In this Book

summary
We are exorbitant, and rightly so, when we cut any link we may have to cosmological powers. Levinas invites us to be exorbitant by distancing ourselves from visions of metaphysics, epistemology, and theology. We begin to listen well to Levinas when we hear him inviting us to break completely with the pagan world in which the gods are simply the highest beings in the cosmos and learn to practice an adult religion in which God is outside cosmology and ontology. God comes to mind neither in our attempts to think him as the creator of the cosmos nor in moments of ecstasy but in acts of genuine holiness, such as sharing a piece of bread with someone in a time of desperate need. Levinas, in short, enjoins us to be exorbitant in our dealings with one another. This book asks how the betweenof Levinas's thinking facilitates a dialogue between Jews and Christians. In one sense, Levinas stands exactly between Jews and Christians: ethics, as he conceives it, is a space in which religious traditions can meet. At the same time, his position seems profoundly ambivalent. No one can read a page of his writings without hearing a Jewish voice as well a a philosophical one. Yet his talk of substitution seems to resonate with Christological themes. On occasion, Levinas himself sharply distinguishes Judaism from Christianity--but to what extent can his thinking become the basis for a dialogue between Christians and Jews? This book, with a stellar cast of contributors, explores these questions, thereby providing a snapshot of the current state of Jewish-Christian dialogue.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Title Page, Copyright Page
  2. pp. i-viii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. pp. ix-x
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. xi-xiv
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Introduction
  2. pp. 1-16
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Levinas Between German Metaphysics and Christian Theology
  2. pp. 17-31
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. The Disincarnation of the Word
  2. pp. 32-51
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Secrecy, Modesty, and the Feminine Kabbalistic Traces in the Thought of Levinas
  2. pp. 52-73
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Against Theology, or ‘‘The Devotion of a Theology Without Theodicy’’
  2. pp. 74-89
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Is the Other My Neighbor?
  2. pp. 90-107
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. ‘‘Love Strong as Death’’
  2. pp. 108-129
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. On Levinas’s Gifts to Christian Theology
  2. pp. 130-149
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. The Prevenience and Phenomenality of Grace; or, The Anteriority of the Posterior
  2. pp. 150-170
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Profligacy, Parsimony, and the Ethics of Expenditure in the Philosophy of Levinas
  2. pp. 171-187
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Excess and Desire
  2. pp. 188-200
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. The Care of the Other and Substitution
  2. pp. 201-210
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Should Jews and Christians Fear the Gifts of the Greeks?
  2. pp. 211-215
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Thinking about God and God-Talk with Levinas
  2. pp. 216-229
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Words of Peace and Truth
  2. pp. 230-242
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Notes
  2. pp. 243-300
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contributors
  2. pp. 301-306
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 307-308
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Perspectives in Continental Philosophy Series
  2. pp. 309-312
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.