An Autobiographical Sketch
- 1 Words of Professor Royce at the Walton Hotel at Philadelphia December 29,1915
- Part II The American Context
- 2 The Struggle for Order: Self-Government, Good-Humor and Violence in the Mines
- 3 An Episode of Early California Life: The Squatter Riot of 1850 in Sacramento
- 4 The Settlers at Oakfield Creek
- 5 The Pacific Coast: A Psychological Study of the Relations of Climate and Civilization
- 6 William James and the Philosophy of Life
- Part III The European Background
- 7 Shelley and the Revolution
- 8 Pessimism and Modern Thought
- 9 The Rediscovery of the Inner Life: From Spinoza to Kant
- 10 The Concept of the Absolute and the Dialectical Method
- Part IV Religious Questions
- 11 The Possibility of Error
- 12 The Conception of God Address by Professor Royce
- 13 Immortality
- 14 Monotheism
- Part V The World and the Individual
- 15 Self-Consciousness, Social Consciousness and Nature
- 16 The Religious Problems and the Theory of Being
- 17 The Internal and External Meaning of Ideas
- 18 The Fourth Conception of Being
- 19 The Linkage of Facts
- 20 The Temporal and the Eternal
- American Philosophy Series Douglas R. Anderson and Jude Jones, series editors
