PHILOSOPHY AND SALVATION Self-Motivation Guide Set for 1/31 Release

We all seek salvation, claims Carlos Blanco, because we all become prisoners of negativity. Humanity desires to be saved, to overcome the negativity that so often enslaves us. But where is the saviour to be found, and where is the source of salvation?

In Philosophy and Salvation Blanco argues that salvation may only come from the infinite springs of the word. 'The word saves us: the word of science, the word manifested in art, the word of a society which promises something for itself . . . Humanity understands itself through language: human beings use words in order to know each other and to cooperate in the edification of something that may transcend them. The word invites us, and in fact leads us to transcendence. This is salvation: to inaugurate a new world in which the former negativity may be overcome'.

According to Blanco this 'new world' is not a place but a way of visualising a different scenario, one in which negativity may be overcome by a statement, by a word, by a positivitas, a thought in which the previous negativity does not triumph but is removed and annihilated. Only thought can create such a new positivitas; thought alone envisions the undoing of this negativity, so powerful that it claims for itself the whole sphere of reality, and it is in this way that philosophical thinking achieves its highest ambition, the salvation of humanity.

Philosophy allows us to participate in the liberating quest for understanding. We redeem ourselves, and redemption cleanses the wounds of humanity. By collaborating in the effort to comprehend made by our fellow human beings throughout the centuries, we discover ourselves. We achieve salvation because we learn to understand ourselves as beings in search of meaning.

Blanco calls upon philosophers and theologians throughout history to bring to life an argument for all seeking a life of wisdom, beauty and love.

Carlos Blanco is the author of El Pensamiento de la Apocalíptica Judía, Why Resurrection? (Lutterworth Press, 2011), and Mentes Maravillosas que Cambiaron la Humanidad. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University, and he is currently a researcher and professor at Instituto de Cultura y Sociedad (Spain).

The Lutterworth Press has been trading since the eighteenth century and is one of the longest established and best-known independent publishers in the United Kingdom. It has been associated with James Clarke & Co. since 1984.

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