Effing the Ineffable: Existential Mumblings at the Limits of Language by Wesley J. Wildman (review)

Upon first glance, readers might not think there is much new to be found in the most recent book from Wesley Wildman. After all, seven of the nine chapters contained between its covers began as essays previously published. However, this volume is also the sixth of six in his Religious Philosophy series (though not the last to appear), so clearly the author is making something of its contents. Indeed, there is much that is worthwhile to be found within. Taken together with the new material, this collection of essays immediately reveals the depths of Wildman's pragmatic commitments. The chapters do not build upon one another like links in a chain or floors in a building from the foundation to the executive suites. Rather, in a fashion that would make the classical pragmatists proud, each chapter adds a thread to one comprehensive argument in favor of his multidisciplinary and comparative approach to philosophical theology, with each thread strengthening support for his nontheistic apophatic position on ultimate reality, the titular effable that cannot be effed. However, more striking than a clear and accessible explication of his own position, what I consider the defining feature of this book is Wildman's sensitivity toward those with whom he disagrees, with some of those disagreements being quite strong. If I dare say it—he is ordained after all—in Effing the Ineffable we are given Wildman in a pastoral mode.

Those familiar with Wildman's sermons periodically delivered at Marsh Chapel as part of his position at Boston University will not be surprised by this tone of the book—critical but not callous, precise but not pretentious. I will even go so far as to claim that this book seems to be written first and foremost for friends and acquaintances, people who are in fact familiar with those sermons. After all, he devoted this work to former colleagues. There are numerous anecdotes within that are recognizable and humorous, but only for readers with a certain level of personal familiarity with the author. Others may be left wondering why analogies are made between developing novel theological positions and mixing alcoholic drinks, with Wildman just preferring water. While many strong criticisms of traditional supernatural and modified process forms of theism are contained within, the entire work also comes across as an expression of his simultaneous love of and concern for the world's religious traditions where such beliefs are more common. I am belaboring this point because I think it highlights one of the main reasons Effing the Ineffable deserves attention. Wildman appreciates and cares for those religious people who disagree with him, and he takes their positions seriously while hoping they will give his apophatic naturalism another hearing—because he thinks vitally important intellectual and societal matters are at stake. He does not have an axe to grind, he is just concerned that religious people lead flourishing lives guided by good theology. That being said, I am not claiming that only those who have met Wildman should purchase this book.

Wildman makes accessible complex ideas coming out of some of the best modern theology, the main players in each chapter typically being his naturalistic ground-of-being theology in dialogue with process and more traditional forms of personal theism. Along the way, he makes relevant points of comparison with non-Western traditions, including naturalistic alternatives to Wildman's view that can be found in some forms of Buddhism—multidisciplinary comparative inquiry at work. Each chapter is meant to uncover strengths and weaknesses in each different attempt at effing the ineffable, at naming and describing ultimate reality through nonultimate means. I will let Wildman encapsulate the thrust of the project in his own words: "Moving beyond anthropomorphic models of ultimate reality refers to a comprehensive coordination of the Great Models in some wider intellectual scheme. This calls for a mystical theology that relativizes and relates models while explaining the...