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I Desire, Knowledge, and the Origins of Self-Consciousness: A

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I Desire, Knowledge, and the Origins of Self-Consciousness: A Desire, Knowledge, and the Origins of Self-Consciousness: A Theological Account in Conversation with Augustine, Aquinas, and Freud By Daryl Ellis Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Religion December, 2016 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Date: ________________________________________________ ________________ Paul J. DeHart, Ph.D. ________________________________________________ ________________ Ellen T. Armour, Ph.D. ________________________________________________ ________________ J. Patout Burns, Ph.D. ________________________________________________ ________________ Bruce L. McCormack, Ph.D. ________________________________________________ ________________ Bruce Morrill, Ph.D. i Copyright © 2016 by Daryl Ellis All Rights Reserved ii To Courtney. Our life together is a foretaste of the joy that awaits when we see God face-to-face. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In undertaking a project as long and complex has this one has proven to be, I owe a debt of gratitude to numerous people who have supported me along the way. My advisor, Paul DeHart, has directed and encouraged me faithfully with the gift of his exacting insight and the generosity of his time. In the midst of what can often be a very confusing season to practice academic theology, his scholarly example of taking the question of truth seri- ously (as well as our God-created and grace-rehabilitated capacity for grasping it) will stay with me for the rest of my life. In the same vein, thanks to Patout Burns for introduc- ing me to Aquinas and modeling what it means to bear steadfast witness to the Christian faith with equal parts humor and earnestness; to Ellen Armour for her kindness as a con- versation partner and for enriching my interest in psychoanalysis by pointing me toward Kristeva; to Doug Meeks for constantly encouraging me to be a theologian in the service of the church; to Ted Smith for casting an inspired vision for guild-situated practical the- ology; and to Bruce McCormack for his gracious support and teaching me how to pair heart and mind as a theologian in confessing that Jesus is Lord. In addition, a number of institutions have furnished financial support along the way that provided enough concrete stability in my daily life to allow for the completion of my doctoral studies and dissertation. Thanks especially to Vanderbilt University’s Graduate School, the Program in Theology and Practice, and the Lilly Endowment. Also, thanks to members of the Presbyterian Church of the Master for several periods of study leave, in addition to their prayers and loving inquiries as to my progress. Lastly, I have been surrounded by colleagues, friends, and family members who have been a constant source of encouragement and blessing. Joel Erickson, Jared Bangs, iv and Jonathan Taylor have all offered indispensable feedback along the way. Similarly, two colleagues deserve special mention. First, this dissertation was born from a series of conversations I had with Sean Hayden. The constructive questions that ended up blos- soming in these pages emerged in large part because of the fruitfulness of his considera- ble insight and direct inquiries to me regarding the knottiest of anthropological matters. Without him, it is unlikely that self-consciousness would ever have appeared on my radar as a theological problem. Second, Chris Blumhofer has been a tireless source of support, inspiration, and fellowship. Not only did he provide excellent feedback on portions of this study, but he also made himself endlessly available as my library of last resort after I had moved away from Nashville. The generosity of that availability, and the holistic pos- ture of his friendship, buoyed me at several crucial junctures in the writing process. Above all, however, I owe the greatest debt to my wife, Courtney. This disserta- tion is the fruit that has slowly emerged from a series of daily sacrifices we have made together over the course of several years. Many of her particular sacrifices related to tak- ing on the familiar, but nonetheless priceless and exhausting, tasks of our family so that I could have the space to write. This included countless early mornings and Saturdays lov- ing our sons (first Lincoln and then, right near the end, newborn Wilson as well)—i.e. feeding them, reading books with them, packing snacks for them, convincing them that going to the playground or the pool really is a good idea (!), teaching them, and assuring them that Daddy actually is coming home very soon. Moreover, she also demonstrated extraordinary patience with me as the project ending up taking much longer than ex- pected. Not only did she endure these extensions with grace and gentleness, but she also found a deep well of love from which to also offer support and encouragement at some of v my lowest moments of being disheartened by my progress. During these years we also lived so much life together: we made two out-of-state moves, began serving in ministry on the same church staff, had two children, and experienced many heartaches and joys. When taken together, these daily sacrifices and experiences combine to make up one ex- tended act of laboring toward a common goal. In addition to her remarkable resilience and strength, perhaps the most memorable thing to me is that God has used these years to draw us closer to one another and to Christ. Whereas the stress of such a project very eas- ily could have driven us apart, instead it has functioned—to borrow a phrase from the po- et Donald Hall—as a “third thing” that unified our common bonds of love more securely and beautifully.1 May the completion of this “third thing” open up space for even more common labors of love, all of which converge upon Jesus as the ultimate “third thing” that binds us together: for “through him [may we] go straight toward him, through knowledge toward wisdom, without turning aside from one and the same Christ.”2 1 Donald Hall, “The Third Thing,” Poetry 185, no. 2 (2004): 113-21. 2 Augustine, trin. XIII.24. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Sources and Abbreviations ................................................................................................ ix Introduction The Nature and Origin of Self-Consciousness: Why Freud, Augustine, and Aquinas? ..... 1 I. Definitions and the Riddle of Self-Consciousness as a Primal Self-Relation ............. 4 II. From Kant to Schleiermacher: Four Approaches ..................................................... 10 III. The Origins of this Project: Two Conjectures and Finding a Midwife ................... 27 IV. Chapter Outline: Leveraging Aquinas’s Solution to Translate Freud .................... 39 V. Some Methodological and Terminological Notes ................................................... 45 Chapter 1. Desire, Knowledge and the Varieties of Intensive Unity: Augustine’s Dilemma in De Trinitate .................................................................................................................. 52 I. The Eternal Simplicity of the Triune God and the Exitus of Temporal Desire ......... 58 II. Ascending to the Trinitarian Imago Dei and the Crux of Augustine’s Dilemma .... 66 III. Summary and Conclusion ..................................................................................... 103 2. Aquinas’s Solution I: The Aristotelian Soul and the Verticality of Knowledge ........ 108 I. A Primer on Aristotelian Metaphysics: Causation and Passion/Action .................. 115 II. Aristotle and Aquinas on the Soul as the First Actuality of a Living Being .......... 124 III. The Apprehensive Powers and the Verticality of Knowledge .............................. 130 IV. With and Beyond Augustine Via Aristotle: Participation and The Triune Creator .................................................................................................................. 162 V. Conclusion: Summarizing and Outlining a Gap .................................................... 183 3. Aquinas’s Solution II: The Verticality of Desire ........................................................ 189 I. The Metaphysics of Appetite in General ................................................................. 195 II. Sense Appetite: The Passions of the Soul .............................................................. 208 III. Intellective Appetite: The Will ............................................................................. 227 IV. The Vertical Dynamism Between the Sensitive and Intellective Appetites ......... 248 V. Conclusion: Summarizing and Outlining a Gap .................................................... 260 4. The Ego and the Identifying Part of the Soul: Translating Freud Via Aquinas’s Solution ...................................................................................................................... 268 I. Freud’s Dilemma: The Ego’s Formation, Identification, and the Specter of Hypnosis .................................................................................................................. 274 II. The Identifying Part of the Soul: An Initial Step in Applying Aquinas’s Solution .................................................................................................................. 319 III. Conclusion: Summarizing and Looking Ahead .................................................... 358 vii 5. Identification,
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