Auguste Comte and Consensus Formation in American Religious Thought—Part 1: The Creation of Consensus
Journal Title: Religions - Year 2017, Vol 8, Issue 8
Abstract
French intellectual Auguste Comte was the most influential sociologist and philosopher of science in the Nineteenth Century. This first of two articles summarizes his complex life’s works and details reactions to them by Transcendentalists and Unitarians, from its American introduction in 1837 until just after the Civil War. Using public speeches and published essays, the article analyzes the ways in which intellectuals supported and criticized Comte’s theories. Because he wrote in such abstract and difficult French, criticisms centered not on the nuances of his work, but more superficially on his alleged atheism. These attacks occur because of a variety of consequences of the Civil War that had little to do directly with Comte’s philosophy. Instead, Comte was a convenient vehicle for expressing anxiety over a modernism that included an accelerated threat against religion posed by technology and science and the emerging dominance of that secular knowledge in universities. The second article will analyze Comte’s influence on later Transcendentalists and other post-Unitarian thinkers.
Authors and Affiliations
Kenneth S. Sacks
Economic Inequality: An Ethical Response
This essay will inquire into the nature of economic inequality from the perspectives of Catholic social teaching and that of a theologian living and working in a developing country. My initial comments will discuss ine...
Children’s Spiritual Lives: The Development of a Children’s Spirituality Measure
Previous researchers who have studied children’s spirituality have often used narrow measures that do not account for the rich spiritual experiences of children within a multi-faith context. In the current study, we de...
Protocol of Taste and See: A Feasibility Study of a Church-Based, Healthy, Intuitive Eating Programme
Obesity treatment remains a high global priority. Evidence suggests holistic approaches, which include a religious element, are promising. Most research is from the USA, but recent evidence suggests a need within the U...
Measures of Spirituality/Religiosity—Description of Concepts and Validation of Instruments
Why do we need some more questionnaires to measure aspects of spirituality/religiosity when we already have so many well-tried instruments in use? One answer is that research in this field is growing and that new resea...
“Nothing Sacred”: Violence, Time and Meaning in the Cinema of Possibilities
Hemingway’s disenchantment with the idea of the sacred as expressed in A Farewell to Arms became a defining aspect of the modern experience including in some Hollywood films such as Nothing Sacred and Twentieth Century...