In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

231 9 S Analogy, Dialectic, and Divine Transcendence Between St. Thomas and Hegel By Way of Introduction Especially since around the time of Hegel, affirmations of divine transcendence have often been attacked in terms of a variety of philosophies of immanence. For such philosophies, immanence constitutes the ultimate horizon, not only for all life, but for philosophy itself, and beyond which nothing further is to be thought. Often the idea of transcendence they attack is defined in very dualistic terms: immanence is pitted versus transcendence , time versus eternity, the “here-and-now” versus the “hereafter ,” and so on. One might question whether such dualistic conceptions, sometimes imputed to the entire Western tradition of metaphysics (“Platonism ”) and theology (Christianity as “Platonism for the people”), are true to more nuanced understandings of immanence and transcendence. One might also ask if the notion of analogy has the promise of resources not genuinely granted by such philosophies of immanence in general. One might ask the same question of dialectic. It is true that Hegel’s dialectic is a foe of dualistic thought, but one can wonder about his philosophy of speculative dialectic lying on the same plane as these philosophies of immanence. I take Hegel to be exemplary of a form of modern dialectic, claiming to meet the challenge of every form of dualism, and indeed to culminate in an entirely immanent mode of thought. Though many postHegelians might attack Hegel’s philosophy of rational totality, they often share the same commitment to immanence and nothing but immanence. A consideration of speculative dialectic vis-à-vis divine transcendence will have significance beyond Hegel for our contemporary philosophical options, as well as our theological or atheological predilections. The notions of analogy and dialectic are almost coextensive with the entire tradition of philosophy from its inception in Greek thought. 232  Metaphysics beyond Dialectic Among other things, both have to do with the nature of intelligible discourse and indeed the intelligibility of being itself and our mindfulness of it. Dialectic is associated with the diverse practices of philosophy, be they Socratic-Platonic or Hegelian, to just cite only these two instances. Analogy is often associated with the senses of being in classical metaphysics, as well as how we might intelligibly speak about the divine. I want to look at how each might guide us in thinking of difference, particularly with respect to the otherness of the divine. I will look at analogy in St. Thomas as entailing a balance of identity and difference, continuity and discontinuity , with a tilt toward hyperbolic difference in the case of the divine, a difference that always borders on a kind of equivocity that we cannot entirely mediate, though this does not preclude that the divine might mediate it or be mediated in it. By contrast, I will look at Hegel’s speculative dialectic as trying to mediate that equivocity, and in a manner that relativizes the divine difference in terms of a more encompassing immanent whole. My exploration will be thematic rather than historical: looking at the univocal, equivocal, and dialectical senses of being and being divine, I will offer, at least toward the end, a suggestion or two about what I call a metaxological rendition of analogy that keeps open the space of transcendence , even while it does not close off the promise of communication between immanence and transcendence. The (metaxological) reconsideration of analogy need not be only a retrospective glance at a supposedly exhausted tradition, but may harbor promise for a renewed thinking of the thought of divine difference, after Hegel himself and after the deconstruction of Hegelian totality. I acknowledge I am not an “expert” on Aquinas, but he is one of those thinkers for me whom I would call companioning. Such a thinker one does not necessarily make into an object of scholarly research, but yet he forms a presence as a companion. As with some companions, sometimes one does not pay attention for ages, and then one is engaged again. Yet some relation can abide even in the gaps of silence. This is the way with companions on the way.1 Reading Aquinas, one can have the feeling of 1. A version of these reflections was given as the Aquinas Lecture at the University of Dallas , January 28, 2010. One can be called back, sometimes in surprise, to this companioning relation by invitations to give such a lecture! That call or invitation completes a triad, the other two invitations yielding: “Is There a Sabbath for Thought: Reflections...

Share