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A Common Faith

3.49 of 5 stars 3.49 · rating details · 74 ratings · 12 reviews

One of America's greatest philosophers outlines a faith that is not confined to sect, class, or race. He describes a positive, practical, and dynamic faith, verified and supported by the intellect and evolving with the progress of social and scientific knowledge.

Paperback, 96 pages

Published September 10th 1960 by Yale University Press (first published 1934)

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Nov 13, 2011 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: thought-religion

A man after my own heart! If this isn't the most important book I've ever read, it's very close.

Dewey succinctly shows how the seat of intellectual authority has shifted away from religion, in turn altering society's organization. Claims of authority based on access to the supernatural have been dispersed, replaced by the skeptical inquiry of science.

The religious crowd mistakenly attributes their loss of influence to rebellious worldly hearts or quibbles with particulars, when the issue (the...more A man after my own heart! If this isn't the most important book I've ever read, it's very close.

Dewey succinctly shows how the seat of intellectual authority has shifted away from religion, in turn altering society's organization. Claims of authority based on access to the supernatural have been dispersed, replaced by the skeptical inquiry of science.

The religious crowd mistakenly attributes their loss of influence to rebellious worldly hearts or quibbles with particulars, when the issue (the intellectual issue, at least) is the entire method of knowing. Churchmen may offer "polite deference" to that method but remain "in a confused and divided state," "riding two horses that are going in opposite directions."

The skeptical crowd mistakenly concludes that mystic experience is bunk, when the issue is why it occurs, not whether.

Extremes result from people who will have all or nothing: "emergence and growth are not good enough for them. They want something more than growth accompanied by toil and pain."

"Active relation between ideal and actual" is what Dewey would call God, without insisting on that name. "Human beings have impulses toward affection, compassion and justice, equality and freedom. It remains to weld all these things together."

These facts have "crowded the social importance of organized religions into a corner and the area of this corner is decreasing.... We are at least all in the same boat traversing the same turbulent ocean. The potential religious significance of this fact is infinite.... conditions are now ripe for emancipation of the religious quality from accretions that have grown up about it and that limit the credibility and the influence of religion.... 'Agnosticism' is a shadow cast by the eclipse of the supernatural. Of course, acknowledgement that we do not know what we do not know is a necessity of all intellectual integrity.... Such doubts are an incident of faith in the method of intelligence. They are signs of faith, not of a pale and impotent skepticism."

A challenging and immensely rewarding 87 pages.(less)

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Jul 24, 2011 Chuck rated it 3 of 5 stars

Originally given at Yale as the 1933-34 installment of the Terry Lectures, Dewey built upon the distinction he saw between religion and religious. He said that a religion "Always signifies a special body of beliefs and practices having some kind of institutional organization, loose or tight." In contrast, the adjective religious did not refer to "A specifiable entity, either institutional or as a system of beliefs." (9) Further, religious "does not denote anything that can exist by itself or tha...more Originally given at Yale as the 1933-34 installment of the Terry Lectures, Dewey built upon the distinction he saw between religion and religious. He said that a religion "Always signifies a special body of beliefs and practices having some kind of institutional organization, loose or tight." In contrast, the adjective religious did not refer to "A specifiable entity, either institutional or as a system of beliefs." (9) Further, religious "does not denote anything that can exist by itself or that can be organized into a particular and distinctive form of existence." (10) Positively, religious referred to "The sense of dignity of human nature is as religious as is the sense of awe and reverence when it rests upon a sense of human nature as a cooperating part of a larger whole." (25) And "Any activity pursued in behalf of an ideal end against obstacles and in spite of threats of personal loss because of conviction of its general and enduring value is religious in quality." (27)

In "A Common Faith," Dewey goes beyond the distinction between institutional and personal religion given by William James in "The Varieties of Religious Experience" and calls for a complete break between religion and the religious impulse: "The opposition between religious values as I conceive them and religions is not to be bridged. Just because the release of these values is so important, their identification with the creeds and cults of religions must be dissolved." (28) He rejects the existence of a supernatural Being, and conceives of God as the unification of ideal possibilities through imaginative realization and projection. The ideal is rooted in the natural and emerges when "the imagination idealizes existence by laying hold of the possibilities offered to thought and action. . . . The idealizing imagination seizes upon the most precious things found in the climatic moments of experience and projects them." (48)

His rejection of the objective existence of a divine, supernatural Being and formulation of religious value as a projection of human ideals, places his thinking in line with previous philosophers such as Hegel, Feuerbach, Marx and Nietzsche. Dewey has become what Francis Schaeffer would call a modern, modern man. Without the objective existence of a divine, supernatural Being, he has no basis upon which to claim that "the heritage of values" which we are supposed to pass on to the next generation are anything more than sociological constructs of a past time and place. If I don't value the same ideal ends that Dewey does, there is nothing in his thought to question my right to do so. And as Schaeffer pointed out, the word "morals" then becomes merely a semantic connotation word for non-morals; and what is, is right. The power to impose right and wrong upon others is the result. Dewey's premise that a "common faith‚" of mankind has always existed apart from from religious faith is ultimately done in by his initial rejection of a supernatural being. If God is dead; we are ultimately lost.

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Mar 17, 2013 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

In A Common Faith Dewey makes a key distinction between religion and the religious. While religion is influenced by the state of culture, a religious attitude does not necessarily carry this influence. Rather, a religious attitude results from a religious quality produced by a direct experience of what is good. A religious quality is the effect of an experience, but not a cause of production. This effect influences attitudes that define particular modes of conduct.

Dewey believes that we must re...more In A Common Faith Dewey makes a key distinction between religion and the religious. While religion is influenced by the state of culture, a religious attitude does not necessarily carry this influence. Rather, a religious attitude results from a religious quality produced by a direct experience of what is good. A religious quality is the effect of an experience, but not a cause of production. This effect influences attitudes that define particular modes of conduct.

Dewey believes that we must rescue religious qualities from the intellectual pursuit of religious ideals. Theology assumes that all ideals are already embodied in a metaphysical framework, and that we can grasp the truths of these ideals with intellectual assent. The method of grasping is called divine faith. It involves a unification of self, which our imagination presents to us and the human will responds as worthy of controlling our desires and choices. Morals are intellectual truths that can only be grasped through divine faith.

Dewey wants to break morality from the realm of theology and bring it into our quotidian lives, where social intelligence should control decision making and provide a spark for positive social change. He believes that if we rely on supernatural agencies to execute moral actions, we will hesitate to act on our own intelligence, and the latter directly benefits the lives of others. Likewise, Dewey believes that we should refrain from explaining social phenomenon with traditional moral causes. For example, describing a murder as a sin, provides less value to a society than explaining its negative effect on the community in more scientific terms. However, there is still room for religion in our society, since religion reminds us that our successes are dependent upon the cooperation of nature and that truth is disclosed through directed cooperative human endeavors. Additionally, there is room for a religious attitude that utilizes scientific understanding and social knowledge as its mode of doing good for oneself and for others.

Although I appreciate what Dewey has to say, here, I think he lampoons the methods of theology a little bit too severely. I think that he could acknowledge that there may be more than one way to access universal truths that are applicable to the betterment of our society. For example, it seems intuitive, whether by divine sanction or scientific evidence, that killing an animal with a brain causes that animal to experience pain and takes away their life. It is highly possible that intellectual assent to the divine may be a way to bolster one's scientific understandings of the society that we live in. Additionally, moral convictions can be challenged and reinterpreted using a more scientific approach, which may lead to even more powerful and pragmatic convictions. (less)

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Dec 19, 2012 Tylor Lovins rated it 3 of 5 stars

Initial Difficulties:
Coming to this book with a few expectations, it was difficult for me to try and understand what Dewey was trying to do. First I thought he was trying to talk abstractly about the notion of faith through examination of religious case studies, as it were. Then I thought he was going to strip away all religious supernaturalism and talk about the nature of faith. Obviously I could not make sense of this book in either reading. Halfway, or so, through the chapter I realized the i...more Initial Difficulties:
Coming to this book with a few expectations, it was difficult for me to try and understand what Dewey was trying to do. First I thought he was trying to talk abstractly about the notion of faith through examination of religious case studies, as it were. Then I thought he was going to strip away all religious supernaturalism and talk about the nature of faith. Obviously I could not make sense of this book in either reading. Halfway, or so, through the chapter I realized the importance of the title A Common Faith. Common to who?—I asked. I think this question was very useful in my reading. It made clear why Dewey began talking about ideals and unifying experiences of the self—it also made clear why Dewey had assumed supernaturalism as the motivator for religious belief. The common faith that Dewey is explicating is the faith among scientists—or at the very least scientific people in a scientific society.

Dewey’s Contributions:
Religion as giving perspective to one’s life—this perspective makes sense only as it plays out in one’s life, and, therefore, when one is religious. It is the unifying aspect: this faith, is the motivator for religious action. Dewey made a useful distinction about the difference between religion, a religion, and religious, and he is talking about, when he talks about perspective, religious experiences. Dewey’s goal, it seems, is to show that one may have experiences that give perspective to life, and consequently unify it, without using the muddy concepts of religious language.

Critiques of Dewey:
I do not know what it means to unify a self as a self. I know what it means to unify a group—but when we talk about unifying a group it is always towards a certain goal. When we talk about the purpose of the self (religiously or otherwise), we are abstracting from a human body in activity and applying certain categories for what one hopes to be a summary of one’s biography, or something similar. I do not think that this entails the idea that such a summary is at the forefront of one’s mind during every action. Where is my faith when I am tying my shoe? This, I think, shows that what Dewey is talking about is perspective in/because of specific activity (i.e., When one is faced with decisions about what it means to be a/an [add adjective] human) (18).
Simply because Dewey has switched the “object of faith” from God or a god to ideals does not mean that he has, yet, told us anything about the “object of faith”—especially about any religious “object of faith.” I hope he does not simply read a supernaturalist interpretation on every religion, but perhaps it is not the purpose of this book to deal with that question. I understand that many people may think that religion has something supernatural as its object of faith (2), but I do not expect anything differently from a scientific society, and perhaps this is why supernaturalism is not explicated further.

Positive Integrative Thoughts on Dewey:
Dewey was useful in the sense that he laid out a possibility for scientific humanity to have religious experiences without an organized religion. He also shows that religious experience cannot come from scientific thinking (calculative thinking) but only through perspectival thinking (imaginative or meditative thinking) (19).

Difficulties with the Text (i.e., I don’t know how to read these statements)
1. “…the differences between them [religions] are so great and so shocking that any common element that can be extracted is meaningless” (8). But he gives a common element among religions: supernaturalism. He must be talking about particular doctrines, but these doctrines are to be seen in light of Dewey’s conceptual abstractions about faith or religious experiences, it seems.
2. Dewey’s conception of faith as faith in an “ought,” is different than hoping that something will be the case (26). It seems to me that Christians, at least, put their faith in God, not that God will act. In other words, I do not think that Dewey’s conception of “faith in what is possible” (23) is, to be religious, qualified correctly. I agree that religious experiences give perspective to life and “religious attitude signifies something that is bound through imagination to a general attitude” (23), but I disagree that Dewey’s faith does not have its “essential framework” settled in the same way that religions do (26). Dependence and humility seems to be Dewey’s framework (25). Most of my troubles with Dewey stem from, what seem to be, inconsistencies in application, but perhaps they are not inconsistencies, perhaps we are to understand religion in this way because it is how the scientific community views religion—and Dewey is writing to a scientific community.
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Mar 28, 2008 Paul rated it 1 of 5 stars

Recommended to Paul by: It just caught my eye.

This book is evil and is typical of the pathetic excuse we Americans like to call philosophy, pragmatism. Pragmatism is not philosophy because it denies metaphysics and just tries to find what will serve a given ideology. In other words, it is intellectual prostitution.

This particular book outlines a plan on how best to educate our youngsters for a functional social democracy. I have nothing against a social democracy, mind you, but as a telos for education it stinks. Education should be an apo...more This book is evil and is typical of the pathetic excuse we Americans like to call philosophy, pragmatism. Pragmatism is not philosophy because it denies metaphysics and just tries to find what will serve a given ideology. In other words, it is intellectual prostitution.

This particular book outlines a plan on how best to educate our youngsters for a functional social democracy. I have nothing against a social democracy, mind you, but as a telos for education it stinks. Education should be an apolitical search for the Truth--yes, with a capital T. Education should lead students out of the shadowy cave into the full light and glare of the Truth. Education means, after all, a leading out. But such a conception is incomprehensible to a mindset which believes that truth is simply what works. What works is determined by a given political/social system, and so truth is determined by ideology, and not vice versa.

Dewey's political preference is social democracy. An atheistic social democracy, to be precise, for Dewey thinks religion is bunk. Nevertheless, Dewey likes the religious, because the religious instills in people the zeal needed to accomplish the social engineering required for a socially democratic utopia. But how can you have religious zeal without its religious telos which is provided by the hocus pocus of, well, religion. Well, it is simple. You just decide that religion does not work and discard it, but you keep the carmel-nougaty goodness of the religious zeal and just attach it to the social democratic endeavors that, once realized, will usher in the Age of Aquarius and the Obama Presidency. Nevermind that the religious makes sense only within the context of religion. The former derives from the latter, after all, and if religion is untrue, then the religious will die. But that, of course, is logical, and even logic is too damn metaphysical for Dewey. Besides, he needs that religious zeal to work for his agenda, darn it! So, logic be damned!

The classic definition of evil is the absence of rationality. Dewey demonstrated just such an absence in this small book. Therefore, the book is evil, and Dewey is the spawn of Satan.(less)

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Feb 02, 2008 Kitty rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those studying philosophy of religion, those interested in evolution vs. id

Shelves: philosophy

A call for compassion and cooperation between people who believe in the supernatural and those who don't.

Dewey proposed a faith that has nothing to do with the supernatural, but that would use the tools of religion in the service of humanity and help us to better our condition as a community. His earnestness is admirable and the idea is brave. He is generous in thinking that we could ever reach his goal of a religious ideal without the trappings of religions. And it seems a logical answer to th...more

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Apr 24, 2010 Seth rated it 2 of 5 stars

This little book is considered by many mainstream pragmatists to be one of Dewey's worst works. However I disagree. This is the most revealing book that Dewey penned during his long career. Larry Hickman gets his idea of "benign supernaturalism" from A Common Faith. Dewey and the pragmatists sought to establish the fact/value distinction rigidly in 20th century America. That comes out over and again in Faith. However the real problem is of a mimetic function. It is better to mimic the objective...more

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Aug 16, 2011 John Gray rated it 5 of 5 stars

For me this is one of the greatest philosophy of religion book in the 20th century. Dewey assimilation of evolutionary theory with spiritual development is brilliant.

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Aug 05, 2011 Art Mitchell rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: philosophy, pragmatism

One of the best book for understanding the difference between 'religion' and 'religious'. It presents a comprehensive case for the separation of church and state.

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Feb 19, 2008 James rated it 3 of 5 stars

Religious experiences of human intelligence (not of divine) to inspire human freedom. Writes like a German. Or a capable translation of a bag German philosopher.

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Oct 25, 2008 Charlotte added it

Shelves: spiritual-atheist-philosophical

I think this marked the start of my quest for meaning and spirituality without religion. It was recommended by my brother.

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Jun 26, 2010 Ileana rated it 5 of 5 stars

While I very much enjoyed it, I wouldn’t recommend A Common Faith unless you’re into rhetoric, it can be dense. In any case, A Common Faith is about religious experience and Dewey claims to have written it after having one, but the events he describes are more broadly accessible (at least personally) than the “calling” many people of faith describe, since Dewey doesn’t rely on a specific explanation (i.e. the supernatural/God) to account for the cause of these events. Often, when I talk to peopl...more

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Shelves: psychology-theology, philosophy

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About John Dewey

John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey, along with Charles Sanders Peirce and William James, is recognized as one of the founders of the philosophy of pragmatism and of functional psychology. He was a major representative of the progressive and progressive populist philosophies of schooli...more

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Quotes from A Common Faith

“Faith in the possibilities of continued and rigorous inquiry does not limit access to truth to any channel or scheme of things. It does not first say that truth is universal and then add there is but one road to it.” — 8 people liked it

“Men have gone on to build up vast intellectual schemes, philosophies, and theologies, to prove that ideals are not real as ideals but as antecedently existing actualities. They have failed to see that in converting moral realities into matters of intellectual assent they have evinced lack of moral faith. Faith that something should be in existence as far as lies in our power is changed into the intellectual belief that it is already in existence. When physical existence does not bear out the assertion, the physical is subtly changed into the metaphysical. In this way, moral faith has been inextricably tied up with intellectual beliefs about the supernatural.” — 3 people liked it

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