the terry lectures A COMMON FAITH other volumes in the terry lectures series available from yale university press The Courage to Be Paul Tillich Psychoanalysis and Religion Erich Fromm Becoming Gordon W. Allport Education at the Crossroads Jacques Maritain Psychology and Religion Carl G. Jung Freud and Philosophy Paul Ricoeur Freud and the Problem of God Hans Küng Master Control Genes in Development and Evolution Walter J. Gehring Belief in God in an Age of Science John Polkinghorne Israelis and the Jewish Tradition David Hartman The Empirical Stance Bas C. van Fraassen One World: The Ethics of Globalization Peter Singer Exorcism and Enlightenment H. C. Erik Midelfort Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate Terry Eagleton Thinking in Circles: An Essay on Ring Composition Mary Douglas The Religion and Science Debate: Why Does It Continue? edited by Harold W. Attridge Natural Reflections: Human Cognition at the Nexus of Science and Religion Barbara Herrnstein Smith Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self Marilynne Robinson Islam, Science, and the Challenge of History Ahmad Dallal The New Universe and the Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World Nancy Ellen Abrams and Joel R. Primack The Short and Happy Life of the Scientific Buddha Donald S. Lopez, Jr. A COMMON FAITH Second Edition JOHN DEWEY introduction by thomas m. alexander New Haven & London First edition 1934. Second edition 2013. Introduction copyright ∫ 2013 by Thomas M. Alexander. Copyright ∫ 1934 by Yale University Press. Copyright renewed 1962 by Roberta L. Dewey. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational, business, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected] (U.S. o≈ce) or [email protected] (U.K. o≈ce). Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Control Number: 2013930583 isbn 978-0-300-18611-6 (pbk.) A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress and the British Library. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 the dwight harrington terry foundation lectures on religion in the light of science and philosophy The deed of gift declares that ‘‘the object of this foundation is not the promotion of scientific investigation and discovery, but rather the assim- ilation and interpretation of that which has been or shall be hereafter discovered, and its application to human welfare, especially by the building of the truths of science and philosophy into the structure of a broadened and purified religion. The founder believes that such a religion will greatly stimulate intelligent e√ort for the improvement of human conditions and the advancement of the race in strength and excellence of character. To this end it is desired that a series of lectures be given by men eminent in their respective departments, on ethics, the history of civilization and religion, biblical research, all sciences and branches of knowledge which have an important bearing on the subject, all the great laws of nature, especially of evolution . . . also such interpretations of literature and sociology as are in accord with the spirit of this foundation, to the end that the Christian spirit may be nurtured in the fullest light of the world’s knowledge and that mankind may be helped to attain its highest possible welfare and happiness upon this earth.’’ The present work constitutes the latest volume published on this foundation. This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Introduction by Thomas M. Alexander ix I: Religion Versus the Religious 1 II: Faith and Its Object 27 III: The Human Abode of the Religious Function 55 This page intentionally left blank INTRODUCTION thomas m. alexander In December 1994, three young explorers in the Ardèche region of southern France noticed a draft of cold air issu- ing from behind a pile of rocks. Discovering a narrow open- ing, the woman in the group, Eliette Brunel-Deschamps, slipped through the narrow tunnel until it opened onto a ledge overlooking a vast chamber. When she returned with her companions and a portable ladder, they descended to the floor and began to realize that the walls were covered with images of Ice Age animals—wooly rhinoceroses, mam- moths, bison, lions, and horses—as well as painted silhou- ettes of hands and abstract designs. Deep inside, a cave bear skull had been ceremonially placed on a low rock, its canines just protruding over the edge. Thirty thousand years ago, the cave had been a shrine for shamanic rituals connecting the human hunters with the spirits of the animals whom they ix