Nicholas Wolterstorff
Nicholas Wolterstorff | |
---|---|
Born | Nicholas Paul Wolterstorff January 21, 1932 |
Spouse |
Claire Wolterstorff (m. 1955) |
Academic background | |
Calvin College | |
Thesis | Whitehead's Theory of Individuals (1956) |
Academic advisors | Donald Cary Williams[1] |
Influences | |
Academic work | |
Discipline |
|
Doctoral students | Phillip Cary |
Notable ideas | Reformed epistemology |
Influenced |
Nicholas Paul Wolterstorff (born January 21, 1932) is an
Biography
Wolterstorff was born on January 21, 1932,
In 1987 Wolterstorff published Lament for a Son after the untimely death of his 25-year-old son Eric in a mountain climbing accident. In a series of short essays, Wolterstorff recounts how he drew on his Christian faith to cope with his grief. Wolterstorff explained that he published the book "in the hope that it will be of help to some of those who find themselves with us in the company of mourners."[7]
He has been a visiting professor at
Wolterstorff published his
Professional distinctions
- Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, 1953
- Harvard Foundation Fellowship, 1954
- Josiah Royce Memorial Fellowship, Harvard University, 1954
- Fulbright Scholarship, 1957
- President of the American Philosophical Association (Central Division)
- President of the Society of Christian Philosophers[2]
- Senior Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study in Culture, University of Virginia, 2005
Endowed lectureships
- Kuyper Lectures, Free University of Amsterdam, 1981
- Wilde Lectures, University of Oxford, 1993
- St Andrews University, 1995
- Tate-Willson Lectures, Southern Methodist University, 1991
- Stone Lectures, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1998
- Lectures at Southern Seminary, Lecture #2, Lecture #3, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2000
- Taylor Lectures, Yale University, 2001
- Laing Lectures, Regent College, 2007
Personal life
Nicholas Wolterstorff lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with his wife Claire. He has four grown children. His oldest son died in a mountain climbing accident at age 25. He has seven grandchildren.
Thought
While an undergraduate at Calvin College, Wolterstorff was greatly influenced by professors
Wolterstorff builds upon the ideas of the Scottish common-sense philosopher Thomas Reid, who approached knowledge "from the bottom-up". Instead of reasoning about transcendental conditions of knowledge, Wolterstorff suggests that knowledge and our knowing faculties are not the subject of our research but have to be seen as its starting point. He rejects classical foundationalism and instead sees knowledge as based upon insights in reality which are direct and indubitable.[5] In Justice in Love, he rejects fundamentist notions of Christianity that hold to the necessity of the penal substitutionary atonement and justification by faith alone.
Bibliography
Selected writings
- On Universals: An Essay in Ontology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1970.
- Reason within the Bounds of Religion. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.1976. 2nd ed. 1984
- Works and Worlds of Art. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1980.
- Art in Action: Toward a Christian Aesthetic. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.1980. 2nd ed. 1995
- Educating for Responsible Action. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.1980.
- Until Justice and Peace Embrace. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. 1983. 2nd ed. 1994.
- Faith and Rationality: Reason and Belief in God (ed. with Alvin Plantinga). Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. 1984.
- Lament for a Son. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.1987.
- "Suffering Love" in Philosophy and the Christian Faith (ed.Thomas V. Morris). Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. 1988.
- Divine Discourse: Philosophical Reflections on the Claim That God Speaks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1995.
- John Locke and the Ethics of Belief. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1996.
- Religion in the Public Square (with Robert Audi). Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. 1997.
- Thomas Reid and the Story of Epistemology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2001.
- Educating for Life: Reflections on Christian Teaching and Learning. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic. 2002.
- "An Engagement with Rorty" in The Journal of Religious Ethics, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Spring, 2003), pp. 129–139.
- Educating for Shalom: Essays on Christian Higher Education. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.2004.
- Justice: Rights and Wrongs. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2008.
- Inquiring about God: Selected Essays, Volume I (ed. Terence Cuneo). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2009.
- Practices of Belief: Selected Essays, Volume II (ed. Terence Cuneo). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2009.
- Hearing the Call: Liturgy, Justice, Church, and World . William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.2011.
- The Mighty and the Almighty: An Essay in Political Theology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2012.
- Journey toward Justice: Personal Encounters in the Global South. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic. 2013.
- Understanding Liberal Democracy: Essays in Political Philosophy (ed. Terence Cuneo). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2012.
- Art Rethought: The Social Practices of Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2015.
- Justice in Love. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.2015.
- The God We Worship: An Exploration of Liturgical Theology. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.2015.
- Acting Liturgically: Philosophical Reflections on Religious Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2018. ISBN 9780198805380
- In This World of Wonders: Memoir of a Life in Learning. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.2019.
- United in Love: Essays on Justice, Art, and Liturgy. (ed. Joshua Cockayne and Jonathan Rutledge). Eugene, OR: ISBN 9781666715590
Secondary
- Sloane, Andrew, On Being A Christian in the Academy: Nicholas Wolterstorff and the Practice of Christian Scholarship, Paternoster, Carlisle UK, 2003.
See also
References
- JSTOR 27653995.
- ^ a b "Nicholas Wolterstorff". religiousstudies.yale.edu. Retrieved 2018-12-03.
- ^ Forrest, Peter (2017). Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2017 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
- ^ "CV:Nicholas Paul Wolterstorff" (PDF). s3.amazonaws.com.
- ^ a b c "Nicholas Wolterstorff". The Gifford Lectures. 18 August 2014. Retrieved 2018-12-03.
- ^ "6 Questions with Nicholas Wolterstorff". EerdWord (publisher blog). 18 January 2019. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
- ^ "Lament for a Son". Eerdmans. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
- ^ "Honorary doctorates", Top researchers, NL: VU.
- ^ "In This World of Wonders". Eerdmans. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
External links
- Faculty page at Yale
- Interview from The Christian Century.
- "The Irony of It All"[permanent dead link] in The Hedgehog Review vol. 9, no. 3 (Fall 2007). Article discussing human dignity and justice.
- Lecture at Calvin College on "How Calvin Fathered a Renaissance in Christian Philosophy".
- Wolterstorff's Spiritual Autobiography from Clark, Kelly James, Philosophers Who Believe (Intervarsity Press, 1993).
- Theology and Ethics Contains many PDF files of Wolterstorff's work not available elsewhere.
- Art in Action: New Thoughts Lecture at the 2009 International Arts Movement.
- Lectures by Wolterstorff from the C.S. Lewis Institute.
- Faith and Philosophy
- Society of Christian Philosophers