Stengel writes: "There is a critical truth in all this that John Dewey understood clearly, that was evident in the United States of 1939. Fear can't ground a community; it takes faith. The required faith is not a faith in the divine but a faith in the oh-so-human. The faith Dewey calls out and calls forth is a "working faith" in the possibilities of human nature, in the capacities that humans possess to address one another without "fear or favor.""
Supporting the study, critique, and appreciation of American philosophy and culture--"American Studies"-- in the tradition of William James, John Dewey, Charles Sanders Peirce, Emerson, Thoreau, et al... This site was constructed initially to support an Independent Readings course at Middle Tennessee State University in the Spring 2021 semester.
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
Dewey’s faith
Barbara Stengel's contribution to the John Dewey Society Democracy Initiative. She contemplates how fear is operating against collective community action, and argues in favor of having a "working faith" in human nature to ground us.
Stengel writes: "There is a critical truth in all this that John Dewey understood clearly, that was evident in the United States of 1939. Fear can't ground a community; it takes faith. The required faith is not a faith in the divine but a faith in the oh-so-human. The faith Dewey calls out and calls forth is a "working faith" in the possibilities of human nature, in the capacities that humans possess to address one another without "fear or favor.""
Stengel writes: "There is a critical truth in all this that John Dewey understood clearly, that was evident in the United States of 1939. Fear can't ground a community; it takes faith. The required faith is not a faith in the divine but a faith in the oh-so-human. The faith Dewey calls out and calls forth is a "working faith" in the possibilities of human nature, in the capacities that humans possess to address one another without "fear or favor.""
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