Brian Treanor
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823226849
- eISBN:
- 9780823235100
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823226849.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
“Every other is truly other, but no other is wholly other”. This is the claim that this book defends. Taking up the question of otherness that so fascinates contemporary continental ...
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“Every other is truly other, but no other is wholly other”. This is the claim that this book defends. Taking up the question of otherness that so fascinates contemporary continental philosophy, this book asks what it means for something or someone to be other than the self. Emmanuel Levinas and those influenced by him point out that the philosophical tradition of the West has generally favored the self at the expense of the other. In response, postmodern thought insists on the absolute otherness of the other, epitomized by the deconstructive claim “every other is wholly other”. But absolute otherness generates problems and aporias of its own. This has led some thinkers to reevaluate the notion of relative otherness in light of the postmodern critique, arguing for a chiastic account that does justice to both the alterity and the similitude of the other. These latter two positions—absolute otherness and a rehabilitated account of relative otherness—are the main contenders in the contemporary debate. This book traces the transmission and development of these two conceptions of otherness by examining the philosophies of Emmanuel Levinas and Gabriel Marcel. Levinas's version of otherness can be seen in the work of Jacques Derrida and John D. Caputo, while Marcel's understanding of otherness influences the work of Paul Ricoeur and Richard Kearney. Ultimately, this book makes a case for a hermeneutic account of otherness. Otherness itself is not absolute, but is a chiasm of alterity and similitude.Less
“Every other is truly other, but no other is wholly other”. This is the claim that this book defends. Taking up the question of otherness that so fascinates contemporary continental philosophy, this book asks what it means for something or someone to be other than the self. Emmanuel Levinas and those influenced by him point out that the philosophical tradition of the West has generally favored the self at the expense of the other. In response, postmodern thought insists on the absolute otherness of the other, epitomized by the deconstructive claim “every other is wholly other”. But absolute otherness generates problems and aporias of its own. This has led some thinkers to reevaluate the notion of relative otherness in light of the postmodern critique, arguing for a chiastic account that does justice to both the alterity and the similitude of the other. These latter two positions—absolute otherness and a rehabilitated account of relative otherness—are the main contenders in the contemporary debate. This book traces the transmission and development of these two conceptions of otherness by examining the philosophies of Emmanuel Levinas and Gabriel Marcel. Levinas's version of otherness can be seen in the work of Jacques Derrida and John D. Caputo, while Marcel's understanding of otherness influences the work of Paul Ricoeur and Richard Kearney. Ultimately, this book makes a case for a hermeneutic account of otherness. Otherness itself is not absolute, but is a chiasm of alterity and similitude.
Tina Beattie
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199566075
- eISBN:
- 9780191747359
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199566075.003.0018
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter explores the influence of postmodernism on theology, focusing on a debate published in the journal Modern Theology between Richard Kearney, John Caputo, and John P. Manoussakis on the ...
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This chapter explores the influence of postmodernism on theology, focusing on a debate published in the journal Modern Theology between Richard Kearney, John Caputo, and John P. Manoussakis on the question of Exodus 3 and Thomas Aquinas’s alleged onto-theology. It shows how hostility towards the maternal khora pervades the work of such theologians, and argues that their deconstructive enterprise subtly reinstates the God of patriarchal tradition. Citing Slavoj Žižek’s critique of Derridean and Levinasian influences on postmodern theology, it proposes that the Lacanian imaginary provides a more effective way of expressing the divine mystery than Derrida’s idea of difference. Rejecting any processual account of the coming to be of God, it insists with Lacan that only a God whose fullness of being is beyond all desire and need is capable of serving as the source and telos of human desire, without violence.Less
This chapter explores the influence of postmodernism on theology, focusing on a debate published in the journal Modern Theology between Richard Kearney, John Caputo, and John P. Manoussakis on the question of Exodus 3 and Thomas Aquinas’s alleged onto-theology. It shows how hostility towards the maternal khora pervades the work of such theologians, and argues that their deconstructive enterprise subtly reinstates the God of patriarchal tradition. Citing Slavoj Žižek’s critique of Derridean and Levinasian influences on postmodern theology, it proposes that the Lacanian imaginary provides a more effective way of expressing the divine mystery than Derrida’s idea of difference. Rejecting any processual account of the coming to be of God, it insists with Lacan that only a God whose fullness of being is beyond all desire and need is capable of serving as the source and telos of human desire, without violence.
William Desmond
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225316
- eISBN:
- 9780823236893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225316.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter notes a few systematic considerations that arise in Kearney's discourse. It remarks on three points: how the question of God comes up; the question of the ...
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This chapter notes a few systematic considerations that arise in Kearney's discourse. It remarks on three points: how the question of God comes up; the question of the nature of possibility with reference to God; the erotics of God, and agapeic possibilizing power. The discussion distinguishes six different senses of possibility or creative possibilizing: possibility with respect to origin; possibility with respect to creation; possibility with respect to coming to be, what creation effects; possibility with respect to becoming; a further sense of possibilizing might be connected to selfbecoming; and finally, a sense of the possible emergent beyond self-becoming in which the other possibilizes a freedom released beyond powers of self-determination. The chapter ends with some remarks on the erotics of Kearney's God. This is related intimately to the theme of the possible, and the theme of the “lover” and the “theorist”.Less
This chapter notes a few systematic considerations that arise in Kearney's discourse. It remarks on three points: how the question of God comes up; the question of the nature of possibility with reference to God; the erotics of God, and agapeic possibilizing power. The discussion distinguishes six different senses of possibility or creative possibilizing: possibility with respect to origin; possibility with respect to creation; possibility with respect to coming to be, what creation effects; possibility with respect to becoming; a further sense of possibilizing might be connected to selfbecoming; and finally, a sense of the possible emergent beyond self-becoming in which the other possibilizes a freedom released beyond powers of self-determination. The chapter ends with some remarks on the erotics of Kearney's God. This is related intimately to the theme of the possible, and the theme of the “lover” and the “theorist”.
John Panteleimon Manoussakis
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225316
- eISBN:
- 9780823236893
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225316.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Who or what comes after God? In the wake of God, as the last fifty years of philosophy has shown, God comes back again, otherwise: Heidegger's last God, Levinas's God of Infinity, ...
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Who or what comes after God? In the wake of God, as the last fifty years of philosophy has shown, God comes back again, otherwise: Heidegger's last God, Levinas's God of Infinity, Derrida's and Caputo's tout autre, Marion's God without Being, and Kearney's God who may be. This book attempts to represent some of the most considered responses to Richard Kearney's recent writings on the philosophy of religion, in particular The God Who May Be: A Hermeneutics of Religion and Strangers, Gods, and Monsters: Interpreting Otherness. It brings together seventeen essays that share the common problematic of the otherness of the Other — seventeen different variations on the same theme: philosophy about God after God — that is to say, a way of thinking God otherwise than ontologically.Less
Who or what comes after God? In the wake of God, as the last fifty years of philosophy has shown, God comes back again, otherwise: Heidegger's last God, Levinas's God of Infinity, Derrida's and Caputo's tout autre, Marion's God without Being, and Kearney's God who may be. This book attempts to represent some of the most considered responses to Richard Kearney's recent writings on the philosophy of religion, in particular The God Who May Be: A Hermeneutics of Religion and Strangers, Gods, and Monsters: Interpreting Otherness. It brings together seventeen essays that share the common problematic of the otherness of the Other — seventeen different variations on the same theme: philosophy about God after God — that is to say, a way of thinking God otherwise than ontologically.
John D. Caputo
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225316
- eISBN:
- 9780823236893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225316.003.0021
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter discusses the enthusiasm of Richard Kearney. It notes that Richard Kearney is a genuine “enthusiast,” in the genuine sense of the word. His writings are ...
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This chapter discusses the enthusiasm of Richard Kearney. It notes that Richard Kearney is a genuine “enthusiast,” in the genuine sense of the word. His writings are contagiously enthusiastic, charged and exciting, moving and inciting, full of prayers and tears. But Kearney is an enthusiast in the ancient and literal sense of entheos, a man filled with God, driven by a passion for God, and that is the Kearney that is presented here. For Kearney, God is the possibility of all possibilities, the possibility beyond all possibilities. The discussion first sketches the possibility of Kearney's God of possibility, of God as the posse beyond esse. Then it adds a second word about Kearney's enthusiasm, aimed at complicating it, bedeviling it, making it all the more ambiguous and aporetic. It concludes with a description of the khora — the devil that justice demands people give his due.Less
This chapter discusses the enthusiasm of Richard Kearney. It notes that Richard Kearney is a genuine “enthusiast,” in the genuine sense of the word. His writings are contagiously enthusiastic, charged and exciting, moving and inciting, full of prayers and tears. But Kearney is an enthusiast in the ancient and literal sense of entheos, a man filled with God, driven by a passion for God, and that is the Kearney that is presented here. For Kearney, God is the possibility of all possibilities, the possibility beyond all possibilities. The discussion first sketches the possibility of Kearney's God of possibility, of God as the posse beyond esse. Then it adds a second word about Kearney's enthusiasm, aimed at complicating it, bedeviling it, making it all the more ambiguous and aporetic. It concludes with a description of the khora — the devil that justice demands people give his due.
David Tracy and Christian Sheppard
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225316
- eISBN:
- 9780823236893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225316.003.0023
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter presents David Tracy's views on the possibility of God when he was interviewed by Christian Sheppard. The exchange focuses on Tracy's new book The God Who ...
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This chapter presents David Tracy's views on the possibility of God when he was interviewed by Christian Sheppard. The exchange focuses on Tracy's new book The God Who May Be: A Hermeneutics of Religion. The discussion reflects on Tracy's views of Kearney and of the present debate on the category of the Impossible for speaking of God. Tracy notes that there are two predecessors of this debate: Angelus Silesius and Kierkegaard writing under the pseudonym Johannes de Silentio, and that it is Derrida who has most fruitfully reread for people the crucial fragments from their texts. The chapter concludes by stating the difference between Tracy's God and the God who May Be.Less
This chapter presents David Tracy's views on the possibility of God when he was interviewed by Christian Sheppard. The exchange focuses on Tracy's new book The God Who May Be: A Hermeneutics of Religion. The discussion reflects on Tracy's views of Kearney and of the present debate on the category of the Impossible for speaking of God. Tracy notes that there are two predecessors of this debate: Angelus Silesius and Kierkegaard writing under the pseudonym Johannes de Silentio, and that it is Derrida who has most fruitfully reread for people the crucial fragments from their texts. The chapter concludes by stating the difference between Tracy's God and the God who May Be.
Sallie Mcfague
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225316
- eISBN:
- 9780823236893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225316.003.0025
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter looks at Kearney's hermeneutics of religion, reflecting on the concept of God. It claims that Kearney's hermeneutics of religion might be called a covenantal ...
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This chapter looks at Kearney's hermeneutics of religion, reflecting on the concept of God. It claims that Kearney's hermeneutics of religion might be called a covenantal process view without the metaphysics or, perhaps more accurately, with only intimations of metaphysics. The ontological claim is — God is coming, will come, can come — but only if people help God come, only if they do their part by witnessing love and justice in the world. His God is not beyond being, but emptied into being, on the side of being. By “being” he includes the least of beings to whom we owe justice and love. The incarnate God appears to need people in order to become fully embodied. Finally, the discussion reflects that Kearney's brand of deconstructive theology is deeply satisfying as a Christian.Less
This chapter looks at Kearney's hermeneutics of religion, reflecting on the concept of God. It claims that Kearney's hermeneutics of religion might be called a covenantal process view without the metaphysics or, perhaps more accurately, with only intimations of metaphysics. The ontological claim is — God is coming, will come, can come — but only if people help God come, only if they do their part by witnessing love and justice in the world. His God is not beyond being, but emptied into being, on the side of being. By “being” he includes the least of beings to whom we owe justice and love. The incarnate God appears to need people in order to become fully embodied. Finally, the discussion reflects that Kearney's brand of deconstructive theology is deeply satisfying as a Christian.
Patrick Burke
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225316
- eISBN:
- 9780823236893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225316.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter argues that Kearney makes a wager in The God Who May Be. He holds that the God of the possible, posse, is much closer to the God of desire and promise ...
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This chapter argues that Kearney makes a wager in The God Who May Be. He holds that the God of the possible, posse, is much closer to the God of desire and promise than scholasticism's old metaphysical God of pure act, esse. The wager takes more specific forms, namely that it is wiser to interpret divinity as a possibility-to-be than as either pure being in the manner of ontotheology or as a pure non-being in the manner of negative theology; and that it is wiser to take “the mediating course of narrative imagination” between two polar opposites in contemporary thinking about God, that of Levinas, Marion, and at times even Derrida, and that of Campbell, Zizek, Lyotard, Kristeva, and Caputo. The chapter concludes that of all the twentieth-century notions of the possible analyzed by Kearney, Derrida clearly comes the closest to stating what Kearney is after.Less
This chapter argues that Kearney makes a wager in The God Who May Be. He holds that the God of the possible, posse, is much closer to the God of desire and promise than scholasticism's old metaphysical God of pure act, esse. The wager takes more specific forms, namely that it is wiser to interpret divinity as a possibility-to-be than as either pure being in the manner of ontotheology or as a pure non-being in the manner of negative theology; and that it is wiser to take “the mediating course of narrative imagination” between two polar opposites in contemporary thinking about God, that of Levinas, Marion, and at times even Derrida, and that of Campbell, Zizek, Lyotard, Kristeva, and Caputo. The chapter concludes that of all the twentieth-century notions of the possible analyzed by Kearney, Derrida clearly comes the closest to stating what Kearney is after.
James Olthuis
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225316
- eISBN:
- 9780823236893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225316.003.0016
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter discusses Kearney's search for the middle way. In his efforts at negotiating and reconnoitering a third way, Kearney has written a trilogy, Philosophy ...
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This chapter discusses Kearney's search for the middle way. In his efforts at negotiating and reconnoitering a third way, Kearney has written a trilogy, Philosophy at the Limit, developing in Ricoeurian fashion a hermeneutics of critical discernment and narrative imagination dealing with limit situations of death, deity, sublimity, trauma, and terror. The discussion begins with Kearney's basic wager that God as May Be is much closer than the old deity of metaphysics and scholasticism to the God of desire and promise of the scriptural narratives. The chapter suggests that his Ricouerian strategy of narrative imagination needs not so much supplementation as a radicalization in accord with its own internal dynamic. Kearney's Ricoeurian theme is evident at the end of the third book, where he summarizes his project: that people are beings at the limit, and that people are beings who narrate.Less
This chapter discusses Kearney's search for the middle way. In his efforts at negotiating and reconnoitering a third way, Kearney has written a trilogy, Philosophy at the Limit, developing in Ricoeurian fashion a hermeneutics of critical discernment and narrative imagination dealing with limit situations of death, deity, sublimity, trauma, and terror. The discussion begins with Kearney's basic wager that God as May Be is much closer than the old deity of metaphysics and scholasticism to the God of desire and promise of the scriptural narratives. The chapter suggests that his Ricouerian strategy of narrative imagination needs not so much supplementation as a radicalization in accord with its own internal dynamic. Kearney's Ricoeurian theme is evident at the end of the third book, where he summarizes his project: that people are beings at the limit, and that people are beings who narrate.
Craig Nichols
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225316
- eISBN:
- 9780823236893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225316.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter explores what might be called the incarnate historicity of the phenomena of the life, death, and potential rebirth of the “same” God of the Western ...
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This chapter explores what might be called the incarnate historicity of the phenomena of the life, death, and potential rebirth of the “same” God of the Western ontotheological tradition. It holds that for the multivalent advent concepts, or in metaphysical parlance, parousia concepts, of the Western tradition are the indispensable conditions of a present return to the God-who-may-be through the God-who-was. The discussion looks into the eschatological theogonies of the God-who-was and the God-who-may-Be. By recasting Kearney's project in the terms of a Hegel–Heidegger, or system-deconstruction, tension, and by defining this ambiguous middle place as an eschatological theogony, it attempts to clarify the tension necessarily remaining in Kearney's own “onto-eschatological” discourse. It also suggests that Kearney's discourse must necessarily lean more closely to the romantic side he insists that if the God-who-may-be turns out to be a monster when expectation turns to realization, or possibility to actuality.Less
This chapter explores what might be called the incarnate historicity of the phenomena of the life, death, and potential rebirth of the “same” God of the Western ontotheological tradition. It holds that for the multivalent advent concepts, or in metaphysical parlance, parousia concepts, of the Western tradition are the indispensable conditions of a present return to the God-who-may-be through the God-who-was. The discussion looks into the eschatological theogonies of the God-who-was and the God-who-may-Be. By recasting Kearney's project in the terms of a Hegel–Heidegger, or system-deconstruction, tension, and by defining this ambiguous middle place as an eschatological theogony, it attempts to clarify the tension necessarily remaining in Kearney's own “onto-eschatological” discourse. It also suggests that Kearney's discourse must necessarily lean more closely to the romantic side he insists that if the God-who-may-be turns out to be a monster when expectation turns to realization, or possibility to actuality.
Kevin Hart
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225316
- eISBN:
- 9780823236893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225316.003.0014
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter discusses mystic maybes, looking closely at the works of Matthew Arnold and Richard Kearney. Matthew Arnold objected to the idea of flirting with mystic ...
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This chapter discusses mystic maybes, looking closely at the works of Matthew Arnold and Richard Kearney. Matthew Arnold objected to the idea of flirting with mystic maybes and calling it religion. The discussion suggests that Arnold and Kearney share a common purpose: dissociating metaphysics and the Bible. In Literature and Dogma, Arnold shows that the right construction on the Bible involves a real experimental basis. In so doing, he thinks, people distance themselves from metaphysics. He follows that people do not have to base their faith on an unverifiable assumption to start with, followed by a string of other unverifiable assumptions of the like kind, such as the received theology necessitates. Over a century later, and responding to different pressures, Kearney proposes to explore and evaluate two rival ways of interpreting the divine — the eschatological and the ontotheological.Less
This chapter discusses mystic maybes, looking closely at the works of Matthew Arnold and Richard Kearney. Matthew Arnold objected to the idea of flirting with mystic maybes and calling it religion. The discussion suggests that Arnold and Kearney share a common purpose: dissociating metaphysics and the Bible. In Literature and Dogma, Arnold shows that the right construction on the Bible involves a real experimental basis. In so doing, he thinks, people distance themselves from metaphysics. He follows that people do not have to base their faith on an unverifiable assumption to start with, followed by a string of other unverifiable assumptions of the like kind, such as the received theology necessitates. Over a century later, and responding to different pressures, Kearney proposes to explore and evaluate two rival ways of interpreting the divine — the eschatological and the ontotheological.
Jean Greisch
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225316
- eISBN:
- 9780823236893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225316.003.0015
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter examines the works of Richard Kearney, focusing on his The God Who May Be. This volume presents an attempt at a new itinerarium mentis in Deum, which ...
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This chapter examines the works of Richard Kearney, focusing on his The God Who May Be. This volume presents an attempt at a new itinerarium mentis in Deum, which Kearney claims to be both phenomenological and hermeneutical. An important point is Kearney's definition of the eschatological, which privileges a God who possibilizes the world from out of the future. In the introduction of the book, Kearney claims to develop a new hermeneutics of religion. The discussion notes three methodological pseudonyms of his philosophy of posse, in order to qualify his hermeneutics: dynamatology, metaxology, and metaphorology. At the end of The God Who May Be, which intends to open up a phenomenological and hermeneutical debate concerning theological issues of contemporary phenomenology, it reflects how we are to understand Kearney's paradoxical statement that “the phenomenon of the persona surpasses phenomenology altogether”.Less
This chapter examines the works of Richard Kearney, focusing on his The God Who May Be. This volume presents an attempt at a new itinerarium mentis in Deum, which Kearney claims to be both phenomenological and hermeneutical. An important point is Kearney's definition of the eschatological, which privileges a God who possibilizes the world from out of the future. In the introduction of the book, Kearney claims to develop a new hermeneutics of religion. The discussion notes three methodological pseudonyms of his philosophy of posse, in order to qualify his hermeneutics: dynamatology, metaxology, and metaphorology. At the end of The God Who May Be, which intends to open up a phenomenological and hermeneutical debate concerning theological issues of contemporary phenomenology, it reflects how we are to understand Kearney's paradoxical statement that “the phenomenon of the persona surpasses phenomenology altogether”.
Catherine Keller
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225316
- eISBN:
- 9780823236893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225316.003.0024
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter discusses the registers in which Richard Kearney's philosophical theology appears at the forefront of theology. The possible God suggests a third space, a ...
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This chapter discusses the registers in which Richard Kearney's philosophical theology appears at the forefront of theology. The possible God suggests a third space, a certain kind of posse of theology itself. The discussion responds to his work mainly by way of his Villanova lecture, “Enabling God”. It asks, soliciting the metaphor that ends the lecture — how endless is Kearney's “morning that never ends”? In terms of genre of possible speech about God, Kearney explores what may be called a theopoetics. For this work he does not seek to define the proper style for God talk so much as perform it by example, as in the intensive citation of poetry of his literary circle. It holds that a theopoetics in genre disables divine omnipotence in dogma. In so doing, it enables Kearney's “enabling God,” as a God who enables the creatures in their own creativity.Less
This chapter discusses the registers in which Richard Kearney's philosophical theology appears at the forefront of theology. The possible God suggests a third space, a certain kind of posse of theology itself. The discussion responds to his work mainly by way of his Villanova lecture, “Enabling God”. It asks, soliciting the metaphor that ends the lecture — how endless is Kearney's “morning that never ends”? In terms of genre of possible speech about God, Kearney explores what may be called a theopoetics. For this work he does not seek to define the proper style for God talk so much as perform it by example, as in the intensive citation of poetry of his literary circle. It holds that a theopoetics in genre disables divine omnipotence in dogma. In so doing, it enables Kearney's “enabling God,” as a God who enables the creatures in their own creativity.
Felix Ó Murchadha
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225316
- eISBN:
- 9780823236893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225316.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter discusses divinity and alterity. Divinity and alterity have haunted phenomenology since its beginnings. The fourth reduction draws on these themes that ...
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This chapter discusses divinity and alterity. Divinity and alterity have haunted phenomenology since its beginnings. The fourth reduction draws on these themes that are already to be found in Kearney's Strangers, Gods, and Monsters. The discussion poses three questions of Strangers, Gods and Monsters. The first is methodological, concerning the place of philosophy in the project of the book. It suggests that Kearney's hermeneutics is committed to a concept of philosophy as practical, and that this colors his debate with Levinas and Derrida. The second question deals with the basis on which he criticizes these “prophets of absolute alterity.” The third question examines the account of Heidegger's last gods. The chapter argues that Kearney sees philosophy as having practical efficacy in the light of extraphilosophical commitments, commitments to some version of the Judeo–Christian god. This commitment is assumed rather than defended in his critique of Heidegger.Less
This chapter discusses divinity and alterity. Divinity and alterity have haunted phenomenology since its beginnings. The fourth reduction draws on these themes that are already to be found in Kearney's Strangers, Gods, and Monsters. The discussion poses three questions of Strangers, Gods and Monsters. The first is methodological, concerning the place of philosophy in the project of the book. It suggests that Kearney's hermeneutics is committed to a concept of philosophy as practical, and that this colors his debate with Levinas and Derrida. The second question deals with the basis on which he criticizes these “prophets of absolute alterity.” The third question examines the account of Heidegger's last gods. The chapter argues that Kearney sees philosophy as having practical efficacy in the light of extraphilosophical commitments, commitments to some version of the Judeo–Christian god. This commitment is assumed rather than defended in his critique of Heidegger.
Merold Westphal
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225316
- eISBN:
- 9780823236893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225316.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter proposes a new hermeneutics of religion which explores and evaluates two rival ways of interpreting the divine — the eschatological and the ...
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This chapter proposes a new hermeneutics of religion which explores and evaluates two rival ways of interpreting the divine — the eschatological and the ontotheological. This new hermeneutics revolves around the distinction between the eschatological and the ontotheological. With Kearney, it seeks to affirm the importance of the eschatological. It suggests that God talk should be at once future-oriented and metafuture-oriented. Such eschatologically oriented God talk should inform people about epistemology, ethics, spirituality, and metaphysics. The discussion then turns to Kearney's central thesis about actuality and possibility: “God neither is nor is not but may be”. It argues that “is” is associated with ontotheology; the “is not”, with negative theology rather than with atheism; and the “may be”, with the eschatological God talk he wishes to defend.Less
This chapter proposes a new hermeneutics of religion which explores and evaluates two rival ways of interpreting the divine — the eschatological and the ontotheological. This new hermeneutics revolves around the distinction between the eschatological and the ontotheological. With Kearney, it seeks to affirm the importance of the eschatological. It suggests that God talk should be at once future-oriented and metafuture-oriented. Such eschatologically oriented God talk should inform people about epistemology, ethics, spirituality, and metaphysics. The discussion then turns to Kearney's central thesis about actuality and possibility: “God neither is nor is not but may be”. It argues that “is” is associated with ontotheology; the “is not”, with negative theology rather than with atheism; and the “may be”, with the eschatological God talk he wishes to defend.
Cairns Craig
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748637133
- eISBN:
- 9780748653478
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748637133.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Scottish Studies
This chapter reports that in Strangers, Gods and Monsters (2003), Richard Kearney set out on an ambitious exploration and critique of the role of the ‘Other’ in Western thought, and especially as it ...
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This chapter reports that in Strangers, Gods and Monsters (2003), Richard Kearney set out on an ambitious exploration and critique of the role of the ‘Other’ in Western thought, and especially as it has developed in modern ‘Continental’ theory. It notes that though it is hardly crucial to the overall scope of his argument, England and Ireland are offered as antitheses which represent a defining instance of ‘othering’. It adds that England as ‘self’ and Ireland as ‘other’ was, in this interpretation, the foundation of all later forms of the colonial construction of the ‘other’ that stemmed from the impact of British imperialism.Less
This chapter reports that in Strangers, Gods and Monsters (2003), Richard Kearney set out on an ambitious exploration and critique of the role of the ‘Other’ in Western thought, and especially as it has developed in modern ‘Continental’ theory. It notes that though it is hardly crucial to the overall scope of his argument, England and Ireland are offered as antitheses which represent a defining instance of ‘othering’. It adds that England as ‘self’ and Ireland as ‘other’ was, in this interpretation, the foundation of all later forms of the colonial construction of the ‘other’ that stemmed from the impact of British imperialism.
Jeffrey Bloechl
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225316
- eISBN:
- 9780823236893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225316.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter examines Christianity and the question of possibility of God. It asks whether it is only a persistent idol that dies, or religion itself with the practice ...
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This chapter examines Christianity and the question of possibility of God. It asks whether it is only a persistent idol that dies, or religion itself with the practice of idolatry. It argues that the God kept comfortably in the margins of civil society is no longer evidently God. The end of the theologicopolitical will also have been the death of God himself. Much of contemporary philosophy of religion is drawn toward these debates, either affirming the glory of a God beyond every idol, or demanding a demonstration of the mercy and justice of a God opposed to every totality. Following all of Kearney's argument, the chapter claims that this will lead not only to the emergence of a new and better idea of God, but also to the discovery of greater intimacy with God.Less
This chapter examines Christianity and the question of possibility of God. It asks whether it is only a persistent idol that dies, or religion itself with the practice of idolatry. It argues that the God kept comfortably in the margins of civil society is no longer evidently God. The end of the theologicopolitical will also have been the death of God himself. Much of contemporary philosophy of religion is drawn toward these debates, either affirming the glory of a God beyond every idol, or demanding a demonstration of the mercy and justice of a God opposed to every totality. Following all of Kearney's argument, the chapter claims that this will lead not only to the emergence of a new and better idea of God, but also to the discovery of greater intimacy with God.
Jean-Luc Marion and Richard Kearney
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225316
- eISBN:
- 9780823236893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225316.003.0022
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter presents three conversations about the hermeneutics of Revelation. The first one is an exchange between Jean‐Luc Marion and Richard Kearney at Boston College, ...
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This chapter presents three conversations about the hermeneutics of Revelation. The first one is an exchange between Jean‐Luc Marion and Richard Kearney at Boston College, on October 2, 2001. The exchange is about the interpretation of Revelation, whether it requires a pure phenomenology of the pure event. It looks into four types of saturated phenomenon: the event, the idol, the flesh, and the other. The second conversation took place in Rome during the Feast of Epiphany in 2002, between Manoussakis and Marion. It is about the notion of God and the language that should be used to address the phenomenon of God. The third conversation took place in Dublin on January 11, 2003 between Marion and Kearney. It is about the desire of God, and the question of love.Less
This chapter presents three conversations about the hermeneutics of Revelation. The first one is an exchange between Jean‐Luc Marion and Richard Kearney at Boston College, on October 2, 2001. The exchange is about the interpretation of Revelation, whether it requires a pure phenomenology of the pure event. It looks into four types of saturated phenomenon: the event, the idol, the flesh, and the other. The second conversation took place in Rome during the Feast of Epiphany in 2002, between Manoussakis and Marion. It is about the notion of God and the language that should be used to address the phenomenon of God. The third conversation took place in Dublin on January 11, 2003 between Marion and Kearney. It is about the desire of God, and the question of love.
Stanislas Breton
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225316
- eISBN:
- 9780823236893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225316.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter examines the senses of the possible arising from Kearney's conception of the divine. In the first place, it suggests the lightness of taking wing or ...
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This chapter examines the senses of the possible arising from Kearney's conception of the divine. In the first place, it suggests the lightness of taking wing or exceeding the speed limit, so as to leave behind both the finished matters of the past and the actuality of the present. A second path of thought is suggested if one takes the possible in the adverbial form of the perhaps. This rules out the sense of the possible with which Kearney is not concerned such as in logic — the possible figures among the modalities, under two forms: “possibly the case” and “possibly not”. The discussion notes that the God of the possible, the God who may be, is not very distant from the God of the Cross. In both discourses, “God depends on us”, and it is one's responsibility that is engaged in the transfiguration of the world.Less
This chapter examines the senses of the possible arising from Kearney's conception of the divine. In the first place, it suggests the lightness of taking wing or exceeding the speed limit, so as to leave behind both the finished matters of the past and the actuality of the present. A second path of thought is suggested if one takes the possible in the adverbial form of the perhaps. This rules out the sense of the possible with which Kearney is not concerned such as in logic — the possible figures among the modalities, under two forms: “possibly the case” and “possibly not”. The discussion notes that the God of the possible, the God who may be, is not very distant from the God of the Cross. In both discourses, “God depends on us”, and it is one's responsibility that is engaged in the transfiguration of the world.
Richard Kearney and Mark Antonopoulos
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225316
- eISBN:
- 9780823236893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225316.003.0026
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter presents an Interview of Richard Kearney by Mark Manolopoulos regarding the debates of Kearney with other philosophers and his works in general. In discussing ...
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This chapter presents an Interview of Richard Kearney by Mark Manolopoulos regarding the debates of Kearney with other philosophers and his works in general. In discussing the theology of the gift, Kearney holds that what he is doing in The God Who May Be is not theology, but a hermeneutics of religion. The transfiguring God is the God who transfigures people as people transfigure God. God transfigures them through creation, through interventions in history, and for Kearney, divinity is transfiguring the everyday. For him, eschatology is a great kind of recollection, retrieval, or recapitulation of all special moments of love when the Kingdom comes. He also shares that the poeticizing God engages in a cocreation with people. God cannot create the Kingdom unless people create the space for the Kingdom to come. God created the world in six days and left the seventh day free for people to complete it.Less
This chapter presents an Interview of Richard Kearney by Mark Manolopoulos regarding the debates of Kearney with other philosophers and his works in general. In discussing the theology of the gift, Kearney holds that what he is doing in The God Who May Be is not theology, but a hermeneutics of religion. The transfiguring God is the God who transfigures people as people transfigure God. God transfigures them through creation, through interventions in history, and for Kearney, divinity is transfiguring the everyday. For him, eschatology is a great kind of recollection, retrieval, or recapitulation of all special moments of love when the Kingdom comes. He also shares that the poeticizing God engages in a cocreation with people. God cannot create the Kingdom unless people create the space for the Kingdom to come. God created the world in six days and left the seventh day free for people to complete it.
