Background
Olson, Alan Melvin was born on January 7, 1939 in Minneapolis. Son of Olaf Melvin and Agnes Luella (Randall) Olson.
( Hegel and the Spirit explores the meaning of Hegel's g...)
Hegel and the Spirit explores the meaning of Hegel's grand philosophical category, the category of Geist, by way of what Alan Olson terms a pneumatological thesis. Hegel's philosophy of spirit, according to Olson, is a speculative pneumatology that completes what Adolf von Harnack once called the "orphan doctrine" in Christian theology--the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Olson argues that Hegel's development of philosophy as pneumatology originates out of a deep appreciation of Luther's dialectical understanding of Spirit and that Hegel's doctrine of Spirit is thus deeply interfused with the values of Würtemberg Pietism. Olson further maintains that Hegel's Enzyklopdie is the post-Enlightenment philosophical equivalent of a Trinitätslehre and that his Rechtsphilosophie is an ecclesiology. Thus Hegel and the Spirit demonstrates the truth of Karl Barth's observation that Hegel is the potential Aquinas of Protestantism. Exploring Hegel's philosophy of spirit in historical, cultural, and personal religious context, the book identifies Hegel's relationship with Hölderlin and his response to Hölderlin's madness as key elements in the philosopher's religious and philosophical development, especially with respect to the meaning of transcendence and dialectic.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691146691/?tag=2022091-20
( Hegel and the Spirit explores the meaning of Hegel's g...)
Hegel and the Spirit explores the meaning of Hegel's grand philosophical category, the category of Geist, by way of what Alan Olson terms a pneumatological thesis. Hegel's philosophy of spirit, according to Olson, is a speculative pneumatology that completes what Adolf von Harnack once called the "orphan doctrine" in Christian theology--the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Olson argues that Hegel's development of philosophy as pneumatology originates out of a deep appreciation of Luther's dialectical understanding of Spirit and that Hegel's doctrine of Spirit is thus deeply interfused with the values of Würtemberg Pietism. Olson further maintains that Hegel's Enzyklopdie is the post-Enlightenment philosophical equivalent of a Trinitätslehre and that his Rechtsphilosophie is an ecclesiology. Thus Hegel and the Spirit demonstrates the truth of Karl Barth's observation that Hegel is the potential Aquinas of Protestantism. Exploring Hegel's philosophy of spirit in historical, cultural, and personal religious context, the book identifies Hegel's relationship with Hölderlin and his response to Hölderlin's madness as key elements in the philosopher's religious and philosophical development, especially with respect to the meaning of transcendence and dialectic.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691074119/?tag=2022091-20
(Explores the meaning of Hegel's philosophical category, t...)
Explores the meaning of Hegel's philosophical category, the category of Geist. This title argues that Hegel's development of philosophy as pneumatology originates out of an appreciation of Luther's dialectical understanding of Spirit and that Hegel's doctrine of Spirit is thus interfused with the values of Wrttemberg Pietism.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EQC6YBM/?tag=2022091-20
(The friendship between Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers ...)
The friendship between Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers developed after World War I, but became strained over the intrusion of Nazism into intellectual life. These essays provide insight into the cultural, religious, and political crises facing the two philosophers and elucidate the perennial question about the moral responsibility of intellectuals. Of particular interest is an essay by Paul Tillich, published here for the first time. Alan M. Olson is Professor of Religion and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Boston University.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1566391156/?tag=2022091-20
(''The problem of Transcendence is the problem of our time...)
''The problem of Transcendence is the problem of our time. " I Needless to say, Transcendence was a particularly lively i~sue when Karl Heim wrote these words in the mid-1930's. Within the province of philosophi cal theology and philosophy of religion, however, it is always the prob lem, as Gordon Kaufman has recently reminded us. 2Por the question concerning the nature and the reality of Transcendence has not only to do with self-transcendence, but with the being of Transcendence-Itself, that is to say, with the nature and the reality of God as experienced and understood at any given time or place. Now there are those today who would claim that any further discus sion of the latter half of this proposition, namely,Transcendence-Itse1f or God, is worthless and quite beside the point. Such persons would claim that the particular logia represented by the theological sciences has collapsed by virtue of its object having disappeared. Indeed, when one surveys the contemporary scene in philosophy and theology, there is a good deal of evidence that this is the case':"" theology of late having be come something of a "spectacle," to use Pritz Buri's term. One of the reasons for this, we here contend, is that the richness and the diversity of the meaning of Transcendence has been lost. And even though we do not here intend to resolve the issue, neither do we assume that such an enqui ry is either impossible or irrelevant.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9024720923/?tag=2022091-20
religion and philosophy educator
Olson, Alan Melvin was born on January 7, 1939 in Minneapolis. Son of Olaf Melvin and Agnes Luella (Randall) Olson.
He received his degrees from Saint Olaf College (Bachelor, History and Philosophy), Luther Theological Seminary (Master of Divinity, Theology), Nashotah House, where he studied with Arthur Anton Vogel, and Boston University (Doctor of Philosophy) where he studied with Peter A. Bertocci, Erazim Kohak, Harold H. Oliver and John North. Findlay.
He served as Chairman of the Religion Department at Boston University, 1980–1987, and Chairman of the Philosophy Department, ad interim, 1987-1989. During the 1970s he was Program Coordinator of the Boston University Institute for Philosophy and Religion. And was Executive Director of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy in Boston, 1998.
He was a Senior Fulbright Research Fellow at Karls-Eberhart Universität, Tübingen, Germany, in 1986, where he studied with Klaus Hartmann.
And a Senior Fulbright Research Fellow and Visiting Fellow at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Vienna, Austria, in 1995, where he worked with Krzysztof Michalski. He served on the Board of Officers of the American Philosophical Association, 2000–2003.
And is past president of the Karl Jaspers Society of North America. He delivered the Jaspers Lectures at Oxford in 1989.
And is currently co-editor, with Helmut Wautischer, of the philosophical journal, Existenz.
( Hegel and the Spirit explores the meaning of Hegel's g...)
( Hegel and the Spirit explores the meaning of Hegel's g...)
(The friendship between Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers ...)
(Explores the meaning of Hegel's philosophical category, t...)
(''The problem of Transcendence is the problem of our time...)
(Book by Olson, Alan M.)
Fellow Society for Art, Religion and Culture. Member American Academy Religion, American Philosophical Association, North America Association for Study of Religion, International Association for History of Religions, Hegel Society of America, Jaspers Society North America (president 1984-1986), Boston Theological Society, 19th Century Studies Group, European Society Culture.
Married Janet Lou Pederson, July 1, 1961. Children: Maren Kirsten, Sonja Astrid.