Emotional Experience and Religious Understanding

Wynn tackles established topics in philosophical theology in the light of new perspectives on emotions.

In this book Mark Wynn argues that the landscape of philosophical theology looks rather different from the perspective of a re-conceived theory of emotion. In matters of religion, we do not need to opt for objective content over emotional form or vice versa. On the contrary, these strategies are mistaken at root, since form and content are not properly separable here - because 'inwardness' may contribute to 'thought-content', or because (to use the vocabulary of the book) emotional feelings can themselves constitute thoughts; or because, to put the point a further way, in religious contexts, perception and conception are often infused by feeling. Wynn uses this perspective to forge a distinctive approach to a range of established topics in philosophy of religion, notably: religious experience; the problem of evil; the relationship of religion and ethics, and religion and art; and in general, the connection of 'feeling' to doctrine and tradition.

Preface; 1. Religious experience and the perception of value; 2. Love, repentance and the moral life; 3. Finding and making value in the world; 4. Emotional feeling: philosophical, psychological and neurological perspectives; 5. Emotional feeling and religious understanding; 6. Representation in art and religion; 7. The religious critique of feeling.