Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, better known by his English name George Santayana, was a prominent philosopher, novelist, and poet during the first part of the twentieth century. In this dissertation, I use Santayana’s life and work to argue for the importance of a treatment of aesthetics in the field of religion that considers the way these two overlapping concerns shape conceptions of individual subjectivity. Specifically, I use Santayana’s notion of religion as a type of poetic production to point to the way aesthetics can provide discursive tools for analyzing the way consciousness is perceived and articulated by subjects in modernity. I term Santayana’s method “plastic religion” for its emphasis on the way subjectivity both shapes and is shaped by encounters with the environment. This work compliments traditional approaches to aesthetics in the field of American religious history which emphasize sensory data as evidence of commercial activity and institution-building, while also suggesting that this information provides historians a unique perspective through which they can engage critically with identity formation and expression. In this dissertation, I take up Santayana as the explicit subject, but I also view his insistence that religion and poetry are bound together as methodologically instructive. In each chapter, I offer historically-minded readings of Santayana’s life and writing regarding religion that also present interpretive approaches that account for aesthetics. Chapter One provides an overview of Santayana’s life and work framed around three instances of metanoia, or conversion. Typically translated as a “change of heart,” the term metanoia has both theological and poetic connotations that suggest the reformation of perception. Santayana used the term in his autobiography to describe a moment in 1893 when, after experiencing a series of personal tragedies, his sense of self was altered, and he became committed to living a life of personal and professional detachment. In this chapter, I suggest that, in keeping with Santayana’s use of the term, moments in which the self-conception of a subject is dramatically altered can be located in documentary evidence and can help shape the framework of biographical narrative. Chapter Two maps the career-spanning debates between Santayana and William James, Josiah Royce, and John Dewey regarding the relationship between religion and experience. Using Santayana’s description of American philosophy’s division between “the skyscraper” and “the colonial manse” as a general spatial metaphor, I argue that Santayana’s understanding of religion’s plasticity was influenced by his debates with Royce and James, and affirmed later in his life through his public back-and-forth with Dewey. I also use this chapter to position Santayana in relation to the idealism, pragmatism, and naturalism that were prevalent over the course of his life in his philosophical environment. Chapter Three describes in detail Santayana’s definition of religion as a type of poetic expression as contained in his book Interpretations of Religion and Poetry, and it positions this perspective in the broader aesthetic tradition of American spirituality as described by historians William Clebsch and Henry Samuel Levinson. According to Clebsch and Levinson, individuals within the aesthetic tradition of American spirituality treat religion as a process of creative consciousness building using responses to existing traditions and their own experience. This religious style began with Jonathan Edwards and then carries on through Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, and Santayana. I define Santayana’s position as “plastic religion” for the emphasis it places on the creation of reality, for the subject and for the surrounding environment, through form. Chapter Four outlines the manner in which Santayana’s understanding of religion’s plasticity shaped his approach to the curation of his national, racial, and religious identity. I argue that Santayana’s perspective on the ability of the individual to exercise agency when directing their perception was endowed by his view of religion. I also indicate the way this allowed him to translate philosophic notions of the self to expressions of cultural identity. For Santayana, this approach made it possible to navigate the complex terrain of his own “variations,” but it also, at times, left him vulnerable to the harboring of prejudice. Chapter Five examines the influence Santayana’s treatment of religion had on a diverse array of individuals during the 20th century. Alfred North Whitehead, the English mathematician and philosopher, found in Santayana’s discussion of religion a critical tool for his understanding of religious difference. Alain Locke, the leader of the New Negro movement in the 1920s, drew on Santayana’s description of religion when formulating his views on value relativism and cultural pluralism. Russell Kirk, the Catholic traditionalist, understood Santayana as a vital link in the progression of conservative thought. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / July 24, 2019. / Aesthetics, American Religious History, Identity, Plasticity, Pragmatism, Santayana / Includes bibliographical references. / Amanda Porterfield, Professor Directing Dissertation; Michael Ruse, University Representative; John Corrigan, Committee Member; Michael McVicar, Committee Member; Jamil Drake, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_758714 |
| Contributors | Sweatman, Adam K. (Adam Kent) (author), Porterfield, Amanda, 1947- (professor directing dissertation), Ruse, Michael (university representative), Corrigan, John, 1952-, McVicar, Michael J., Drake, Jamil William, Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of Religion (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (253 pages), computer, application/pdf |
| Coverage | United States |
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