The Conference on Science Philosophy and Religion

Finkelstein, Louis

doi:10.5840/thought194015410

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“…After referencing suggestions that what was necessary was "a super-Thomas Aquinas or Maimonides, a genius capable of assimilating the mass of modern learning, imposing architectonic order upon it, and above all, enabling his system to adjust itself to the dynamic character of modern science," Finkelstein turned to Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain's measured vision of a "pluralistic but well regulated universe of thought" that could foster "mutual respect and understanding" by formulating "significant analogies." 113 By tolerating a lack of closure on metaphysical questions, like how to "explain . .…”

Section: A Prophetic Guide For the American Mind And Spiritmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wednesday morning, September 11, 1940, the penultimate session of the CSPR, at which the natural scientists presented their papers, proved to be a chance to test Finkelstein's blend of theistic and rational thought. Through comments and discussions, several scientists, philosophers, and theologians in the room debated the relative value and merits of science and religion for democratic thought.…”

Section: A Prophetic Guide For the American Mind And Spiritmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Prophetic Guide for a Perplexed World: Louis Finkelstein and the 1940 Conference on Science, Philosophy, and Religion

Rock-Singer¹

2019

Religion and Am. Culture

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This article traces negotiations over the epistemic, ethical, and political authority of Judaism, Protestantism, Catholicism, and science in mid-twentieth-century America. Specifically, it examines how the president of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Rabbi Dr. Louis Finkelstein, led a diverse group of intellectual elites as they planned and convened the 1940 Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life (CSPR). Based on the conference's transcripts, proceedings, and papers, in addition to Finkelstein's writings from the period, this article shows how Finkelstein used his vision of the Jewish tradition as a model to form a pluralistic intellectual space that brought together the representatives of multiple religious traditions and modern science. To accredit the American way of life to Judaism, Finkelstein traced America's ethical values, democratic politics, and scientific genius back to the Hebrew Prophets through Rabbinic Judaism. In response to Finkelstein's historiography and the political and ideological challenges of World War II, scientific and religious experts negotiated their authority and debated how to mobilize their traditions in a quest for political stability. By analyzing the CSPR as a meeting of multiple discourses, this article reinstates science as a fundamental player in the story of American pluralism and demonstrates the way a non-Protestant tradition shaped the terms of an elite public's understanding of the “democratic way of life.”

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Section: A Prophetic Guide For the American Mind And Spiritmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Prophetic Guide For the American Mind And Spiritmentioning

confidence: 99%