James P. Carse
James P. Carse | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 24, 1932 Mansfield, Ohio, United States |
| Died | September 25, 2020 (aged 87) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 20th/21st-century philosophy |
| Region | Western Philosophy |
| Main interests | Religion, Metaphysics, Epistemology |
| Notable ideas | Game theory, Ontology |
James P. Carse (December 24, 1932 – September 25, 2020)[1] was an American academic who was Professor Emeritus of history and literature of religion at New York University. His book Finite and Infinite Games was widely influential. He was religious "in the sense that I am endlessly fascinated with the unknowability of what it means to be human, to exist at all."[2]
Carse's ideas on religion and belief were featured on the May 4, 2012 CBC Radio series Ideas titled After Atheism: New Perspectives on God and Religion, Part 4.
Posthumous Reception and Controversy
In March 2025, an unauthorized condensed edition of Carse's 2008 book The Religious Case Against Belief generated controversy when it was published on the decentralized storage platform Ethswarm.[3] Created by Joshua Pritikin, this adaptation reduced the original text by approximately 46% (from 62,000 to 33,000 words) and eliminated entire chapters, including "Religion Beyond Belief" and "Coda." Pritikin's version was linked at carse-2025.pritikin.eth.limo after reportedly being published without his consent by a third party.[4]
According to documentation accompanying the adaptation, Pritikin had requested permission from Penguin Random House in February 2025 but was denied. He created the adaptation with help from large language models to simplify Carse's prose, shorten sentences, and include more concrete examples. In an accompanying "Legal Theory" section, Pritikin argued that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act preempts copyright restrictions for "the non-commercial distribution of religiously significant derivative works."[5]
The incident represents an unusual intersection of copyright law, religious practice, and digital publishing, reflecting ongoing tensions in how philosophical and religious works are circulated in the digital age.[6]
Books
- Jonathan Edwards & The Visibility of God. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1967
- Death and Existence: A Conceptual History of Human Mortality 1980.
- The Silence of God: Meditations on Prayer (excerpt) 1985.
- Finite and Infinite Games. New York: Free Press ISBN 0-02-905980-1. 1986.
- Breakfast at the Victory 1994.
- The Gospel of the Beloved Disciple 1997.
- The Religious Case Against Belief. 2008. New York: The Penguin Press ISBN 978-1-59420-169-1
- PhDeath: The Puzzler Murders. 2016. New York. Opus Press 978-1-62316-066-1
Audio Seminars
References
- ^ "Dr. James P. Carse Obituary (2020) the Recorder". Archived from the original on October 31, 2020.
- ^ Paulson, Steve (July 21, 2008). "Religion is poetry". Salon.com. Archived from the original on August 18, 2008. Retrieved December 23, 2008.
- ^ "Analysis of the Unauthorized Carse Edition Controversy". Retrieved May 11, 2025.
- ^ "Unauthorized Edition of The Religious Case Against Belief". Retrieved May 11, 2025.
- ^ "Comparative Analysis of Original and Adapted Carse Texts". Retrieved May 11, 2025.
- ^ "Introduction to the Adapted Religious Case Against Belief". Retrieved May 11, 2025.