A Philosophy of the Unsayable: Human Agency, Intellectual Traditions, and Responsible Knowledge

Index, About the Author

368 Abrams, M. H., 221 Absolute, 149–50, 225; demise of absolute foundations, 297; as idolatrous, 226 address: in adoration, 172–73; as impossible today, 158; language as, 244; as salute, as salvation, 173, 189; which we are, 177 adoration, 170–73, 177; as address, 172–73, 177; definition of, 197; as infinite openness, 170; as opening of body, 171; and reason, 195; as unsayable, 171 Adorno, Theodor, 111, 218, 326; and critique of conceptual idolatry, 219; and inverted theology, 233; and minimal theology, 242; and theology, 192 Agamben, Giorgio, 162, 272, 289, 332n.1, 350n.47 Akhenaton, Pharaoh, 255 allegoria amoris, 235 All-Nothing, 91, 98–99, 102, 134 Allogenes, 36, 37, 146 alterity, 84–85, 177; of God as revealed in language, 304; as inviolable, 116 Altizer, Thomas J. J., 272; as last theologian , 306–7; and theological pathology, 310 analogy: of all knowledge, 208–10; and construction of knowledge, 212; and knowledge of God, 230–31, 251; against univocity, 215–16 anarchy, 253 annihilation, 111; codes for, 120; enacted by language, 120–21 anonymity, as source of naming, 312–13 Anselm, 29, 164, 213; Proslogion and prayer, 260–61, 312 Apollo: at Delphi, 142–43; and hymns, 259 apophasis, 5, 252; aesthetic, 81–82, 288; and agnosticism, 199; ambiguously philosophical and theological, 328; as anti-logic, 60; as backing off, 59; as belated, 154–55; as belief, 302; and bodies, 288; broader understanding of, 287; as common ground of antagonistic theologies, 274, 286; and communicative function, 74–75; definition of, 26, 80, 84, 248, 274; as disappearing, 60, 65; as about discourse, 151; as erotic, 365n.38; of existence, 97, 152; as extralinguistic, 133; as index Index 369 faith, 62, 326–29; as intralinguistic , 133; and Judaism, 80; as materialist, 67; and metaphysics, 34–35; as negating the finite, opening to the infinite, 171; as nihilist, 327; as normative, 149; as not abstract, 311; ontological import of, 152; as perennial philosophy, 1, 3, 5, 79, 200–201, 275; as performative, 154; presupposes kataphasis, 256, 278, 295–96; and reason, 4, 40–41; and relating, 62; revival of, 151; and rhetoric, 26; as second-order discourse, 152; as self-critical, 154; as sensibility, 151; and skepticism, 327; as stammering, 269; as theological, 82; and wholeness, 62 Aquinas, Thomas: and agnosticism, 208; all knowledge analogical, 209; and ens communis, 216, 234; and esse as not metaphysical, 251; and existence as infinite, 174; and negative theology, 252; Pange lingua, 261; silence of, 62, 261; and via eminentiae, 151, 209 Aristotle, 72, 140, 202, 220 Armstrong, Hilary, 148, 151, 293, 297–99 Asad, Talal, 354n.79 atheism, 82, 169, 285; a/theism, 270; within Christianity, 190, 354n.84; as pointless, 191; as undermined, 199 Augustine, 13, 215, 245; and negative theology, 252, 284; vision at Ostia, 237 authority: as undermined by divine sovereignty, 253; as undermined by negative theology, 291 Averroes, 220 Avicenna, 220 bachelard, Gaston, 99 bacon, Francis, 217 badiou, Alain, and death of God, 272 balthasar, Hans Urs von, 222, 234, 310; and theological aesthetics, 240, 248 baroque, 82 barth, Karl, 28 barthes, Roland, 66 bataille, Georges: death and finitude, 42; déchirements, 31 baudrillard, Jean, and simulacrum, 339n.36 beckett, Samuel, 67, 82, 287; Endgame, 24, 76–77; Waiting for Godot, 7; Watt, 16 being, 25, 71, 143; analogical modes of, 230; as infinite, 146; of language, 89, 133; versus language, 98; as mystery, 230; as name of God, 289; narrative interpretation of, 208; one true being, 210; ontological argument, 29, 48–49; ontological dependence, 143–46; that versus what something is, 153, 348n.28; ungrounding of, 144 belief: in all things, 302; amphiboly of, 328; hyperbole of, 327; in nothing, 286, 327; and openness, 327; question of, 326–29; refusal of, 326 benjamin, Walter: and immediacy, 57; Jetztzeit, 88; and the magical, 65; and mystic symbol, 108; “On Language as Such,” 114; and pure law, 289–90; and theology, 233; and the whole, 27 benson, bruce, on immanence and idolatry, 211 bible: Colossians 1:15, 69; 1 Corinthians 1:17–31, 69; 1 Corinthians 370 Index 13:7, 327; 1 Corinthians 15:28, 243; 2 Corinthians 5:19, 50, 70, 242; Exodus 33, 56; Gospel of John, 50, 54, 244; Mark, 306; Matthew 2:11, 69; Philippians 2:8, 225; Psalm 42, 260–61 blanchot, Maurice, 33, 56, 66, 82, 111–12, 243; and atheism, 169; and le dehors, 250; and dés-astre, 72...