Deconstructing Radical Orthodoxy: Postmodern Theology, Rhetoric and Truth

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Deconstructing Radical Orthodoxy: Postmodern Theology, Rhetoric and Truth DECONSTRUCTING RADICAL ORTHODOXY: POSTMODERN THEOLOGY, RHETORIC AND TRUTH EDITED WAYNE J. HANKEY & DOUGLAS HEDLEY ASHGATE 2005 Contents List of Contributors Abbreviations 1. Introduction 2. Chapter One, Catherine Pickstock, Plato and the Unity of Divinity and Humanity: Liturgical or Philosophical? Eli Diamond 3. Chapter Two, Philosophical Religion and the Neoplatonic Turn to the Subject Wayne J. Hankey 4. Chapter Three, Is There Room for Political Philosophy in Postmodern Critical Augustinianism? Todd Breyfogle 5. Chapter Four, Aquinas, Radical Orthodoxy and the Importance of Truth John Marenbon 6. Chapter Five, Duns Scotus and Suarez at the Origins of Modernity Richard Cross 7. Chapter Six, Milbank and Modern Secularity Neil G. Robertson 8. Chapter Seven, Radical Orthodoxy and Apocalyptic Difference: Cambridge Platonism, and Milbank’s Romantic Christian Cabbala Douglas Hedley 1 9. Chapter Eight, Theology, Social Theory and Dialectic: A Consideration of Milbank’s Hegel David Peddle 10. Chapter Nine, Better Well Hanged Than Ill-Wed? Kierkegaard and Radical Orthodoxy Steven Shakespeare 11. Chapter Ten, After Transubstantiation: Blessing, Memory, Solidarity and Hope George Pattison 12. Chapter Eleven, Derrida and nihilism Hugh Rayment-Pickard Bibliography Index Contributors TODD BREYFOGLE was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, studying Ancient and Modern History and Patristic and Modern Theology. His PhD is from the University of Chicago, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on St. Augustine’s political theology. He is co-editor of a five volume commentary on Augustine's City of God for Oxford University Press. At present Director of the University Honours Program at the University of Denver, his email address is [email protected]. RICHARD CROSS is Fellow and Tutor in Theology at Oriel College, University of Oxford. Among his recent publications are The Metaphysics of the Incarnation: Thomas Aquinas to Duns Scotus, Oxford University Press, 2002, and Duns Scotus on God, Ashgate, 2004. His email address is [email protected]. ELI DIAMOND is a MA from Dalhousie University with a thesis on Plato’s Sophist and is currently writing a doctoral dissertation on Hegel’s interpretation of Aristotle’s De Anima at Northwestern University. His primary area of interest lies in the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle and their reception 2 throughout the subsequent history of philosophy. His email address is [email protected]. WAYNE J. HANKEY, having studied Classics, philosophy, and theology in Halifax, Toronto, and Oxford, is Carnegie Professor of Classics at King’s College and Dalhousie University and is Secretary and Editor of Dionysius. His God in Himself, Aquinas’ Doctrine of God as Expounded in the Summa Theologiae was reprinted in 2000 by Oxford University Press in the series ‘Oxford Scholarly Classics’. Most recently he published Cent Ans De Néoplatonisme En France: Une Brève Histoire Philosophique, Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin/Presses de l’Université Laval. His email address is [email protected]. DOUGLAS HEDLEY studied Philosophy and Theology at Oxford and received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Munich under the supervision of Werner Beierwaltes. He is the author of Coleridge, Philosophy and Religion: Aids to Reflection and the Mirror of the Spirit, Cambridge University Press, 2000. A Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and a University Senior Lecturer in the Philosophy of Religion in the Faculty of Divinity, his email address is [email protected]. JOHN MARENBON is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. His most recent book is Boethius, New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. His email is [email protected]. GEORGE PATTISON is Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford. In addition to a number of books on Kierkegaard and various topics in modern theology he is also author of The Routledge Guide Book to the Later Heidegger. His new book, Thinking about God in an Age of Technology is due to be published by Oxford University Press in 2005. His email address is [email protected]. DAVID PEDDLE is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Chair of Humanities at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, Memorial University, Newfoundland. He is co-editor of Philosophy and Freedom: The Legacy of James Doull, University of Toronto Press, 2003, and managing editor of Animus and of the James Alexander Doull Archives. His email address is [email protected]. HUGH RAYMENT-PICKARD received his PhD from London University for a thesis on 'Derrida, God and Death' and taught the philosophy of history and 3 history of philosophy at Goldsmith's College for several years. His publications include Impossible God: Derrida's Theology, Ashgate, 2003; Myths of Time: from St Augustine to American Beauty, Darton Longman and Todd, 2004, and (with Robert Burns) Philosophies of History: from Enlightenment to Postmodernity, Blackwell, 2000. A parish priest working in West London, his email address is [email protected]. NEIL G. ROBERTSON is Associate Professor of the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Canada. His publications include co-editing Philosophy and Freedom: The Legacy of James Doull, various articles on Montesquieu, Rousseau, and early modern political thought generally, as well as on Leo Strauss, George Grant and James Doull. He is currently co-editing a volume entitled Descartes and the Modern. His email address is [email protected]. STEVEN SHAKESPEARE completed his doctoral thesis on Kierkegaard at Cambridge University in 1994. His publications include Kierkegaard, Language and the Reality of God, Ashgate, 2001, and, co-edited with George Pattison, Kierkegaard, The Self and Society, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998. He is an Anglican priest and is currently Anglican Chaplain of Liverpool Hope University College. His email address is [email protected]. Abbreviations Radical Orthodoxy AW Catherine Pickstock, After Writing: On the Liturgical Consummation of Philosophy, Challenges in Contemporary Theology, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1997. JP ‘Justice and Prudence: Principles of Order in the Platonic City’, The Heythrop Journal, 42 (2001), 269–282. OT John Milbank, ‘Only Theology Overcomes Metaphysics’, New Blackfriars, 76 (895), July/August, 1995, ‘Special Issue on Jean-Luc Marion’s God without Being’, 325-43; it is reprinted in WMS. PA John Milbank, ‘ “Postmodern Critical Augustinianism”: A Short Summa in Forty Two Responses to Unasked Questions’, Modern Theology, 7 (3), April, 1991, 225-37. RO Radical Orthodoxy, A New Theology, ed. J. Milbank, C. Pickstock and G. Ward, London / New York: Routledge, 1999. 4 TA John Milbank and Catherine Pickstock, Truth in Aquinas, Radical Orthodoxy, London / New York: Routledge, 2001. TST John Milbank, Theology and Social Theory, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990. WMS John Milbank, The Word Made Strange. Theology, Language, Culture, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1997. Augustine Conf. = Confessiones div. quaest. 83 = De diversis quaestionibus octoginta tribus civ. = De civitate Dei lib. arb. = De libero arbitrio ep. Jo. = In epistulam Joannis ad Parthos tractatus Trin. = De Trinitate ord. = De ordine doc. christ. = De doctrina Christiana beata vita = De beata vita Serm. = Sermones Jo. ev. = In Johannis evangelium tractatus Sol. = Soliloquia c. Jul. = Contra Julianum opus imperfectum Retr. = Retractationes mag. = De magistro mus. = De musica dial. = De dialectica s. mont = De sermone Domini in monte Aquinas ST = Summa Theologiae V = Quaestiones disputatae de veritate Derrida A Aporias, trans. Thomas Dutoit, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993. C Cinders, trans. Ned Nukacher, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991. 5 Cir ‘Circumfession’ in Jacques Derrida, trans. Geoffrey Bennington, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. D Dissemination, trans. Barbara Johnson, London: Athlone Press, 1981. Dem Demeure: Fiction and Testimony, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000. EO The Ear of the Other: Otobiography, Transference, Translation: Texts and Discussions with Jacques Derrida, trans. Peggy Kamuf and Avital Ronell in McDonald, Christie V. (ed.), Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988. G Glas, trans. John P. Leavey Jr. and Richard Rand, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986. GT Given Time I: Counterfeit Money, trans. Peggy Kamuf, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. H ‘How to Avoid Speaking: Denials’, in Toby Foshay and Harold Coward (eds), Derrida and Negative Theology, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992. LI Limited Inc abc..., ed. Gerald Graff, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1988. M Margins of Philosophy, trans. Alan Bass, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982. OG Of Grammatology, trans. Gayatri Spivak, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1976. Par Parages, Paris: Editions Galilée, 1986. Pos Positions, trans. Alan Bass, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981. Psy Psyché: Inventions de l’autre, Paris: Editions Galilée, 1987. SM Specters of Marx: the State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning and the New International, trans. Peggy Kamuf, New York: Routledge, 1994. SP Speech and Phenomena and other Essays on Husserl’s Theory of Signs, trans. David B. Allison, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1973. TP The Truth in Painting, trans. G. Bennington and Ian McLeod, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. TS ‘I have a Taste for the Secret’, in J. Derrida and M. Ferraris, A Taste for the Secret, Polity, Oxford, 2001. WD Writing and Difference, trans.
Recommended publications
  • Ontotheology? Understanding Heidegger’S Destruktion of Metaphysics* Iain Thomson
    T E D U L G O E R · Internationa l Journal o f Philo sophical Studies Vol.8(3), 297–327; · T a p y u lo o r Gr & Fr ancis Ontotheology? Understanding Heidegger’s Destruktion of Metaphysics* Iain Thomson Abstract Heidegger’s Destruktion of the metaphysical tradition leads him to the view that all Western metaphysical systems make foundational claims best understood as ‘ontotheological’. Metaphysics establishes the conceptual parameters of intelligibility by ontologically grounding and theologically legitimating our changing historical sense of what is. By rst elucidating and then problematizing Heidegger’s claim that all Western metaphysics shares this ontotheological structure, I reconstruct the most important components of the original and provocative account of the history of metaphysics that Heidegger gives in support of his idiosyncratic understanding of metaphysics. Arguing that this historical narrative generates the critical force of Heidegger’s larger philosophical project (namely, his attempt to nd a path beyond our own nihilistic Nietzschean age), I conclude by briey showing how Heidegger’s return to the inception of Western metaphysics allows him to uncover two important aspects of Being’s pre-metaphysical phenomeno- logical self-manifestation, aspects which have long been buried beneath the metaphysical tradition but which are crucial to Heidegger’s attempt to move beyond our late-modern, Nietzschean impasse. Keywords: Heidegger; ontotheology; metaphysics; deconstruction; Nietzsche; nihilism Upon hearing the expression ‘ontotheology’, many philosophers start looking for the door. Those who do not may know that it was under the title of this ‘distasteful neologism’ (for which we have Kant to thank)1 that the later Heidegger elaborated his seemingly ruthless critique of Western metaphysics.
    [Show full text]
  • Medieval Western Philosophy: the European Emergence
    Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change Series I, Culture and Values, Volume 9 History of Western Philosophy by George F. McLean and Patrick J. Aspell Medieval Western Philosophy: The European Emergence By Patrick J. Aspell The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy 1 Copyright © 1999 by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Gibbons Hall B-20 620 Michigan Avenue, NE Washington, D.C. 20064 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Aspell, Patrick, J. Medieval western philosophy: the European emergence / Patrick J. Aspell. p.cm. — (Cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series I. Culture and values ; vol. 9) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Philosophy, Medieval. I. Title. III. Series. B721.A87 1997 97-20069 320.9171’7’090495—dc21 CIP ISBN 1-56518-094-1 (pbk.) 2 Table of Contents Chronology of Events and Persons Significant in and beyond the History of Medieval Europe Preface xiii Part One: The Origins of Medieval Philosophy 1 Chapter I. Augustine: The Lover of Truth 5 Chapter II. Universals According to Boethius, Peter Abelard, and Other Dialecticians 57 Chapter III. Christian Neoplatoists: John Scotus Erigena and Anselm of Canterbury 73 Part Two: The Maturity of Medieval Philosophy Chronology 97 Chapter IV. Bonaventure: Philosopher of the Exemplar 101 Chapter V. Thomas Aquinas: Philosopher of the Existential Act 155 Part Three: Critical Reflection And Reconstruction 237 Chapter VI. John Duns Scotus: Metaphysician of Essence 243 Chapter
    [Show full text]
  • Filosofia De Escoto.Pdf
    THE NELSON PHILOSOPHICAL TEXTS General Editor Raymond Klibansky Frothingham Professor of Logic and Metaphysics McGill University Honorary Fellow of the Warburg Institute University of London Nihil obstat: Roy Effler, o.f.m. Censor Deputatus Imprimi potest: Eligius Weir, o.f.m. Minister Provincialis Nihil obstat: Philotheus Boehner, o.f.m. Censor Deputatus Imprimatur : ' 4" Josephus Aloisius Episcopus Bujfalensis Smtnt Itwnnpftwrttlf ro (irncmt fixv< »ctti«W *(fileni tmitr mCpt" rt& lift* uft mrc \vt(xfiqi amis p \mh (idnc ys pmo lit pf nt«ttoUrt»te -n:omuli?-. Si p'V «j" a- pmo ofao \n 1 1TB TOWIC mfll!l?0iji'r [i run00 S oii-rtrhi ncf iip^Jdcm 6* emnpSui.pommel gjpWolitw »n •i|cnsg 0ntcc%r per h?c nir at I ens ihr r*<wie*&oumrr's nccns <jt» saffntflrijni <f u \}<*tm time }-mcn iyenvi [ivb pint)fpffim*tpttmr f«iTmn tt*$Wfi»t,ttttHftt,et' niu6ififtnrc%. '>i:'»c«*i!>wpnTicrn»«',,v)*'" Iroi i Wf,4*notnjMfi;r«f»^i&i« fitpnn pfttwti Hlo $° n^mn^misy? p<nfe nnofcfiflr mnmifi ; ttanM fs i nrpfn& ne arftnr-ml'w mufti' in jrftis jjr ft no teft n va'^itinotU'jo'nDntr ci6 w (Jft,|6 '"£$ 'alms i fme'enu cWidil mint r»i«jf tiotthnrm nans pB*fft rmaaflrftl p'c(flh«frnU8ttrfHflaTiimfl \\?i\i\x ni pis lih&j en- injprniara otcnr SSrtnf^fi^ r paa «3 «rt fine ci(pnttma i^a^ (l)lr <*£(,. m-t f^t gtvile g-t«Tnc'Tn|pnt*o,copn»'6»tnptilt g^ppCjipjf iKKittlh ?impftiifi0oicttfci$utm ^Strintfnnnl mm jj>no6tr |sjc'T inifirmntonWrcnt$> otbcfp mttwg cf &cyxitwnam omi raj^t * (> on? moo' aj$-' 5? * r^Nft 0^«'riM«;Vo»sc»t«flm5»ir,nirj)i'a vnTe'tc «i)pta r*^ aeftipf JH-tteefl-cna ie»rf»r fomnne tfiv\ «nnftot vtnnta iwnir ca gr*Yi"aiuis pirhfc ernn Hfafmtttv Beginning of the Ordinatio of Duns Scotus From MS lat.
    [Show full text]
  • Kant's Theoretical Conception Of
    KANT’S THEORETICAL CONCEPTION OF GOD Yaron Noam Hoffer Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy, September 2017 Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Doctoral Committee _________________________________________ Allen W. Wood, Ph.D. (Chair) _________________________________________ Sandra L. Shapshay, Ph.D. _________________________________________ Timothy O'Connor, Ph.D. _________________________________________ Michel Chaouli, Ph.D 15 September, 2017 ii Copyright © 2017 Yaron Noam Hoffer iii To Mor, who let me make her ends mine and made my ends hers iv Acknowledgments God has never been an important part of my life, growing up in a secular environment. Ironically, only through Kant, the ‘all-destroyer’ of rational theology and champion of enlightenment, I developed an interest in God. I was drawn to Kant’s philosophy since the beginning of my undergraduate studies, thinking that he got something right in many topics, or at least introduced fruitful ways of dealing with them. Early in my Graduate studies I was struck by Kant’s moral argument justifying belief in God’s existence. While I can’t say I was convinced, it somehow resonated with my cautious but inextricable optimism. My appreciation for this argument led me to have a closer look at Kant’s discussion of rational theology and especially his pre-critical writings. From there it was a short step to rediscover early modern metaphysics in general and embark upon the current project. This journey could not have been completed without the intellectual, emotional, and material support I was very fortunate to receive from my teachers, colleagues, friends, and family.
    [Show full text]
  • Eriugena's Christian Neoplatonism and Its Sources in Patristic
    Eriugena’s Christian Neoplatonism and its Sources in Patristic Philosophy and Ancient Philosophy (I) 16:00 - 18:30 Tuesday, 20th August, 2019 Room 1 Presentation type Workshop [No author data] Discussant: Willemien Otten This workshop analyses Eriugena's Christian Platonic ideas on Theology, Cosmology, Anthropology (including Epistemology and Ethics) and their sources in Patristic philosophical theology and in ancient philosophy – two strictly interrelated, often inseparable fields. It includes world leaders in Eriugena studies; papers offer important and novel insights into Eriugena's thought and its sources. 508 Eriugena and Maximos on Divisions of Being Andrew Louth University of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom Abstract The Latin title of Eriugena’s principal work Periphyseon is De divisione naturae. As he himself makes clear, by his citation from Maximos the Confessor, his notion of the division of nature is derived from, or at least inspired by, Maximos, who was himself inheriting a pattern of division or distinction from earlier writers, notably Gregory of Nyssa, whom Eriugena himself knew and had translated. The problem is: in what way is Eriugena indebted to Maximos over this central notion? The paper begins by putting Eriugena’s work, of both translation and speculative metaphysics, in context in his life and work, emphasizing Eriugena’s basic formation as a Latin, indeed Augustinian, theologian (though original in his interpretation), in terms of which his indebtedness to the Greek theology he translated is to be interpreted. Initially, it appears that the notion of division of nature was conceived of in dialectical terms, however, as Eriugena developed the notion from book II onwards, it becomes primarily metaphysical.
    [Show full text]
  • Front Matter
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-41607-8 - Self and Salvation: Being Transformed David F. Ford Frontmatter More information Self and Salvation Being Transformed This eagerly awaited book by David F.Ford makes a unique and important contribution to the debate about the Christian doctrine of salvation. Using the pivotal image of the face, Professor Ford offers a constructive and contemporary account of the self being transformed. He engages with three modern thinkers (Levinas, Jüngel and Ricoeur) in order to rethink and reimagine the meaning of self. Developing the concept of a worshipping self, he goes on to explore the dimensions of salvation through the lenses of scripture, worship practices, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the lives of contemporary saints. He uses different genres and traditions to show how the self flourishes through engagement with God, other people, and the responsibilities and joys of ordinary living. The result is a habitable theology of salvation which is immersed in Christian faith, thought and practice while also being deeply involved with modern life in a pluralist world. David F.Ford is Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge, where he is also a Fellow of Selwyn College and Chairman of the Centre for Advanced Religious and Theological Studies. Educated at Trinity College Dublin, St John’s College Cambridge, YaleUniversity and Tübingen University,he has taught previously at the University of Birmingham. Professor Ford’s publications include Barth and God’s Story: Biblical Narrative and the Theological Method of Karl Barth in the Church Dogmatics (1981), Jubilate: Theology in Praise (with Daniel W.Hardy,1984), Meaning and Truth in 2 Corinthians (with F.M.
    [Show full text]
  • Thesis Rests with Its Author
    University of Bath PHD Sensemaking, metaphor and mission in an Anglican context Roberts, Vaughan S Award date: 1999 Awarding institution: University of Bath Link to publication Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 07. Oct. 2021 Sensemaking, Metaphor and Mission in an Anglican Context Submitted by Vaughan S Roberts for the degree of PhD of the University of Bath 1999 Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis rests with its author. This copy of the thesis has been supplied on the condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without prior written consent of the author.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction Stephen Gersh
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-41528-6 — Plotinus' Legacy Edited by Stephen Gersh Excerpt More Information Introduction Stephen Gersh The almost continuous influence through two millennia of European history of Plotinus’ philosophical doctrine or of the philosophical move- ment that he founded, Neoplatonism, is a generally acknowledged fact. The term philosophia perennis was introduced by the Italian Augustinian Agostino Steuco (–) as referring to precisely this tradition and was understood in the same way at least until Leibniz. Acknowledgment of the continuous influence of Plotinus and Neoplatonism has often been qualified on the part of historians of philosophy by restricting that influ- ence to specific regions and epochs – for example, early twelfth-century France or late fifteenth-century Italy – or else by assigning it rather to “non-philosophical” disciplines such as theology or literature. However, the doctrines concerned have actually reappeared in many places and times besides those most generally noted by historians, while any permanently rigid demarcation between the genres of philosophy, theology, and litera- ture is questionable in practice. But before proceeding further with the main topic of the present undertaking, which is to understand and trace Plotinus’ legacy, it may be useful to state some basic facts about the ancient philosopher himself and his re-emergence on the European intellectual scene at the beginning of the modern era. Plotinus (ca. / to ) was the author of the Enneads, a set of philosophical treatises grouped in six sets of nine (Greek ennea = “nine”) and prefaced by a biography of the author by Porphyry. It appears from the biography that much of the organization of the Plotinian corpus, including the assignment of titles such as “On Beauty” or “On Providence” to individual treatises, was due to Porphyry, who had been Plotinus’ student in Rome, rather than to the master himself.
    [Show full text]
  • Herman Bavinck's Theological Aesthetics: a Synchronic And
    TBR 2 (2011): 43–58 Herman Bavinck’s Theological Aesthetics: A Synchronic and Diachronic Analysis Robert S. Covolo PhD candidate, Fuller Theological Seminary In 1914 Herman Bavinck wrote an article for the Almanak of the Vrije Universiteit entitled, “Of Beauty and Aesthetics,” which has recently been translated and republished for the English-speaking world in Essays on Religion, Science, and Society.1 While this is not the only place where Bavinck treats the subject of beauty, this article stands out as a unique, extended glimpse into Bavinck’s theological aesthetics.2 In it we see that Bavinck was conversant with philosophical aesthetics and aware of the tensions of doing theological aesthetics from both a small “c” catholic and a distinctly Reformed perspective. There are many ways to assess Bavinck’s reflections on aesthetics. For example, one could look at the intimations in Bavinck’s works of the aesthetics formulations of later Dutch Reformed writers such as Rookmaker, Seerveld, or Wolterstorff.3 1. Herman Bavinck, “Of Beauty and Aesthetic” in Essays on Religion, Science and Society, ed. John Bolt, trans. Harry Boonstra and Gerrit Sheeres (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008), 245–60. 2. See also Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 2, God and Creation, ed. John Bolt, trans. John Vriend (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2004), 252–55. 3. This in itself would prove to be a very interesting study. In one section of the essay Bavinck entertains an idea by a “Mister Berland” who maintains “the characterization of an anarchist situation in the arts.” See Bavinck, “Of Beauty and Aesthetics,” 252.
    [Show full text]
  • Henry More, Richard Baxter, and Francis Glisson's Trea Tise on the Energetic Na Ture of Substance
    Medical History, 1987, 31: 15-40. MEDICINE AND PNEUMATOLOGY: HENRY MORE, RICHARD BAXTER, AND FRANCIS GLISSON'S TREA TISE ON THE ENERGETIC NA TURE OF SUBSTANCE by JOHN HENRY* The nature of the soul and its relationship to the body has always proved problematical for Christian philosophy. The source ofthe difficulty can be traced back to the efforts of the early Fathers to reconcile the essentially pagan concept of an immaterial and immortal soul with apostolic teachings about the after-life in which all the emphasis is placed upon the resurrection of the body. The tensions between these two traditions inevitably became strained during the sixteenth century when Protestant reformers insisted on a closer adherence to Scripture. Furthermore, even when leaving the problems of Scriptural hermeneutics aside, the dualistic approach to the question, in which soul (or spirit) and body are held to be categorically different in essence, had to overcome a number of intractable philosophical problems. So, it was not simply coincidence that when the new mechanical philosophy began to be formulated in a systematic way in the seventeenth century, it was couched in vigorously dualistic terms. In fact, three of the earliest fully elaborated systems of mechanical philosophy, those of Descartes, Digby, and Charleton, were explicitly intended to provide a philosophical prop for dualist theology.' Moreover, it was because of its usefulness in promoting dualism that Cartesianism was first popularized in England not by a natural philosopher but by the Cambridge Platonist and theologian, Henry More.2 *John Henry, MPhil, PhD, Wellcome Institute for the History ofMedicine, 183 Euston Road, London NWI 2BP.
    [Show full text]
  • Hegel, Sade, and Gnostic Infinities
    Radical Orthodoxy: Theology, Philosophy, Politics, Vol. 1, Number 3 (September 2013): 383-425. ISSN 2050-392X HEGEL, SADE, AND GNOSTIC INFINITIES Cyril O’Regan lavoj Žižek not only made the impossible possible when he articulated an inner relation between Kant and de Sade, but showed that the impossible was necessary.1 The impossibility is necessary because of the temporal contiguity of thinkers who articulate two very different S versions of the Enlightenment, who variously support autonomy, and who feel called upon to take a stance with respect to Christian discourse and practice. As the demand for articulation is pressed within a horizon of questioning, proximally defined by the Lacanian problematic of self-presentation and horizonally by Adorno and Horkheimmer’s dialectic of the Enlightenment, Žižek would be the first to agree that his investigation is probative. One could press much more the issue of whether the logic of Kant’s view on radical evil is in fact that of the demonic, while much more could be said about the Enlightenment’s inversion in the ‘mad’ discourse of Sade and the relation- difference between both discourses and the Christian discourses that are objects of critique. However important it would be to complete this task, it seems even more necessary to engage the question of the relation between Hegel and Sade. More necessary, since not only is such a relation left unexplored while hinted at 1 See Žižek’s essay ‘On Radical Evil and Other Matters,’ in Tarrying with the Negative: Kant, Hegel, and the Critique of Ideology (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993), pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Theology Today
    Theology Today volume 67, N u m b e r 2 j u l y 2 0 1 0 EDITORIAL Christmas in July 123 JAMES F. KAY ARTICLES American Scriptures 127 C. CLIFTON BLACK Christian Spirituality in a Time of Ecological Awareness 169 KATHLEEN FISCHER The “New Monasticism” as Ancient-Future Belonging 182 PHILIP HARROLD Sexuality as Sacrament: An Evangelical Reads Andrew Greeley 194 ANTHONY L. BLAIR THEOLOGICAL TABLE TALK The Difference Calvin Made 205 R. BRUCE DOUGLASS CRITIC’S CORNER Thinking beyond Easy Tribalism 216 WALTER BRUEGGEMANN BOOK REVIEWS The Ten Commandments, by Patrick Miller 220 STANLEY HAUERWAS An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and Their Texts, by D. C. Parker 224 SHANE BERG TT-67-2-pages.indb 1 4/21/10 12:45 PM Incarnation: The Person and Life of Christ by Thomas F. Torrance, edited by Robert T. Walker 225 PAUL D. MOLNAR Religion after Postmodernism: Retheorizing Myth and Literature by Victor E. Taylor 231 TOM BEAUDOIN Practical Theology: An Introduction, by Richard R. Osmer 234 JOYCE ANN MERCER Boundless Faith: The Global Outreach of American Churches by Robert Wuthnow 241 RICHARD FOX YOUNG The Hand and the Road: The Life and Times of John A. Mackay by John Mackay Metzger 244 JOHN H. SINCLAIR The Child in the Bible, Marcia J. Bunge, general editor; Terence E. Fretheim and Beverly Roberts Gaventa, coeditors 248 KAREN-MARIE YUST TT-67-2-pages.indb 2 4/21/10 12:45 PM James F. Kay, Editor Gordon S. Mikoski, Reviews Editor Blair D. Bertrand, Editorial Assistant EDITORIAL COUNCIL Iain R.
    [Show full text]