Postmodern Apologetics?:Arguments for God in Contemporary Philosophy
Arguments for God in Contemporary Philosophy
Publication Year: 2012
Published by: Fordham University Press
Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
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pp. i-vii
Contents
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pp. ix-x
Abbreviations
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pp. xii-xvi
Preface
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pp. xvii-xxiii
Postmodern Apologetics? Both of these words tend to be loaded and, at times, hotly contested. Both have negative connotations, at least in some circles. And, in fact, they seem diametrically opposed to each other. Is not apologetics a militant defense of traditional Christianity, associated with forced baptisms, mass conversions, and screaming demagogues? ...
Acknowledgments
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pp. xxv-xxvi
This book would not have been possible without the assistance of many people. Most obviously, it has profited from the rich thought of the thinkers discussed and, in the case of Westphal, Caputo, Kearney, and Marion, also from generous more direct engagement and encouragement. I thank my colleagues in the philosophy department at the University of Scranton for their support, and especially Tim Casey for reading the Heidegger...
Introduction: The “Death of God” and the Demise of Natural Theology
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pp. 1-16
As pointed out in the preface, both “postmodern” and “apologetics” are somewhat contentious terms that can mean a whole host of things. This introduction outlines the history of apologetics in the Christian tradition in a very broad and general fashion. It concludes with a very brief introduction to postmodernism and the possibility of something like a “postmodern apologetic.”
PART I - Preparations
1. Martin Heidegger and Onto-theo-logy
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pp. 19-38
There has been much speculation about the religious influences on Heidegger’s thought and on the religious potential of his work. Several theologians, such as Rudolf Bultmann, Karl Rahner, and Paul Tillich, were inspired by his philosophy and used it extensively in their own writings. Janicaud himself makes Heidegger to some extent responsible for the religious turn, while drawing on other aspects of Heidegger’s thought for his...
2. Emmanuel Lévinas and the Infinite
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pp. 39-58
Lévinas was one of the first thinkers to introduce phenomenology into France. Originally Lithuanian Jewish, he emigrated to France as a young student. He was educated in Straßburg and spent a formative year (1928– 29) with Husserl and Heidegger in Freiburg. Husserl had retired but was still teaching, and Heidegger had just published Being and Time. Students flocked to his lectures. Lévinas talks about this experience in Ethics and Infinity...
3. Jacques Derrida and “Religion Without Religion”
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pp. 59-82
Jacques Derrida’s writings are extensive and few of them have any direct bearing on the subject of religion. Yet, especially since the publication of Kevin Hart’s The Trespass of the Sign,1 Hent de Vries’s Philosophy and the Turn to Religion,2 and John D. Caputo’s The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida,3 as well as Derrida’s repeated participation in the popular Religion and Postmodernism conferences at Villanova University...
PART II - Expositions
4. Paul Ricoeur: A God of Poetryand Superabundance
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pp. 85-104
Ricoeur was one of the most prolific French philosophers in his long life, authoring over thirty books on a great variety of topics. He was born in 1913 and died in Paris in 2005, having taught for many years in Straßburg, Paris, and Chicago. Ricoeur is known primarily as a hermeneutic thinker, although his hermeneutic work always also refers to and assumes phenomenology and interacts with various other philosophical approaches. ...
5. Jean- Luc Marion: A God of Gift and Charity
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pp. 105-124
Jean-Luc Marion (born in 1946) is emerging as an important contemporary French philosopher. Deeply influenced by the philosophies of Husserl, Heidegger, and Lévinas, he has formulated a radical phenomenological project that focuses on the questions of God, religious experience, and the relation between self and other (in terms of a new version of the self and in terms of love). Marion studied at the École Normale Superieur and the...
6. Michel Henry: A God of Truth and Life
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pp. 125-142
Michel Henry (1922– 2002) was one of the early phenomenologists working in France, more or less contemporaneous with Emmanuel Lévinas and Paul Ricoeur. He is most well-known for developing a “material” phenomenology, or, as he later called it, a “phenomenology of the flesh.” Many of his early writings are heavily influenced by the philosophy of Karl Marx. Only his more recent (and final) writings are more explicitly religious.1 ...
7. Jean- Louis Chrétien: A God of Speech and Beauty
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pp. 143-162
Jean-Louis Chrétien’s writings are a powerful example of the character of what I have called a new type of apologetics. In no way does he ever engage in anything like proofs for God’s existence, evidence for the validity of religious experience, or any consideration of the rational coherence of an idea of the divine. And yet his work is imbued and overflows with Christian imagery and references to Christian sources. Even when he is not addressing explicitly religious themes, his poetic language has the flavor...
8. Jean-Yves Lacoste: A God of Liturgy and Parousia
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pp. 163-183
Jean- Yves Lacoste is a French philosopher and theologian, currently affiliated with the University of Cambridge in England. He is chief editor of the Critical Dictionary of Theology (2004). Lacoste is strongly influenced by Heidegger, although at times also quite critical of him. His phenomenological interest is focused on liturgy and beauty, although his style of presentation is rather different from that of Chrétien who writes on some...
9. Emmanuel Falque: A God of Suffering and Resurrection
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pp. 184-208
Emmanuel Falque (born in 1963), along with Jean-Louis Chrétien, belongs to the next generation of French thinkers. He was a student of Jean-Luc Marion and Jean Greisch and is presently dean of the faculty of philosophy at the Institut catholique in Paris. He has degrees in both philosophy and theology and merges the two disciplines far more fully than any of the other thinkers, occasionally even challenging the boundaries...
10. Postmodern Apologetics?
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pp. 209-219
Each of the chapters in this part of the book has identified apologetic elements in the work of the thinkers discussed. Before examining some of their appropriations in the North American context in more detail, it might be worthwhile to consider this apologetic or quasi-apologetic character more fully. Are these projects apologetic ones? Do they “defend” the divine and argue on behalf of faith? Certainly their arguments for God...
PART III - Appropriations
11. Merold Westphal: Postmodern Faith
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pp. 223-241
Merold Westphal, recently retired as Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University, is one of the most significant figures to have appropriated French thought about the divine and religious experience for an American audience, focusing especially on the dimensions of faith. Most of his works circle around the coherence and viability of Christian faith, seeking to show that postmodernity and faith are not as incompatible...
12. John Caputo: Postmodern Hope
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pp. 242-264
John D. Caputo, recently retired as Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Humanities at Syracuse University and David R. Cook Professor Emeritus of philosophy at Villanova University where he taught for many years, is most well-known for his friendship with Derrida and for highlighting the religious dimension of Derrida’s thought. Caputo’s work is perhaps best understood as a form of postmodern hope...
13. Richard Kearney: Postmodern Charity
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pp. 265-286
Richard Kearney currently holds the Charles B. Seelig Chair in philosophy at Boston College and is visiting professor at University College Dublin. Originally from Ireland, Kearney worked closely with Ricoeur, Lévinas, and Derrida in France (he received his doctorate there under Ricoeur’s direction) and has taught in the United States for several de cades. Over the years, he has labored vigorously to establish communication and...
Conclusion
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pp. 287-293
This book has suggested that several contemporary French thinkers (namely those examined in Part II of this text) sustain a quasi-apologetic argument in their respective works. I have also argued in Part I that Heidegger, Lévinas, and Derrida are not religiously motivated and do not have such an apologetic project, but that their philosophies provide the context for, and to some extent enable, these more explicitly religious projects. ...
Notes
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pp. 295-326
For Further Reading
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pp. 327-339
Index
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pp. 341-352
Perspectives in Continental Philosophy
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pp. 353-356
E-ISBN-13: 9780823246298
Print-ISBN-13: 9780823242740
Print-ISBN-10: 0823242749
Page Count: 384
Publication Year: 2012
Series Title: Perspectives in Continental Philosophy (FUP)
