Abstract
The study of Professor Hocking’s philosophy ends at the beginning. God is at the beginning and at the end. The presence of God is absolute. His presence is so pervading that it can be asked whether God is not the being of all beings, the “I am” of every being. An affirmative answer could be understood as a doctrine of incarnation, a generalization escaping generalization in so far as the universal accepted responsibility for realization in the particular. The One-and-Real would be recognizably and personally present in particular forms. There is some truth in the doctrine of incarnation, and chapters one and two indicate this truth. But there is more truth in the statement that man is not God, that the world is not God, and that what man makes of himself and the world is not God. No single individual being, nor the sum of all such beings is equivalent to God. God is intimate to all that is, but He is also infinitely ‘beyond” all that is.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience, 142. There is a brief but comprehensive account of Professor Hocking’s philosophy of religion in American Philosophies of Religion (New York: Willett, Clark and Co., 1936), by H. N. Wieman and B. E. Meland.
Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience, 13.
W. E. Hocking, “Illicit Naturalizing of Religion”, Journal of Religion Vol. III (1923), 561–89.
Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience, 20.
Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience, 20.
Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience, 31.
Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience, 448, n. 1.
Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience, 472.
Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience, 474, A, n. 1.
Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience, 474, A, n. 483.
Hocking, The Meaning of God in Hitman Experience, 501.
Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience, 503.
Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience, 505.
Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience, 508.
Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience, 512.
Hocking, Preface to Philosophy: Textbook, 33.
W. E. Hocking, What Man Can Make of Man (New York: Harper Bros., 1942, 61).
Hocking, Preface to Philosophy: Textbook, 487. There is a thesis by Edmund Jabez Thompson entitled, An Analysis of the Thought of Alfred North Whitehead and William Ernest Hocking Concerning Good and Evil (University of Chicago, 1935).
Hocking, Preface to Philosophy: Textbook, 491.
Hocking, Preface to Philosophy: Textbook, 496.
Hocking, “Illicit Naturalizing of Religion”, Journal of Religion, 586.
W. E. Hocking, Living Religions and the World Faith (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1940), 34–5.
Hocking, Living Religions and the World Faith, 61.
Hocking, Living Religions and the World Faith, 143–61.
Hocking, Living Religions and the World Faith, 184.
Hocking, Living Religions and the World Faith, 196. In World Religions and World Community (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), Robert Slater agrees with Professor Hocking’s thesis that a reconception is taking place today. But Mr. Slater believes that Professor Hocking over-emphasizes the unity at the base of the essence of all religions, thus, neglecting the diversity. I believe that this is so only if unity is taken to be a radical identity rather than a source of richness.
Hocking, Living Religions and the World Faith, 201. In World Religions and World Community (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), Robert Slater agrees with Professor Hocking’s thesis that a reconception is taking place today. But Mr. Slater believes that Professor Hocking over-emphasizes the unity at the base of the essence of all religions, thus, neglecting the diversity. I believe that this is so only if unity is taken to be a radical identity rather than a source of richness.
Hocking, The Coming World Civilisation, 73.
Hocking, Living Religions and the World Faith, 279–80.
Hocking, Living Religions and the World Faith, 281–82. “To many Christians, the life of religion becomes a life of actual fellowship with Jesus conceived as a living spirit, the Christ; and through union with him they are united with one another in the Church, the body of his followers. Christians differ in the metaphysical meaning to be assigned to this person and to this experience of union. To many of them the Christ fuses with the conception of God; and Jesus is called in a unique sense the “Son of God” or the “Incarnation of God”. These doctrines may mean a profound spiritual union of the will of Jesus with the will of God [Hocking’s position]; for others, a more literal identity, attested by miracle in his birth, deeds, death, and resurrection. It is not our function to limit the range of these differences of conception, but rather to draw attention to the fact that they exist, and that beneath them are underlying agreements, belonging to the essence of Christianity as a positive and historical religion.”
Hocking, The Coming World Civilisation, 87.
Hocking, The Coming World Civilisation, 90–1.
Hocking, The Coming World Civilisation, 94.
Hocking, The Coming World Civilisation, 97–8.
Hocking, The Coming World Civilisation, 103.
Hocking, The Coming World Civilisation, 107. In an article, “Hendrik Kraemer Versus William Ernest Hocking”, Journal of Bible and Religion, Vol. XXIX (1961), 93-101, J. Robb sees Professor Hocking as interpreting the kerygmatic quality of the Christian message as universal. This is in opposition to the exclusivist interpretation of Kraemer. The law of love is an inductive reconception of the faith of Hebrew lawgivers, prophets and poets. Love permeates the very structure of reality. Professor Robb observes that agreement among faiths is not made on the level of intellectual assertions but is experienced as a sense of spiritual identity between all men of good will. He believes that Professor Hocking’s appeal to mystical and intuitive levels of understanding oversimplifies the solution. It should be noted, however, that mystical experience is not exceptional experience; every man thinks the whole.
Hocking, The Coming World Civilisation, 108
Hocking, Human Nature and its Remaking, 398.
Hocking, Human Nature and its Remaking, 400.
Hocking, Human Nature and its Remaking, 409.
Hocking, Human Nature and its Remaking, 411.
Hocking, Human Nature and its Remaking, 423.
Hocking, Human Nature and its Remaking, 424.
Hocking, Living Religions and the World Faith, 236–42.
Hocking, Living Religions and the World Faith, 242.
Hocking, The Coming World Civilisation, 113. In “Rethinking Hocking”, Religion tn Life, Vol. XXXII (1963), 553–63, L. Rouner reads Professor Hocking’s work in the light of existential thought. In dialectical terms the thesis is a natural knowledge of God. This experience is universal and man is becoming aware that it is a common experience indicating the possibility of a world faith. The antithesis is contemporary Christianity which must overcome its westernism. The synthesis will be a concrete universal, that is, a unity of nuclear perception and the unbound Christ. In other words, the existence of an individual is itself an invitation to participate in the Christian reality. The dialectic is not an either /or but a both/and. It also avoids finality or the finished system in so far as it is historically open to all future participants.
Hocking, The Coming World Civilisation, 122.
Hocking, The Coming World Civilisation, 168–69.
Hocking, The Coming World Civilisation, 168–69.
Hocking, The Meaning of Immortality in Human Experience, 33.
Hocking, The Meaning of lmmnortality in Human Experience, 63.
Hocking, The Meaning of lmmnortality in Human Experience, 64.
Hocking, The Meaning of Immortality in Human Experience, 68–9.
Hocking, The Meaning of Immortality in Human Experience, 74.
Hocking, The Meaning of Immortality in Human Experience, 75.
Hocking, The Meaning of Immortality in Human Experience, 202.
Hocking, The Meaning of Immortality in Human Experience, 218.
Hocking, The Meaning of Immortality in Human Experience, 234 Cf. also n. 6.
Hocking, The Meaning of Immortality in Human Experience, 234.
Hocking, The Meaning of Immortality in Human Experience, 244.
Hocking, The Meaning of Immortality in Human Experience, 255.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1968 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Luther, A.R. (1968). Man and God. In: Existence as Dialectical Tension. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9074-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9074-9_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-011-8382-6
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-9074-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive