The Gracing of Human Experience explores the different ways Christian thinkers have understood humanity in its relationship to divine grace and identifies the misconceptions which have in the past skewed the theological understanding of that relationship. Building on his earlier work Varieties of Transcendental Experience: A Study in Constructive Postmodernism, Donald L. Gelpi, S.J., shows in The Gracing of Human Experience how to enlarge on the thought of Charles Sanders Peirce in order to formulate a metaphysics of experience. Gelpi implements the strategy suggested in the final chapter of Varieties of Transcendental Experience for regrounding theological thinking in a development of Peirce's semeiotic realism. He establishes a fruitful dialogue between dialectical and foundational thinking in developing a theological doctrine of supernatural grace. The Gracing of Human Experience is divided into three parts. Part one compares and contrasts twelve major frames of reference for examining the relationship between nature and grace. Part two argues that the philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce avoided the misconceptions which skewed the understanding of that relationship, providing a new frame of reference for rethinking the theology of grace. Part two also shows how the insights of other American philosophers have revealed undeveloped aspects of Peirce's thought. Gelpi discusses Josiah Royce's absolute pragmatism and John Dewey's instrumentalism. He then argues that the social psychology of George Herbert Mead offers a psychology better matched with Peirce's thought than the individualism of William James, and that the sociology of knowledge developed by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckman builds constructively on Mead's insights. In Part three, Gelpi proposes a metaphysics of experience derived from his philosophical analysis. That metaphysics draws on the dialectical analysis of the American pragmatic tradition undertaken in Part two. Gelpi then develops an understanding of supernatural grace as the transmutation and transvaluation of human experience. The term "transmutation" describes change conceived on a model in which the introduction of a new element into an experience requires re-adjusting all the other elements which make up that experience. "Transvaluation" indicates the kind of transmutation of human evaluative responses which occurs when one's frame of reference for understanding reality is shifted. Finally, Gelpi describes how justifying faith provides a graced frame of reference for re-evaluating every other dimension of human experience. Chapters under Part one: On Misconceiving the Human are "Essentialistic and Dualistic Misconceptions of the Human," "The Extremes of Optimism and of Pessimism," and "The Woes of Nominalism and Rationalism." Chapters under Part two: The Unity of Peircean Pragmatic Experience are "Charles Peirce's Argument with the Philosophers," "Amplifying Peirce: Josiah Royce," "Amplifying Peirce: John Dewey," and "Pragmatism, Psychology, and the Sociology of Knowledge." Chapters under Part three:The Experience of Divine Grace are "A Metaphysics of Experience," and "Experiencing the Supernatural."

A retrieval of the neglected part of the religious and intellectual history of the United States, Varieties of Transcendental Experience: A Study in Constructive Postmodernism, throws light on the debate over postmodernism.Varieties of Transcendental Experience traces the critique of Enlightenment modernism which began with Ralph Waldo Emerson and culminated in the thought of Charles Sanders Peirce and the mature Josiah Royce. Donald L. Gelpi, S.J., argues that these thinkers provide a constructive alternative to deconstructionist post-modernism that is compatible with Christian faith.In each chapter Gelpi analyzes various thinkers and their frames of reference developed for dealing with life and reality. While taking into account what historians of the American intellectual tradition have to say about each of the figures studied, Gelpi uses primarily a dialectic approach, looking for areas of agreement and disagreement and assessing the interpretative adequacy of one frame of reference in comparison with another.Each dialectical analysis is prefaced with basic biographical information about the thinker or thinkers studied in any given chapter. The biographical material is not integrated into the dialectical analysis which follows to allow each frame of reference to stand on its own and to facilitate the kind of comparison which dialectical thinking seeks to advance.Varieties of Transcendental Experience is divided into three parts. Part one describes the emergence of Enlightenment religion in the United States during the latter eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Part two describes the critique of Enlightenment modernity mounted by the first generation oftranscendental thinkers: Emerson, Parker, and Brownson. Part three describes the completion of the transcendental project of moving beyond the presuppositions of Enlightenment modernism accomplished in the work of Abbot, Peirce, and the mature Josiah Royce.

Product Description: The Firstborn of Manyby Donald Gelpi, S.J. -----Volume 1_To Hope in Jesus Christ. Volume 2_Synoptic Narrative Christology. Volume 3_Doctrinal and Practical Christology.(Please see ISBN 9780874626841 to identify the three-book set)

Product Description: Using reflections, exercises, and suggestions for prayer and group sharing, this practical book explores five forms of conversion, the seven dynamics that structure the process and the significance for conversion of sacramental worship.

Product Description: Volume I, "Adult Conversion and Initiation," elaborates a new theological construct for understanding the forms and dynamics of adult Christian conversion. It gives concrete examples of how such conversion happens and discusses the seven dynamics that unify all five forms of conversion (affective, intellectual, personal moral, socio-political, and Christian)...read more

Product Description: Offers the first systematic study of Emerson as a religious thinker and analyzes him as a case study in expressive religious individualism. By filling an important gap in Emersonian criticism, it not only throws new light on Emerson's thought but also offers a critique of the individualistic ideology he first formulated...read more

Essays discuss strategies for counteracting the moral and social breakup caused by individualism

Product Description: Book by Gelpi, Donald L.