Martin J. De Nys
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823239825
- eISBN:
- 9780823239863
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823239825.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter stresses the fruitful interplay between philosophy and prophecy, and the way in which Berrigan mediates the prophetic tradition to the contemporary scene and a unique and compelling way. ...
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This chapter stresses the fruitful interplay between philosophy and prophecy, and the way in which Berrigan mediates the prophetic tradition to the contemporary scene and a unique and compelling way. Self-appropriation, which starts intellectually, and is rooted in the desire to know must complete itself in commitment, in love, and the works of love. Christian philosophers work in a context in which they acknowledge the integrity and critical autonomy of intellectual inquiry, identify philosophical inquiry as a component of a more comprehensive project of self-transcendence and service to the ends of love, and identify the bases of the works of love as a necessary inter-relation between contemplations and engagement. For the Christian philosopher, it is important to call on the prophetic tradition as a resource in doing philosophical work, to critique systemic violence, to do philosophy of religion, and to do one’s work in a university which may be overly-identified with secular culture.Less
This chapter stresses the fruitful interplay between philosophy and prophecy, and the way in which Berrigan mediates the prophetic tradition to the contemporary scene and a unique and compelling way. Self-appropriation, which starts intellectually, and is rooted in the desire to know must complete itself in commitment, in love, and the works of love. Christian philosophers work in a context in which they acknowledge the integrity and critical autonomy of intellectual inquiry, identify philosophical inquiry as a component of a more comprehensive project of self-transcendence and service to the ends of love, and identify the bases of the works of love as a necessary inter-relation between contemplations and engagement. For the Christian philosopher, it is important to call on the prophetic tradition as a resource in doing philosophical work, to critique systemic violence, to do philosophy of religion, and to do one’s work in a university which may be overly-identified with secular culture.
James L. Marsh
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823239825
- eISBN:
- 9780823239863
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823239825.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter argues that self-appropriation, from below, can be fruitfully complimented by a prophetic Berriganian theology of liberation from above. Marsh’s formula to express this relationship is ...
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This chapter argues that self-appropriation, from below, can be fruitfully complimented by a prophetic Berriganian theology of liberation from above. Marsh’s formula to express this relationship is that intellectual, moral, and religious conversion should lead to radical political conversion. To further deepen and enrich the relationship between self-appropriation and liberation, Marxian social theory is used to understand and criticize capitalism, imperialism, and militarism. Marsh further stresses that the events of Catonsville can serve to bring into question an overly comfortable relationship of Catholic universities and Catholic academics to the secular city. In such accommodation, is the academic mission compromised? How freely and comprehensively can the desire to know operate when it is constrained by the goals and practices of empire?Less
This chapter argues that self-appropriation, from below, can be fruitfully complimented by a prophetic Berriganian theology of liberation from above. Marsh’s formula to express this relationship is that intellectual, moral, and religious conversion should lead to radical political conversion. To further deepen and enrich the relationship between self-appropriation and liberation, Marxian social theory is used to understand and criticize capitalism, imperialism, and militarism. Marsh further stresses that the events of Catonsville can serve to bring into question an overly comfortable relationship of Catholic universities and Catholic academics to the secular city. In such accommodation, is the academic mission compromised? How freely and comprehensively can the desire to know operate when it is constrained by the goals and practices of empire?
Juan Manuel Garrido
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823239351
- eISBN:
- 9780823239399
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823239351.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
This chapter analyzes the sense of life in living beings as “care” for not ceasing to be. It discusses the two opposites or contradictory senses that such a conception entails. On the one hand, life ...
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This chapter analyzes the sense of life in living beings as “care” for not ceasing to be. It discusses the two opposites or contradictory senses that such a conception entails. On the one hand, life as care refers to the self-appropriating singularity to which the living being is delivered in the task of not ceasing to be (no one else or nothing else can alleviate the task); the living being is the emergence of a “self” that inhabits the world and understands it within the horizon of its ontological task. On the other hand, however, the self-appropriating singularity at stake is fundamentally incomplete and unconcerned with any horizon of completeness; only death relieves the living being of the task of not ceasing to be. Life is infinite hunger. This chapter also suggests that the conception of life as infinite hunger deconstructs the idea of life as the “capacity” or “dynamis” of a substance or self.Less
This chapter analyzes the sense of life in living beings as “care” for not ceasing to be. It discusses the two opposites or contradictory senses that such a conception entails. On the one hand, life as care refers to the self-appropriating singularity to which the living being is delivered in the task of not ceasing to be (no one else or nothing else can alleviate the task); the living being is the emergence of a “self” that inhabits the world and understands it within the horizon of its ontological task. On the other hand, however, the self-appropriating singularity at stake is fundamentally incomplete and unconcerned with any horizon of completeness; only death relieves the living being of the task of not ceasing to be. Life is infinite hunger. This chapter also suggests that the conception of life as infinite hunger deconstructs the idea of life as the “capacity” or “dynamis” of a substance or self.
Patrick H. Byrne
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823228089
- eISBN:
- 9780823236954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823228089.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter explicates Bernard Lonergan's use of the phrase, “the passionateness of being” and traces the import of this phrase to Lonergan's notion of the implicit and explicit paradigms that shape ...
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This chapter explicates Bernard Lonergan's use of the phrase, “the passionateness of being” and traces the import of this phrase to Lonergan's notion of the implicit and explicit paradigms that shape human ways of thinking, feeling, and judgment. Each individual has an unconscious, implicit “metaphysics” operating in one's life: one's assumptions and ideologies—inherited from parents, friends, culture, and religion—become the unconscious paradigm of one's reality. Lonergan's contribution is to propose that there is another “First Philosophy” inherent in human beings as well, one which comes from the sense of reality built into our cognitional structure. This innate, explicit metaphysics or First Philosophy has to do with reflective self-awareness, what Lonergan calls “self-appropriation”. Byrne shows how the notion of self-appropriation is connected to theology, how it becomes, in effect, the major task of theology: to self-appropriate God's self-gift of passionate, unconditional love as rendered in the Christian traditions, so as to move us to preach this passionate love and transform the world.Less
This chapter explicates Bernard Lonergan's use of the phrase, “the passionateness of being” and traces the import of this phrase to Lonergan's notion of the implicit and explicit paradigms that shape human ways of thinking, feeling, and judgment. Each individual has an unconscious, implicit “metaphysics” operating in one's life: one's assumptions and ideologies—inherited from parents, friends, culture, and religion—become the unconscious paradigm of one's reality. Lonergan's contribution is to propose that there is another “First Philosophy” inherent in human beings as well, one which comes from the sense of reality built into our cognitional structure. This innate, explicit metaphysics or First Philosophy has to do with reflective self-awareness, what Lonergan calls “self-appropriation”. Byrne shows how the notion of self-appropriation is connected to theology, how it becomes, in effect, the major task of theology: to self-appropriate God's self-gift of passionate, unconditional love as rendered in the Christian traditions, so as to move us to preach this passionate love and transform the world.
Elizabeth A. Murray
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823228089
- eISBN:
- 9780823236954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823228089.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Bernard Lonergan is counted among the major Catholic thinkers of the twentieth century. His contribution to philosophy with his major work, Insight, and to theology with his crowning achievement, ...
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Bernard Lonergan is counted among the major Catholic thinkers of the twentieth century. His contribution to philosophy with his major work, Insight, and to theology with his crowning achievement, Method in Theology, has been widely recognized. This chapter explores Lonergan's understanding of human consciousness in order to find the “key” to his philosophy. Arguing that Lonergan starts in the polymorphic nature of human interiority, it charts the stages of consciousness that emerge in the dynamic, intentional process of self-appropriation. This moment of insight is Lonergan's methodological key. The chapter suggests that Lonergan's philosophical methodology can be employed in order to safeguard the complex nature of consciousness, a methodology that keeps in tension the understanding of consciousness as an “act of knowing” and consciousness as an “act of identity”. It also discusses the polymorphism of consciousness, seven patterns of experience, and the transformations of consciousness corresponding to the differences in horizons.Less
Bernard Lonergan is counted among the major Catholic thinkers of the twentieth century. His contribution to philosophy with his major work, Insight, and to theology with his crowning achievement, Method in Theology, has been widely recognized. This chapter explores Lonergan's understanding of human consciousness in order to find the “key” to his philosophy. Arguing that Lonergan starts in the polymorphic nature of human interiority, it charts the stages of consciousness that emerge in the dynamic, intentional process of self-appropriation. This moment of insight is Lonergan's methodological key. The chapter suggests that Lonergan's philosophical methodology can be employed in order to safeguard the complex nature of consciousness, a methodology that keeps in tension the understanding of consciousness as an “act of knowing” and consciousness as an “act of identity”. It also discusses the polymorphism of consciousness, seven patterns of experience, and the transformations of consciousness corresponding to the differences in horizons.
Rahel Jaeggi
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231151986
- eISBN:
- 9780231537599
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231151986.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter systematizes the conception of the self into an “appropriative model” of the self and defends it against various objections and rival positions. This conception of oneself as ...
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This chapter systematizes the conception of the self into an “appropriative model” of the self and defends it against various objections and rival positions. This conception of oneself as self-appropriation emphasizes the fluid and constructed character of self-relations in which we are not simply given to ourselves. Unlike the poststructuralist critique of the subject, however, it insists on the possibility of distinguishing between successful and unsuccessful ways of appropriating ourselves. Only in this way can one speak of self-alienation while avoiding the trap of essentialism. The chapter begins by proposing an appropriative conception of the self based on Hegelian and (broadly) existentialist positions. It then addresses objections to its critique of essentialism or to the ostensible implications of an antiessentialist approach, arguing that antiessentialism denies both the unity of the self and its intractability. It also examines the intractable elements of personal identity and the idea of inwardness as the individual's internal refuge from the world. Finally, it discusses the issue of self-invention as opposed to self-discovery, along with the idea of the multiplicity and the hybrid character of identity.Less
This chapter systematizes the conception of the self into an “appropriative model” of the self and defends it against various objections and rival positions. This conception of oneself as self-appropriation emphasizes the fluid and constructed character of self-relations in which we are not simply given to ourselves. Unlike the poststructuralist critique of the subject, however, it insists on the possibility of distinguishing between successful and unsuccessful ways of appropriating ourselves. Only in this way can one speak of self-alienation while avoiding the trap of essentialism. The chapter begins by proposing an appropriative conception of the self based on Hegelian and (broadly) existentialist positions. It then addresses objections to its critique of essentialism or to the ostensible implications of an antiessentialist approach, arguing that antiessentialism denies both the unity of the self and its intractability. It also examines the intractable elements of personal identity and the idea of inwardness as the individual's internal refuge from the world. Finally, it discusses the issue of self-invention as opposed to self-discovery, along with the idea of the multiplicity and the hybrid character of identity.
