Society of Adventist Philosophers

This year, we gathered to explore the possible relations and mis-relations between Adventism and 19^th century ethical philosophy. Are humans “good with(out) God?”

Broaching this issue required situating Adventism’s relationship to the moral reasoning of the Enlightenment. Thinkers like John Stuart Mill and Immanuel Kant had articulated new was of thinking about right and wrong, emphasizing the calculation or maximization of utility or the weight and clarity of moral maxims and duty.Two features stand out of such approaches to morality—their universal aspirations and the displacing the central role religion traditionally played in grounding and motivating moral norms. Mill insists that God commands what God commands because God, too, is a utilitarian. Kant claims that God cannot command what goes against what we know to be moral rationally.

In the 19^th century, we have both the culmination of the Enlightenment project, as well as a rejection of and reaction against it. Hegel, for example, constructs an all-encompassing rational system of explanation and understanding of reality and morality. Kierkegaard, we’ll see, rejects this as a form of intellectual hubris and idolatry.

Is Adventism an expression of or rejection of the Enlightenment’s intellectual and moral aspirations?

Charles Taylor has provided the helpful analysis of contemporary culture as being a three-cornered debate between religious humanists, secular humanists, and anti-humanists. The confusing nature of this debate is that allegiances shift and change with any of the two parties ganging up on the third, depending on the given issue. Does Adventism side with Kierkegaard and Neitzsche’s, some might say prophetic, critique of modernity? Or does it side with Hegelian systematization over Kierkegaardian fideism? Might it embrace certain elements of Neitzsche’s and Kierkegaard’s critique of Christianity?

Presenters and participants grappled with these and related questions throughout the day.

Join us for our fifth annual symposium as we explore 19th century reflections on the relationship between faith and morality.

Dates: November 20-21, 2014

Location: San Diego, CA – Thomas Jefferson School of Law, #227

Keynote address: C. Stephen Evans (Baylor University)

Schedule:

November 20, 2014

8:30am – Welcome and Introductions

9:00-10:30am – Session 1: Ethics and Idealism

“Freedom, Pantheism, and Radical Evil in Schelling’s ‘Middle Period’”
– Darin McGinnis (Wheeling Jesuit University)

“Hegel, Adventists, and the Pursuit of Truth”
– G. Russell Seay (Oakwood University)

10:30-12:00pm – Session 2:  Ethics and Theism

“Grace and Good: Kierkegaard and the Challenge of Demythologized Religion”
– Charles Scriven (Kettering College of Medical Arts, emeritus)

“Is Everything Permitted Without God?”
– Ronald E. Osborn (Wellesley College)

12:00-1:30pm – Lunch

1:30-3:00pm – Session 3: Ethics and Emotions 

“A Re-evaluation Of Feeling And Its Consequences For Religious Thought”
– Anthony Malagon (Queens College)

“Ressentiment and the Advent Hope”
– Jasper St. Bernard II (University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point)

3:00-5:00pm – Session 4

Keynote Address: “Divine Commands as the Basis for Moral Obligations”

– C. Stephen Evans (Baylor University)

Response: David Larson (Loma Linda University)

5:30pm – Dinner followed by casual after dinner discussion of papers

November 21, 2014

3:30pm – Business meeting*

*Meeting will take place at Hilton Bayfront (Coronado B)

Registration: Please register by e-mailing adventistphilosophy@gmail.com. The registration fee is $50 for non-society members and $25 for members. Payments can be made here or at the conference, but please register by sending us an e-mail. (Space is limited and priority will be given to society members.) The fee is waived for conference presenters and those who have already made a contribution to the organization of the conference.

Accommodations: Conference participants are responsible for their own meals, lodging, and transportation.