The Varieties of Transcendence

The Varieties of Transcendence traces American pragmatist thought on religion and its relevance for theorizing religion today. The volume establishes pragmatist concepts of religious individualization as powerful alternatives to the more common secularization discourse. In stressing the importance of Josiah Royce's work, it emphasizes religious individualism's compatibility with community. At the same time, by covering all of the major classical pragmatist theories of religion, it shows their kinship and common focus on the interrelation between the challenges of contingency and the semiotic significance of transcendence.

Hermann Deuser is Professor emeritus at Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main and Long-term Fellow at the Max-Weber-Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, Erfurt, Germany. Areas of research: S. Kierkegaard, C.S. Peirce. Most recent books: Religionsphilosophie; Co-ed. of: Deutsche S.Kierkegaard Edition, vol, 4.

Hans Joas is Ernst Troeltsch Professor for the Sociology of Religion at the Theological Faculty of Humboldt University in Berlin and Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago where he also belongs to the Committee on Social Thought. Most recent books: The Sacredness of the Person. A New Genealogy of Human Rights; War in Social Thought. Hobbes to the Present (with W.Knoebl); and Faith as an Option. Possible Futures for Christianity.

Matthias Jung is professor for practical philosophy at Koblenz University. His areas of research are pragmatism, hermeneutics, philosophy of religion, anthropology and cognitive science. Most recent books: Der bewusste Ausdruck and Gewöhnliche Erfahrung.

Magnus Schlette is Permanent Fellow at the FEST - Protestant Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in Heidelberg, Germany.