Orestes Brownson and the Problem of Revelation: The Protestant Years: 223 (American University Studies) - Tapa dura

«In this volume, Orestes Brownson's thought during his Protestant (pre-1844) period is given careful, thorough analysis for the first time. Dr. Griffioen captures the continuities as well as the dramatic alterations in Brownson's course of development, making this at once an illuminating study in philosophical theology and a microcosm of antebellum American intellectual history.» (James D. Bratt, Professor of History and Director of Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship, Calvin College)
«Dr. Griffioen argues, convincingly, that by 1844 Brownson had reached a synthetic view of revelation, one that wrestled with the variety of American religious approaches and tried to bring them into a grand harmony. Griffioen traces a concatenation of changes and developments in Brownson's thought, demonstrating in the process the variety of approaches to the issue as American thinkers tried to come to grips with the interrelationships of the Bible, reason, religious experience, tradition, and community in understanding what constitutes revelation and its reception.» (Patrick W. Carey, Distinguished Visiting Professor, Dayton University and Professor of American Historical Theology, Marquette University)

Orestes Brownson (1803-1876) is known as the foremost American Catholic lay apologist of the nineteenth century. However, before his conversion to Catholicism in 1844, Brownson labored for nearly twenty years as a Protestant, publishing prodigiously and debating frequently with leading luminaries of his day, including William Ellery Channing and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Using little known and underutilized primary sources, this book traces Brownson's theological development as a Protestant against the backdrop of the post-Enlightenment problem of establishing the grounds for the possibility of divine revelation. As such, it offers an excellent vantage point into the antebellum American intellectual context while allowing Brownson's Protestant thought to stand on its own as an original and enterprising intellectual response to the religious problems of the day.