This volume gathers together ten philosophical essays by the late Frederick J. Crosson, scholar, author, and professor of philosophy in the Program of Liberal Studies and Department of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. Themes common to all are the nature of religion and its forms, its genealogy, and its history. The essays treat a range of authors, notably St. Augustine, Hume, and Newman--and especially the influence of Cicero, as the primary pre-Christian source of natural law teaching, on each of them. Taken together, the essays are also a reflection on some of the many kinds of hidden rhetorical qualities and structures that shape texts and require interpretation.
"The essays on the
Confessions, on the
De Magistro, and on
De Utilitate Credendi are minor classics in the secondary literature. All the essays together express a distinctive historical approach to the philosophy of religion. It is an approach that attends to the historical changes in the meaning of 'religion, ' to Hume's important role in that history, to the importance of the philosophy of mind to the philosophy of religion, and to a variety of important interrelations between metaphysical arguments, proofs, Newman-style cumulative-case arguments, and 'inferences to the best explanation, ' on the one hand, and historical/biographical narratives and personal life experiences on the other." --from the introduction
"
Ten Philosophical Essays in the Christian Tradition presents to the scholarly world a volume of Frederick J. Crosson's most original and significant writings. The essays move through the history of philosophy from antiquity to the present and will appeal to readers with an interest in the history of philosophy, especially political philosophy and philosophy of religion." --
Roland J. Teske, S.J., emeritus, Marquette University
