Philosophy of religion Books
Rationalist Press Association Ltd Blasphemy Ancient and Modern
Book Synopsis
£6.42
Fordham University Press Through Narcissus Glass Darkly The Modern
Book SynopsisSuitable for scholars and students of modern philosophy, Christian theology, psychoanalytic theory, and literary criticism, this title presents a genealogy and critique of the ideal of conscience in modern philosophical theology, particularly in the writings of Hobbes, Rousseau, and Kant.Trade Review"Pacini's book is, at one level, a critique of modernity, and it deserves an honored place among some of the best recent critiques. More fundamentally, his book illuminates an idea whose inner workings call for a rare ability to think theologically in the context of a modern philosophical narrative. The 'religion' in a religion of conscience defies the usual distinctions between religion and science, faith and reason, autonomy and dependence. Pacini deftly illuminates the depths of that brave new religion." -- -James Wetzel Villanova University "Focuses on writings by Hobbes, Rousseau, and Kant in a study of the concept of conscience in modern philosophical theology." -The Chronicle of Higher Education "Pacini's book provides a very original, lively, and well-informed account of difficulties in the modern notion of conscience, which came to dominate philosophical perspectives on Christianity in the period from Hobbes through Rousseau and Kant. The volume is an excellent general study of a key topic in the development of modernity, and it provides insightful criticisms of Kant's philosophy of religion in particular." -- -Karl Ameriks University of Notre Dame "An original and important contribution to current discussion in philosophy of religion, theology, and literary theory." -- -Mark C. Taylor Columbia University "An historico-critical tour de force...Pacini is a master of 'close-readings'." -- -Carl Raschke University of Denver "This book is an important, fascinating set of essays that delineate the notion of the "religion of conscience" in Hobbes, Rousseau, and Kant. Pacini (Emory Univ.) uses this narrative to engage Wittgenstein, Freud, and Karl Barth. His history demonstrates the loss of an understanding of God as "wholly other" in the wake of Enlightenment beliefs that an autonomous subject could determine what was good and moral on the basis of rationality alone. This shift led to the loss of an understanding of God as being outside the human subject. The celebration of autonomy and the self-legislating subject made certain issues in ethics, self-understanding, and moral formation problematic. Pacini's conclusion introduces Freud and Barth to provide psychological and theological critiques of the Enlightenment conscience. The author's ability to make philosophical and psychoanalytic debates integral to a theological narrative is a rare achievement. This is a remarkable piece of scholarship. However, those not fully versed in philosophy and theology will find its technical and complex arguments difficult to follow. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students and faculty/researchers." -Choice
£66.60
Rowman & Littlefield International The Art of Anatheism
Book SynopsisTheopoetics names the notion that the divine (theos) manifests itself as creative making (poiesis). Anatheism expresses the attendant claim that this making takes the form of a second creation – re-creation or creation again (ana) – where humanity and divinity collaborate in the coming of the Kingdom. The Art of Anatheism brings together philosophers, theologians, and artists to open up the question of the relationship between artistic creation and the divine. The book asks the question – how can God happen again after the death of God? It answers it by proposing an 'art of anatheism' which attends to the recreation and return of the divine through certain forms of literature, painting, liturgy, music, and performance. Engaging students, scholars, and interested readers across a wide range of disciplines – philosophy, theology, aesthetics, literary criticism, poetics – the volume includes contributions from both practising artists and professional academics. As such it brings together examples from ancient religious wisdom traditions and cutting-edge contemporary cultural practices to suggest that the sacred is often most potent and persuasive when recreating the everyday world of our secular experience.Trade ReviewWe have known anatheism as a concept; now comes anatheism as the site of a debate. We measure the genius of an author or an idea, said Kant, by its capacity to “found a school.” The Art of Anatheism, convoking the greatest authors of the Continental (Jean-Luc Nancy) and Anglo-Saxon (John Caputo) traditions, here proves that anatheism, invented by Richard Kearney, is not an obscure idea. Anatheism becomes for today a new way of thinking transcendence in order to not reduce it to silence. Not confronting it would be to flee the challenges posed by our contemporary world. -- Emmanuel Falque, Professor of Philosophy, Catholic Institute of ParisWhat have the muses to do with theology? This collection of vibrant and sensitive essays attends to tremors of the divine in literature and the arts. The space of theopoetic meditation thus opened challenges theology at its base, summoning it to embrace a larger and more richly human outlook. -- Joseph S. O'Leary, Sophia University and Surugadai UniversityThe anatheist “return to God after God” takes on new dimensions in this remarkable collection, exploring how the divine (theos) manifests itself in the sacred activity of making (poiesis), and how making helps us to retrieve and re-experience the originary experiences of the call of the other and the risk of hospitality after the “death of God.” The essays—by artists as well as philosophers and theologians—sparkle with insight on how we might experience “God after God” in our concrete, lived existence. -- Brian Treanor, Charles S. Casassa Chair and Professor of Philosophy, Loyola Marymount UniversityAlways the good teacher, Kearney explains himself clearly and concisely: [anatheism] is a return to God after God. That is, an invitation to rethink “God” after a very long period of withering criticism of theistic religion…. As one of Kearney’s most revered teachers in phenomenology, Levinas, used to say (in a slightly different context), one must be contre-dieu before one can be à-dieu, against God (or, better, a certain concept of God) before one can truly go toward him. It is a lesson that Kearney has learned well. * LA Review of Books, 25 November 2018 *… as someone that finds this [the anatheist] project to have powerful theological and philosophical significance, this volume only expanded my appreciation for the project Kearney began in his Anatheism volume. If any religious hermeneutics worth its salt has explanatory power for religious art, then Anatheism has salt to spare. Those interested in aesthetics, religious art , or the phenomenology of religion will benefit greatly from reading the essays in this volume. * Pneuma, No. 40 *The success of the Art of Anatheism lies in its exclusion of exclusions, its lowercase ecumenism, its ability to walk the walk of Anatheism’s talk of hospitality. The diversity of the contributors—artists, philosophers, theologians, poets, and pastors—and the vertiginous range of their discussion topic, from Buddhist art all the way to the Beatles, testify to the arrival of an idea with a universal application achieved only by true and timeless insight. * Reading Religion, 7 January 2019 *Table of ContentsIntroduction, Richard Kearney and Matthew Clemente / PART I: ANATHEISM AND THEOPOETICS / 1. God Making: Theopoetics and Anatheism, Richard Kearney / 2. Theopoetics: A Becoming History, Catherine Keller / 3. Theology, Poetry, and Theopoetics, John Caputo / 4. Cracked: The Black Theology of Anatheism, John Panteleimon Manoussakis / PART II: PAINTING ANATHEISM / 5. Anatheism and Judeo-Christian Art, Mark Patrick Hederman / 6. Paradise Gardens and the Anatheism of Art, Sheila Gallagher / 7. The Everyday Art of Theopoiesis: Good-for-Nothing Slaves, Alexandra Breukink / 8. One Hand Clapping: Anatheism and Contemporary Buddhist Art, Kate Lawson / 9. The Annunciate and the Self-Deconstruction of Mon-a-theism, Jean-Luc Nancy / PART III: PERFORMING ANATHEISM / 10. Sacred Songsters: Anatheist Themes in Dylan, Beatles, Cohen, and U2, Murray Littlejohn / 11. More Fully to the Risk: Hip-Hop as Anatheistic Resistance, Callid Keefe-Perry / 12. Performing Anatheism in Syriac Liturgical Poetry, Christina M. Gschwandtner / 13. American Anatheism: the Art of Narrative Healing, Maxwell Pingeon / 14. Materiality and the Sacred in Anatheism, Daniel Bradley / PART IV: SCREENING ANATHEISM / 15. The God of the Lost Ones: Anatheism in Three Contemporary Films, Stephanie Rumpza / 16. After God: Screening the Passion as Ana-Liturgy, Mirella Klomp and Danie Veldsman / 17. The Still Born God, Again, Chris Doude van Troostwijk / PART V: WRITING ANATHEISM / 18. Marilynne Robinson and Anatheism, Andrew Cunning / 19. Anatheism and a New Apocalyptic Poetics, Thomas Altizer / 20. Anatheism for One, Fanny Howe / Notes on Contributors / Bibliography
£38.00
Imprint Academic Thomas Reid on Religion
Book SynopsisThomas Reid was one of the greatest thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment. In his own time he was seen as the most able opponent of the scepticism of David Hume and the architect of ''Common Sense'' philosophy. His ideas were immensely influential both in his native Scotland and abroad, and the last forty years have seen a marked revival of interest in his work. Reid published very little about religion and his notes from the lectures on natural theology that he regularly gave have not survived. This volume a companion to Thomas Reid: Selected Philosophical Writings (Imprint Academic, 2012) makes available material from Reid''s autograph manuscripts, housed in the University of Aberdeen Library, and student notes of Reid's lectures, edited from original manuscripts in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. It includes an introductory essay by Nicholas Wolterstorff, a leading philosopher of religion and interpreter of Reid.
£999.99
Open Gate Press The Psychological Origins of the Resurrection
Book Synopsis
£999.99
The University of Chicago Press Why Niebuhr Now
Book SynopsisFor a theologian who died in 1971, Reinhold Niebuhr is maintaining a remarkably high profile in the twenty-first century. This book tackles the complicated question of why, at a time of great uncertainty about America's proper role in the world, leading politicians and thinkers are turning to Niebuhr for answers.Trade Review"A good introduction to the works of a complex man, it adroitly places Niebuhr's thought among the twentieth-century intellectual milieu that Mr. Diggins spent a lifetime studying." (Economist)"
£16.72
The University of Chicago Press Coming to Mind The Soul and its Body
Book SynopsisHow should we speak of bodies and souls? Drawing on new and classical understandings of perception, consciousness, memory, agency, and creativity, this book frames a convincing argument for a dynamic and integrated self capable of language, thought, discovery, caring, and love.Trade Review"Drawing sophisticated connections between contemporary emergence theory and Aristotelian ontology, Lenn E. Goodman and D. Gregory Caramenico employ a range of philosophical arguments and scientific detail to argue for the reality of the soul in an original and congenial style. High marks." (Philip Clayton, Claremont School of Theology)"
£39.90
The University of Chicago Press The Law of God The Philosophical History of an
Book SynopsisAddresses the break in the alliance between law and divinity - when modern societies, far from connecting the tow, started to think of law simply as the rule human community gives itself. This work explores what this disconnection means for the contemporary world.Trade Review"Brague's sense of intellectual adventure is what makes his work genuinely exciting to read. The Law of God offers a challenge that anyone concerned with today's religious struggles ought to take up." - Adam Kirsch, New York Sun "Scholars and students of contemporary world events, to the extent that these may be viewed as a clash of rival fundamentalisms, will have much to gain from Brague's study. Ideally, in that case, the book seems to be both an obvious primer and launching pad for further scholarship." - Times Higher Education Supplement"
£27.00
The University of Chicago Press THE LEGEND OF THE MIDDLE AGES
Book SynopsisThrough an interview and sixteen essays, this title explores key intersections of medieval religion and philosophy. It focuses less on individual Christian, Jewish, and Muslim thinkers than on their relationships with one another.Trade Review"This truly is an informative, engaging, and very readable book that will be very useful to anyone with an intellectual interest in things medieval." (Choice) "Highly recommended to scholars of the Middle Ages as well as those in philosophy and religion more generally. They will all be enlightened by careful reading of this book." (Library Journal)"
£76.00
The University of Chicago Press Political Philosophy and the Challenge of
Book SynopsisHeinrich Meier's guiding insight in Political Philosophy and the Challenge of Revealed Religion is that philosophy must prove its right and its necessity in the face of the claim to truth and demand obedience of its most powerful opponent, revealed religion. Philosophy must rationally justify and politically defend its free and unreserved questioning, and, in doing so, turns decisively to political philosophy. In the first of three chapters, Meier determines four intertwined moments constituting the concept of political philosophy as an articulated and internally dynamic whole. The following two chapters develop the concept through the interpretation of two masterpieces of political philosophy that have occupied Meier's attention for more than thirty years: Leo Strauss's Thoughts on Machiavelli and Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Social Contract. Meier provides a detailed investigation of Thoughts on Machiavelli, with an appendix containing Strauss's original manuscript headings for each of hi
£76.00
The University of Chicago Press Ethics from a Theocentric Perspective Volume 2
Book Synopsis
£30.40
The University of Chicago Press Political Philosophy and the Challenge of
Book SynopsisHeinrich Meier's guiding insight in Political Philosophy and the Challenge of Revealed Religion is that philosophy must prove its right and its necessity in the face of the claim to truth and demand obedience of its most powerful opponent, revealed religion.
£28.00
The University of Chicago Press Abiding Grace Time Modernity Death Religion and
Book SynopsisPost-war, post-industrialism, post-religion, post-truth, post-biological, post-human, post-modern. What succeeds the post- age? Mark C. Taylor returns here to some of his central philosophical preoccupations and asks: What comes after the end?Abiding Grace navigates the competing Hegelian and Kierkegaardian trajectories born out of the Reformation and finds Taylor arguing from spaces in between, showing how both narratives have shaped recent philosophy and culture. For Hegel, Luther's internalization of faith anticipated the modern principle of autonomy, which reached its fullest expression in speculative philosophy. The closure of the Hegelian system still endures in the twenty-first century in consumer society, financial capitalism, and virtual culture. For Kierkegaard, by contrast, Luther's God remains radically transcendent, while finite human beings and their world remain fully dependent. From this insight, Heidegger and Derrida developed an alternative view of time in which a rad
£87.00
The University of Chicago Press Religion and the Demise of Liberal Rationalism
Book SynopsisThis text consists of critical analysis of four 20th-century liberal and postliberal thinkers: John Dewey, John Rawls, Richard Rorty and Stanley Fish. The author focuses on the theorists' approach to religion and draws conclusions that challenge the very basis of constitutional government.
£26.00
The University of Chicago Press A Brief Apology for a Catholic Moment
Book SynopsisTrade Review“This book deserves the fullest attention of all who care about the future of democracy. Writing for people of secular conviction as much as for people of faith, Marion offers a powerful thesis: If we are to overcome our current societal struggles and political impasses and find any kind of shared future, Christianity represents an irreplaceable public voice. In particular, Catholicism offers cultural resources the world needs in order to face this moment. But to offer that gift successfully, Catholics must be more truly Catholic.” -- Richard L. Wood, author of Faith in Action: Religion, Race, and Democratic Organizing in America“A rich and comprehensive philosophical analysis of Catholicism in contemporary France. And yet, the questions Marion raises have significance for Catholics globally, as they also assess the relationship of their faith to the public sphere. Through its insights on separation, crisis, communion and more, A Brief Apology for a Catholic Moment is guaranteed to shape the philosophical imagination of its readers.” -- Maureen K. Day, author of Catholic Activism Today: Personal Transformation and the Struggle for Social Justice"Rich in resources for reflection . . . Marion. . . help[s] us see how Catholics in an increasingly post-Christian society might bear witness to their faith without bitterness or nostalgia—and perhaps even with joy." * Commonweal Magazine *"In this short and. . . accessible book, [Marion] writes for a more general readership, addressing the role (or rather, the possible role) of the Catholic Church in French culture. . . . The Church, he argues, is uniquely situated to pull French society out of its decadence with its call to repentance and communion. Many readers will find his argument attractive, others will consider it implausible, and still others will think they have heard it before, in other contexts. But all will find it an interesting new chapter in the development of Marion's thought. . . . Recommended." * Choice *"In a public discussion of the fate of France that has too often lacked the nuance and substance befitting the issues, Marion’s intervention distinguishes itself as a work of acuity." * Journal of Religion *Table of ContentsForeword by Kevin Hart Address: The Cross without the Banner Catholic and French Laicity or Separation The Utility of Communion Envoy: A Catholic Moment Index of Names
£78.85
The University of Chicago Press On the Psychotheology of Everyday Life
Book SynopsisThis text puts Sigmund Freud in dialogue with Franz Rosenzwig in the service of re-imagining ethical and political life. Santner makes an argument for understanding revelation in theraputic terms and offers a look at how this understanding suggests ways of re-conceiving political community.
£23.00
The University of Chicago Press Tortured Subjects
Book SynopsisThis text tells the story of how the idea that physical suffering could be a path to redemption became a fixed part of the French legal system during the early modern period. Using documents from criminal cases, it looks at the theory and practice of judicial torture in France from 1600 to 1788.
£28.00
The University of Chicago Press Nots
Book SynopsisNots is a virtuoso exploration of negation and negativity in theology, philosophy, art, architecture, postmodern culture, and medicine. In nine essays that range from nihility in Buddhism to the embodiment of negativity in disease, Mark C. Taylor looks at the surprising ways in which contrasting concepts of negativity intersect. In the first section of this book, Taylor discusses the question of the not in the religious thought of Anselm, Hegel, Derrida, and Nishitani. In the second part, he analyzes artistic efforts to figure not in the work of artists Arakawa and Madeline Gins, architect Daniel Libeskind, pop artist David Sallee, and pop icon Madonna. The final section consists of a deeply personal and scientifically informed chapter that discusses the workings of negativity in immunology and illness. Taylor's essays work toward a sense of the not as unnameable as it is irrepressiblean unthinkable third that falls between being and nonbeing. Bringing together concerns that span Taylo
£28.00
The University of Chicago Press After God Religion and Postmodernism
Book SynopsisArgues that religion is more complicated than either its defenders or critics think and, indeed, is much more influential than any of us realize. This book redefines religion for our contemporary age. It presents a radical reconceptualization of religion.Trade Review"The distinguishing feature of Taylor's career is a fearless, or perhaps reckless, orientation to the new and to whatever challenges orthodoxy.... Taylor's work is playful, perverse, rarefied, ingenious, and often brilliant." - New York Times Magazine"
£24.00
The University of Chicago Press Rousseaus God
Book SynopsisA landmark study of Rousseau's theological and religious thought. John T. Scott offers a comprehensive interpretation of Rousseau's theological and religious thought, both in its own right and in relation to Rousseau's broader oeuvre. In chapters focused on different key writings, Scott reveals recurrent themes in Rousseau's views on the subject and traces their evolution over time. He shows that two conceptstruth and utilityare integral to Rousseau's writings on religion. Doing so helps to explain some of Rousseau's disagreements with his contemporaries: their different views on religion and theology stem from different understandings of human nature and the proper role of science in human life. Rousseau emphasizes not just what is true, but also what is usefulpsychologically, morally, and politicallyfor human beings. Comprehensive and nuanced, Rousseau's God is vital to understanding key categories of Rousseau's thought.Trade Review"There is much more that could be said on this subject, of course, as on the many other aspects of Rousseau’s philosophy upon which Scott advances deeply insightful and thought-provoking interpretations. One of the many successes of Rousseau’s God is that it shifts the burden of proof onto those who think that the Vicar does represent Rousseau’s own views. Anyone wishing to defend that interpretation henceforth should either respond to Scott’s forceful challenges or conclude that Rousseau was inconsistent on topics of central importance to his thought." * Review of Politics *"Rousseau’s God considers an important question in the manner it deserves: thoroughly. Scott succeeds in reconstructing the entire complex edifice of Rousseau’s theology and relating it to the broader and even more complex context of Rousseau’s thought as a whole. This is a remarkable achievement and a major contribution to understanding Rousseau." -- Clifford Orwin | University of Toronto"Rousseau’s God is an original and wide-ranging examination of Rousseau’s theological and religious writings. John Scott draws fertile connections to other key concepts in Rousseau’s broader project and pulls together multiple analytical threads into an exceptionally lucid and comprehensive interpretation that shows just how deeply the distinction between truth and utility permeates Rousseau’s treatment of religion (both doctrine and practice) throughout his works." -- Denise Schaeffer | College of the Holy CrossTable of ContentsList of Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1: Truth and Utility Chapter 2: The Theodicy of the Discourse on Inequality Chapter 3: Pride and Providence in the Letter to Voltaire Chapter 4: Psychic Unity and Disunity and the Need for Religion Chapter 5: Introduction to the “Profession of Faith” Chapter 6: The Theological Teaching of the “Profession of Faith” Chapter 7: The Critique—and Revival—of Religion in the “Profession of Faith” Chapter 8: On Civil Religion Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index
£76.00
The University of Chicago Press Lands of Likeness
Book SynopsisTrade Review“Lands of Likeness is one of the deepest accounts of poetry’s cognitive dimensions ever written. What Hart does in the book is explore models of poetic reflection that conform to the models of neither discursive philosophical argumentation nor full-fledged religious contemplation, yet inhabit a meditative domain that is both conceptual and spiritual. I know of no other book that explores this terrain as thoroughly as this one does." -- John Koethe, University of Wisconsin–Madison“In this learned and comprehensive book on the poetic legacy of contemplation, Hart guides us from the early church fathers to the Romantics, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and many major twentieth-century poets who looked on nature in light of its likeness to spirit. A distinguished poet himself, Hart has much to say to readers and writers of poetry. Indeed, this book will interest anyone who has felt the power of leaving some things unsaid as well as the elation of those ‘hovering thoughts’ that are the book’s focus.” -- Susan Stewart, Princeton UniversityTable of ContentsNote on Citations and Conventions Introduction 1: From Templum to Contemplation 2: The Sabbath of the Idea 3: Hermeneutic of Contemplation 4: Contemplation with Kestrel 5: Fascination 6: Consideration 7: From Supreme Being to Supreme Fiction 8: Contemplation with Noisy Birds 9: Contemplating "the True Mystery" 10: "On Course but Destinationless" 11: Mystère and Mystique 12: "To Contemplate the Radical Soul" Afterword: Poem as Templum Acknowledgments Glossary Notes Index
£90.00
The University of Chicago Press Saints and Postmodernism Revisioning Moral
Book Synopsis"In this exciting and important work, Wyschogrod attempts to read contemporary ethical theory against the vast unwieldy tapestry that is postmodernism. . . . [A] provocative and timely study." Michael Gareffa, "Theological Studies" "A 'must' for readers interested in the borderlands between philosophy, hagiography, and ethics." Mark I. Wallace, "Religious Studies Review""
£30.00
McGill-Queen's University Press Towards a Godless Dominion
Book SynopsisA century ago Canada was considered to be a Christian nation and the vast majority of Canadians claimed they were devoutly religious. But some vigorously resisted the dominance of Christianity. Towards a Godless Dominion explores both anti-religious activism and the organized opposition religious unbelievers faced from Canada in the 1920s and ’30s.Trade Review“Engaging, insightful, well-written, and solidly researched. Elliot Hanowski adds a new dimension to our understanding of religion and irreligion in twentieth-century Canada. The book further expands our knowledge of the religious spectrum in Canadian society, importantly deflecting attention away from the historic mainstream churches and beliefs.” David B. Marshall, University of Calgary and author of Secularizing the Faith: Canadian Protestant Clergy and the Crisis of Belief, 1850–1940“Towards a Godless Dominion reminds us that repression works. Elites remain as ready and able as ever to stifle the kinds of speech that they find threatening. It takes courage or at least eccentricity to resist them.” Literature Review of Canada
£31.50
Columbia University Press Public Vision Private Lives Rousseau Religion
Book SynopsisReconsiders the political, cultural, and legal nature of modernity in relation to religion. This title argues that the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau was instrumental in the evolution of modernity. In Rousseau, it pinpoints the origins of contemporary notions of the public and private and their relationship to religion.Trade Review"Recommended." - Choice ChoiceTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Religion, Democracy, and Modernity: The Case for Progressive Spiritual Democracy Preparing for the Journey: An Introduction 1 From the Garden to the City: The Tragic Passage 1. Nature's Garden 2. Revisiting the Garden's Solitaires 3. From the Garden to the Blessed Country: The Precarious Passage 4. The Rush to Slavery 5. The City: Life in the Ousted Condition 6. Overcoming Moral Evil: Rousseau at the Crossroads 2 Paths to Redemption 7. Reforming the City: The Extreme Public Path 8. Evading the City: The Private Path 9. The Mountain Village: The Path to Family, Work, Community, and Love 10. Reconciling Citizen and Solitaire: Religious Dimensions of the Middle Way 11. Residual Conflict: Democracy and Ineluctable Friction Conclusion A Way Forward: Rousseau and Twenty-First-Century Democracy Notes Works Cited Index
£42.50
Columbia University Press After the Death of God
Book SynopsisExplores the changes, distortions, and reforms that are a part of our postmodern faith and the forces shaping the religious imagination.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: After the Death of God, by Jeffrey W. Robbins 1. Toward a Nonreligious Christianity, by Gianni Vattimo Spectral Hermeneutics: On the Weakness of God and the Theology of the Event, by John D. Caputo 2. A Prayer for Silence: Dialogue with Gianni Vattimo On the Power of the Powerless: Dialogue with John D. Caputo 3. The Death of God: A Deconstruction, by Gabriel Vahanian Notes Index
£999.99
Columbia University Press Hegel and the Infinite
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA very strong collection of essays that goes beyond the critical poles that have tended to divide Hegel's readers in recent years. Rather than assuming we already know Hegel, these essays approach the philosopher as an infinitely complex and shifting set of ideas and texts that must be constantly reread, insofar as those texts continue to unfold new meanings through ongoing transformations in the history of philosophy and material culture, before and after Hegel. -- Kenneth Reinhard, University of California, Los Angeles These are exciting times for the student of Hegel. In place of a previously regnant understanding of the great philosopher, depicting him as an absolute idealist unable to comprehend difference, a staid liberal who walked away from his early enthusiasm for the French Revolution, we have a 'new' Hegel. This superb collection gives us the lineaments of this latter Hegel, who grappled unsparingly with difference and whose systematicity allowed breaks and interruptions. -- Kenneth Surin, Duke UniversityTable of ContentsPreface: Hegel's Century Acknowledgments Introduction: Risking Hegel: A New Reading for the Twenty-First Century, by Clayton Crockett and Creston Davis 1. Is Confession the Accomplishment of Recognition? Rousseau and the Unthought of Religion in the Phenomenology of Spirit, by Catherine Malabou 2. Rereading Hegel: The Philosopher of Right, by Antonio Negri 3. The Perversity of the Absolute, the Perverse Core of Hegel, and the Possibility of Radical Theology, by John D. Caputo 4. Hegel in America, by Bruno Bosteels 5. Infinite Restlessness, by Mark C. Taylor 6. Between Finitude and Infinity: On Hegel's Sublationary Infinitism, by William Desmond 7. The Way of Despair, by Katrin Pahl 8. The Weakness of Nature: Hegel, Freud, Lacan, and Negativity Materialized, by Adrian Johnston 9. Disrupting Reason: Art and Madness in Hegel and Van Gogh, by Edith Wyschogrod 10. Finite Representation, Spontaneous Thought, and the Politics of an Open-Ended Consummation, by Thomas Lewis 11. Hegel and Shitting: The Idea's Constipation, by Slavoj Zizek List of Contributors Index
£999.99
Columbia University Press Nietzsche and Levinas
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewJill Stauffer and Bettina Bergo have done the scholarly community a great service with Nietzsche and Levinas. -- Robert Erlewine SophiaTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Abbreviations of Texts by Nietzsche and Levinas Introduction Bettina Bergo and Jill Stauffer Part I. Revaluing Ethics: Time, Teaching, and the Ambiguity of Forces 1. The Malice in Good Deeds, by Alphonso Lingis 2. The Imperfect: Levinas, Nietzsche, and the Autonomous Subjec, by Jill Stauffer 3. Nietzsche and Levinas: The Impossible Relation , by John-Michel Longneaux 4. Ethical Ambivalence, by Judith Butler 5. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Thus Listened the Rabbis: Philosophy, Education, and the Cycle of Enlightenment, by Claire Elise Katz Part II. The Subject: Sensing, Suffering, and Responding 6. The Flesh Made Word; Or The Two Origins, by Bettina Bergo 7. Nietzsche, Levinas, and the Meaning of Responsibility, by Rosalyn Diprose 8. Beginning's Abyss: On Solitude in Nietzsche and Levinas, by John Drabinski 9. Beyond Suffering I Have No Alibi, by David Boothroyd 10. Levinas, Spinozism, Nietzsche, and the Body, by Richard A. Cohen Part III. Heteronomy and Ubiquity: God in Philosophy 11. Suffering Redeemable and Irredeemable, by John Llewelyn 12. Levinas's Gaia Scienza, by Aicha Liviana Messina 13. Levinas: Another Ascetic Priest?, by Silvia Benso 14. Apocalypse, Eschatology, and the Death of God, by Brian Schroeder Bibliography List of Contributors Index
£82.80
Columbia University Press The Undiscovered Dewey
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe Undiscovered Dewey wrestles intelligently with a central question regarding John Dewey's political thought-his optimism and holism-and defends a view that's both controversial and interesting. -- Eric MacGilvray, Ohio State University If you don't know much about John Dewey's writings on religion, ethics, and politics, this book is the ideal place to start. If, on the other hand, you think you have Dewey pegged, you should still read the volume, for every chapter will surprise and instruct. Melvin L. Rogers has provided a bold, fresh, exhaustively researched reinterpretation of America's greatest democratic theorist. -- Jeffrey Stout, Princeton University, and author of Democracy and Tradition If John Dewey too seldom dwelt on the darker dimensions of human experience and the necessary limits within which we struggle to enrich our lives, he well knew they were there. Melvin L. Rogers rescues Dewey from the brightly lit, ever-smiling caricature drawn by his critics, ably portraying him in chiaroscuro and giving us a democratic philosopher not of naive optimism but of chastened hope. Precisely what we need. -- Robert Westbrook, University of Rochester, and author of Democratic Hope: Pragmatism and the Politics of Truth The book is a welcome and thoughtful contribution... Recommended. Choice A significant contribution to the growing literature on Dewey's religious and political thought. -- Shane Ralston Journal of Politics Melvin Roger's articulate, timely work helps make audible once again Dewey's voice in this fateful conversation. -- Robert W. King Journal of American Studies Rogers offers a revisionist reading of Dewey to recover what he considers lost intellectual and moral resources for a revitalized politics in a pluralist society... A great virtue of this work is the breadth of his engagement with Dewey across his entire, vast corpus, and the careful pitting of Dewey in conversation with contemporary thinkers such as Walter Lippmann, Hannah Arendt, William James, and George Herbert Mead. This book matters precisely because of its ambitions. -- Matthew S. Hedstrom Journal of the American Academy of Religion [Rogers] pushes engagement with democratic theory further, defending Dewey not only against such trenchant critics as Reinhold Neibuhr, Christopher Lasch, and John Patrick Diggins, but also against [Robert] Westbrook, Hillary Putnam, and Cornel West... Rogers presents his 'undiscovered Dewey' through a reinterpretation of Darwinian evolution's influence on Dewey's conception of 'inquiry,' which Rogers places at the very center of Dewey's epistemology as well as his moral and political philosophy. Rogers situates Dewey in the context of Darwin's broader 'impact on the American religious imagination,' arguing that Dewey was more deeply engaged in theological controversy than is sometimes recognized, and that this engagement left an indelible mark on later developments in his thinking. -- Jason Frank Political Theory An impressive achievement... essential for anyone interested in pragmatism and of value for anyone working on democratic theory. -- Colin Koopman Perspectives on Politics Roger's book is a welcome addition to the literature on Dewey... suitable for suggested reading on syllabi for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Education and CultureTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction Part I: From Certainty to Contingency 1. Protestant Self-Assertion and Spiritual Sickness 2. Agency and Inquiry After Darwin Part II: Religion, the Moral Life, and Democracy 3. Faith and Democratic Piety 4. Within the Space of Moral Reflection 5. Constraining Elites and Managing Power Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index
£25.20
Columbia University Press Factory of Strategy
Book SynopsisA renewed engagement with Lenin's revolutionary politics and a persuasive case for his contemporary relevance.Trade ReviewThis book on Lenin turns into a revolutionary text, into a true manual of resistance. -- Slavoj Zizek, author of Living in the End Times There are many Lenins: in this exciting synthesis, with its emphasis on philosophy as well as praxis and on spontaneity versus organization, Antonio Negri discloses the dialectical logic of Lenin's historical situation. At the same time, by insisting on situational logic as such, he demonstrates its differences from our own today, where keeping faith with Lenin's lessons might lead to different forms. This important text from Negri's activist period is therefore a crucial document for understanding Negri's own work and positions and those of Lenin. -- Fredric Jameson, Duke University Factory of Strategy is a bracingly original and systematic inquiry into the development of the Russian revolutionary's political thought, bearing comparison with Lukacs's earlier Lenin. It doubles as a unique record of a crucial moment in Negri's trajectory as a political philosopher and activist, when questions of strategy and insurrection were foremost in his mind. Among the most accessible, accomplished, and vibrant pieces of Negri's writing, it stands out for its effort to combine political pedagogy and ideological intervention. -- Alberto Toscano, Goldsmiths, University of London, author of Fanaticism: On the Uses of an IdeaTable of ContentsPreface to the English Translation Preface to the Second Edition Translator's Note Part I. Lenin and Our Generation 1. Toward a Marxist Reading of Lenin's Marxism 2. From the Theory of Capital to the Theory of Organization (1): Economic Struggle and Political Struggle: Class Struggle 3. From the Theory of Capital to the Theory of Organization (2): The Working-Class Character of Organization: The Party as Factory 4. In Lenin's Footsteps from the Theory of Capital to the Theory of Organization: Annotations 5. From the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution (1): Proletarian Independence 6. From the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution (2): The Factory of Strategy 7. From the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution (3): Organization Toward Communism 8. In Lenin's Footsteps from the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution: Annotations 9. Insurrection as Art and Practice of the Masses Part II. Lenin and the Soviets in the Russian Revolution and Some Remarks on Sovietism 10. The Soviets Between Spontaneity and Theory 11. Lenin and the Soviets Between 1905 and 1917 12. The Soviets and the Leninist Inversion of Praxis 13. The Reformist Change of Praxis: Soviets Today? 14. Verifying the Question of Whether the Soviet Is an Organ of Power 15. The Soviet Form of Masses and the Urgency of Workers' Struggle Part III. Interregnum on the Dialectic: The Notebooks of 1914-1916 16. Dialectics as the Recovered Form of Lenin's Thought 17. Lenin Reads Hegel 18. Between Philosophy and Politics: The Weapon of Dialectics Part IV. The Economic Foundations of the Withering-Away of the State: Introduction to the Reading of The State and Revolution 19. "Where to begin?" 20. The Concept of the State in General Can and Must Be Destroyed 21. Opportunist and Revolutionary Conceptions of the Withering-Away of the State 22. The Question of the "Withering-Away" of the State: Against Equality 23. First Approach to a Definition of the Material Bases of the "Withering-Away": Against Work, Against Socialism 24. Marx's Anticipation of the Problem of "Withering-Away": Against the Law of Value 25. Toward a Problematic View of Transition: Impossible Socialism and the Coming Communism 26. On the Problem of Transition Again: The Word to the Masses 27. Transition and Proletarian Dictatorship: The Particular Interests of the Working Class 28. Transition, Material Basis, and Expansiveness of the Working-Class Government 29. A Provisional Conclusion: Lenin and Us Part V. Appendix on "Left-Wing" Communism: A Conclusion and a Beginning 30. A Difficult Balance 31. A Definition of "Left-Wing" Communism, and Some (Adequate?) Examples 32. Toward a New Cycle of Struggles 33. From "Left-Wing" Communism to What Is to Be Done?
£999.99
Columbia University Press Factory of Strategy
Book SynopsisA renewed engagement with Lenin's revolutionary politics and a persuasive case for his contemporary relevance.Trade ReviewThis book on Lenin turns into a revolutionary text, into a true manual of resistance. -- Slavoj Zizek, author of Living in the End Times There are many Lenins: in this exciting synthesis, with its emphasis on philosophy as well as praxis and on spontaneity versus organization, Antonio Negri discloses the dialectical logic of Lenin's historical situation. At the same time, by insisting on situational logic as such, he demonstrates its differences from our own today, where keeping faith with Lenin's lessons might lead to different forms. This important text from Negri's activist period is therefore a crucial document for understanding Negri's own work and positions and those of Lenin. -- Fredric Jameson, Duke University Factory of Strategy is a bracingly original and systematic inquiry into the development of the Russian revolutionary's political thought, bearing comparison with Lukacs's earlier Lenin. It doubles as a unique record of a crucial moment in Negri's trajectory as a political philosopher and activist, when questions of strategy and insurrection were foremost in his mind. Among the most accessible, accomplished, and vibrant pieces of Negri's writing, it stands out for its effort to combine political pedagogy and ideological intervention. -- Alberto Toscano, Goldsmiths, University of London, author of Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea I recommend Factory of Strategy to scholars of Lenin, of Marx, and of Negri as well as to leftist activists, though with some reservation. In this book, Negri does provide an excellent reinterpretation of the essence of Leninism -- Sean Winkler Marx and Philosophy Review of BooksTable of ContentsPreface to the English Translation Preface to the Second Edition Translator's Note Part I. Lenin and Our Generation 1. Toward a Marxist Reading of Lenin's Marxism 2. From the Theory of Capital to the Theory of Organization (1): Economic Struggle and Political Struggle: Class Struggle 3. From the Theory of Capital to the Theory of Organization (2): The Working-Class Character of Organization: The Party as Factory 4. In Lenin's Footsteps from the Theory of Capital to the Theory of Organization: Annotations 5. From the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution (1): Proletarian Independence 6. From the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution (2): The Factory of Strategy 7. From the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution (3): Organization Toward Communism 8. In Lenin's Footsteps from the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution: Annotations 9. Insurrection as Art and Practice of the Masses Part II. Lenin and the Soviets in the Russian Revolution and Some Remarks on Sovietism 10. The Soviets Between Spontaneity and Theory 11. Lenin and the Soviets Between 1905 and 1917 12. The Soviets and the Leninist Inversion of Praxis 13. The Reformist Change of Praxis: Soviets Today? 14. Verifying the Question of Whether the Soviet Is an Organ of Power 15. The Soviet Form of Masses and the Urgency of Workers' Struggle Part III. Interregnum on the Dialectic: The Notebooks of 1914-1916 16. Dialectics as the Recovered Form of Lenin's Thought 17. Lenin Reads Hegel 18. Between Philosophy and Politics: The Weapon of Dialectics Part IV. The Economic Foundations of the Withering-Away of the State: Introduction to the Reading of The State and Revolution 19. "Where to begin?" 20. The Concept of the State in General Can and Must Be Destroyed 21. Opportunist and Revolutionary Conceptions of the Withering-Away of the State 22. The Question of the "Withering-Away" of the State: Against Equality 23. First Approach to a Definition of the Material Bases of the "Withering-Away": Against Work, Against Socialism 24. Marx's Anticipation of the Problem of "Withering-Away": Against the Law of Value 25. Toward a Problematic View of Transition: Impossible Socialism and the Coming Communism 26. On the Problem of Transition Again: The Word to the Masses 27. Transition and Proletarian Dictatorship: The Particular Interests of the Working Class 28. Transition, Material Basis, and Expansiveness of the Working-Class Government 29. A Provisional Conclusion: Lenin and Us Part V. Appendix on "Left-Wing" Communism: A Conclusion and a Beginning 30. A Difficult Balance 31. A Definition of "Left-Wing" Communism, and Some (Adequate?) Examples 32. Toward a New Cycle of Struggles 33. From "Left-Wing" Communism to What Is to Be Done?
£76.00
Columbia University Press Field Notes from Elsewhere Reflections on Dying
Book SynopsisTable of ContentsDay / Night Beginning / Origin Elsewhere / Silence Reflections / Reticence Premonitions / Postcards Home / Afterlife Stealth / Sacrifice Killing / Elemental Abandonment / Mortality Displacement / Place Creativity / Thinking E/Mergence / Emptiness Walls / Garden Painting / Play Perhaps / Numbers Pleasure / Money Vocation / Teaching Last / Burial Solitude / Loneliness Things / Ghosts Levity / Grief Humor / Monsters Faction / Dishonesty Inheritance / Withholding Letting Go / Dinnertime Compassion / Suffering Clouds / Waiting Freedom / Terror Forgiveness / Cruelty Daughters / Obsession Failure / Success Balance / Simplicity Face / Aging Stigma / Autoimmunity Patience / Chronicity Technology / Addiction Pain / Intimacy Blindness / Aura Cancer / Surviving Trust / Bitterness Hands / Will Secrets / Tripping Strangers / Tips Sharing / Fatigue Idleness / Guilt Driving / Accident Imperfection / Vulnerability Friendship / Doubt Love / Fidelity Hope / Despair Happiness / Melancholy Ordinary / Extraordinary Notes Acknowledgments
£69.26
Columbia University Press Field Notes from Elsewhere
Book SynopsisTable of ContentsDay / Night Beginning / Origin Elsewhere / Silence Reflections / Reticence Premonitions / Postcards Home / Afterlife Stealth / Sacrifice Killing / Elemental Abandonment / Mortality Displacement / Place Creativity / Thinking E/Mergence / Emptiness Walls / Garden Painting / Play Perhaps / Numbers Pleasure / Money Vocation / Teaching Last / Burial Solitude / Loneliness Things / Ghosts Levity / Grief Humor / Monsters Faction / Dishonesty Inheritance / Withholding Letting Go / Dinnertime Compassion / Suffering Clouds / Waiting Freedom / Terror Forgiveness / Cruelty Daughters / Obsession Failure / Success Balance / Simplicity Face / Aging Stigma / Autoimmunity Patience / Chronicity Technology / Addiction Pain / Intimacy Blindness / Aura Cancer / Surviving Trust / Bitterness Hands / Will Secrets / Tripping Strangers / Tips Sharing / Fatigue Idleness / Guilt Driving / Accident Imperfection / Vulnerability Friendship / Doubt Love / Fidelity Hope / Despair Happiness / Melancholy Ordinary / Extraordinary Notes Acknowledgments
£17.99
Columbia University Press In Defense of Religious Moderation
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe argument made by William Egginton on behalf of religious moderation is a clear, nuanced, and important one. It shows how the critique of religion offered by well-known atheist authors is guilty of the same fundamentalist logic of which they are so critical. Egginton writes with great ease and clarity, and his many examples drawn from legal cases, popular culture, and his own personal experience will resonate with readers. -- Jeffrey Robbins, Lebanon Valley College, author of Radical Democracy and Political Theology William Egginton has produced an up-to-date account of the political nature of religion to remind us all that Samuel Huntington's clash of religious civilizations may not only be contrasted by religious moderation but also actually avoided. Following on Richard Rorty's and Gianni Vattimo's postmetaphysical weak thought, Egginton dismantles theistic, atheist, scientific, and philosophical arguments that try to accuse such moderate faith of irrationalism, relativism, or nihilism. A genuine must-read for all those concerned with the violent religious groups emerging in our societies. -- Santiago Zabala, ICREA/University of Barcelona, author of The Remains of Being: Hermeneutic Ontology After Metaphysics A literary rally to restore sanity in religion... temperate and thoughtfully researched. Kirkus Review This treatise is no easy read, but the conclusion is a comfort: People of faith must be tolerant. Star-Ledger Egginton's book is a very useful resource for survey or elective undergraduate courses. Highly recommended. ChoiceTable of ContentsAcknowledgments (and Apologies) Introduction: An Uncertain Faith 1. Dogmatic Atheism 2. The Fundamentalism of Everyday Life 3. The Language of God 4. Faith in Science 5. In Defense of Religious Moderation Selected Bibliography and Recommended Reading Index
£58.77
Columbia University Press A Farewell to Truth
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewGianni Vattimo has long had his finger squarely on the pulse of a world weary of strong, aggressive claims to truth, precisely for fear that such assertions too often result in belligerent intolerance and even in spiritual and physical violence. In A Farewell to Truth, he continues to offer thoughtful and provocative challenges to all those who hold for a naively objective notion of truth. Vattimo's signature 'weak thought' offers readers a theoretical basis for tolerance and pluralism without sacrificing truth claims entirely. Everyone will find in this highly readable volume a stimulating incitement to further thought and animated debate. -- Thomas G. Guarino, Seton Hall University When a major thinker takes pains to bid farewell to a defining project of humanity, as Immanuel Kant did with metaphysics, Karl Marx did with religion, Martin Heidegger did with philosophy, and Gianni Vattimo has done with truth, it is usually not to get rid of it but to reopen it and realize its promise. This is the truth of this provocative book. -- Jean Grondin, Universite de Montreal, author of Introduction to Metaphysics: From Parmenides to Levinas Clearly written, rigorously yet passionately argued, A Farewell to Truth is Gianni Vattimo's exciting philosophical manifesto for a credible political liberation, recognizing how, when faced with postmodern pluralism, the truth can only and necessarily appear as a matter of consensus over collective interpretations and shared paradigms. In this sense, Vattimo's claim that a farewell to (absolute and objectivistic) truths is 'the commencement and the very basis of democracy' is not only highly plausible but extraordinarily inspiring for those who have not lost hope that philosophy may (still and always) contribute politically and ethically to the fate of our contemporary globalized world. -- Silvia Benso, Rochester Insitute of TechnologyTable of ContentsForeword, by Robert T. Valgenti Introduction 1. Beyond the Myth of Objective Truth 2. The Future of Religion 3. The End of Philosophy Notes Bibliography
£58.90
Columbia University Press Between a Man and a Woman
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewViefhues-Bailey does, however, very effectively clarify some crucial points in frequently enlightening ways, and the book constitutes a useful and significant intervention into this most confounding political impasse of our time. -- Whitney Strub H-HistSex ...Viefhues-Bailey's book participates in a reserved yet powerful undermining of homophobia in general... Books and IdeasTable of ContentsAuthor's Note Acknowledgments 1. Introduction Who Are the Conservative Christians, by and Why the Focus on Focus on the Family? Connection to Previous Research Structure of the Book Theoretical Considerations and Methodological Consequences 2. Religious Interests Between Bible and Politics Love Between Gays or Lesbians Is Wrong, by Because the Bible Tells Me So? A Confluence of Forces: Religion and Politics 3. America and the State of Respectable Christian Romance Same-Sex Couples and the Moral and Spiritual Stamina of the Nation Theologies of Christian Marriage American (Christian) Marriage: A History of Change Protecting the Body Politic: A Political Analysis Conclusion: Religion, by Respectability 4. Same-Sex Love and the Impossibility of Christian Femininity and Masculinity Gays and Feminists: From Logic to Rhetoric Christian Masculinity as Crisis Submission and the Crisis of Christian Womanhood Complicated Flows of Power in Ordinary Family Life 5. A Political and Sexual Theology of Crisis Beyond Functionalism Struggling for the Christian Life A Political and Sexual Theology of Crisis Notes Bibliography Index
£35.70
Columbia University Press Radical Democracy and Political Theology
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe work is an extremely interesting synthesis of current scholarship on political theology and radical democracy, -- David McKenzie Journal of Church and StateTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Part I. Radical Democracy 1. Democracy, More or Less Interlude: Managing Democracy Abroad 2. Democracy, Radically Conceived Part II. Political Theology 3. Political Theology and the Postsecular Interlude: The Iranian Revolution Redux 4. Political Theology, Beyond Despair 5. Political Theologies, or Finding an Alternative to Schmitt 6. The Theopolitics of Democracy Interlude: The Messianic as a Democratic Political Theology Conclusion: From the One to the Many Notes Index
£79.20
Columbia University Press Religion and Ecology
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA very impressive book; a visionary synthesis of the most important issues concerning the intersection of science, religion, politics, and philosophy. Bauman weaves a complex and powerful narrative in his constitution of a planetary community. Religion and Ecology is a unique contribution to a growing body of work that critically rethinks our ideas of nature to vitalize the possibilities of material and ecological thinking. -- Clayton Crockett, University of Central Arkansas Scholarship has needed this book for quite a while, one that boldly synthesizes new materialism, queer theory, ecology, and spirituality. -- Tim Morton, Rice University If I could send Obama, Xi Jinping, and Angela Merkel a book (and they would promise to study it), this would be it. These powerful politicians need to understand that their ethical obligations in the twenty-first century will not be toward globalized beings but rather planetary Being, that is, people, animals, and plants who perform their identities rather than submit to them. These are also Beings who know there is no certainty when it comes to performance because, as Bauman says, 'the only certainty is that when certainty is imposed on the world love is impossible and violence is inevitable.' This is a book philosophers, theologians, and scientists will debate for a very long time. -- Santiago Zabala, ICREA Research Professor at the University of Barcelona and coautho,r with Gianni Vattimo, of Hermeneutic Communism Any self-respecting earthling will love this book. Bauman invites us to the 'polyamoury of place' for a new powow of science, religion, and nature. His dazzlingly engaging investigation does not close in our possibilities; deftly subversive, queerly erudite, it does not just analyze, it activates our 'becoming with earth others.' -- Catherine Keller, Drew University Bauman's book [is] the best available book on the subject. -- Andrew J. Spencer Environmental Ethics Because this book brings together so many different perspectives and issues, it is especially helpful for religion scholars and theologians who are not familiar with environmental issues, but it will also be of interest to environmental ethicists and ecotheologians, who will find Bauman's use of queer theory and his critique of bioregionalism both original and constructive. -- Anna Peterson Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and EcologyTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: The Emergence of Planetary Identities 1. Religion and Science in Dialogue 2. Destabilizing Nature: Natura Naturans, Emergence, and Evolution's Rainbow 3. Destabilizing Religion: The Death of God, a Viable Agnosticism, and the Embrace of Polydoxy 4. Destabilizing Identity: Beyond Identity Solipsism 5. The Emergence of Ecoreligious Identities 6. Developing Planetary Environmental Ethics: A Nomadic Polyamory of Place 7. Challenging Human Exceptionalism: Human Becoming, Technology, Earth Others, and Planetary Identities Notes Glossary Works Cited Index
£82.80
Columbia University Press Christ Without Adam
Book SynopsisChrist Without Adam is the first book to examine the role of gender and sexuality in the turn to the apostle Paul in recent Continental philosophy.Trade ReviewChrist Without Adam stands alongside scholarly works by a number of notable scholars of religion who engage efforts by contemporary continental philosophers to draw on the writings of the apostle Paul. It is exceptionally well positioned and appropriately in dialogue with relevant secondary literature, with an original-and important-thesis. -- Jennifer Glancy, LeMoyne College Ben Dunning's Christ Without Adam is a nuanced consideration of the typological framework for a human anthropology that can be derived from the letters of Paul. Noting the enthusiasm with which Paul has been taken up by contemporary theologians, critical theorists, and Continental philosophers, Dunning traces the arguments of three of the most important and influential such thinkers-Stanislas Breton, Alain Badiou, and Slavoj Zizek-on the relations between Adam and Christ in creating this typology. The thinkers Dunning takes up are notoriously complex and not infrequently obscure. He does an excellent job of making their work as clear and accessible as it can possibly be. -- Karmen MacKendrick, LeMoyne College Dunning convinces even those who 'are not in Christ' that the Christian theological enterprise has something to teach us all, that its questions are questions with which we all can identify, that its answers are more than relevant even for nonbelievers, and that the theological reading is more universal, against all expectations, than the postmodern philosophical ones. -- Daniel Boyarin, University of California, Berkeley In Christ Without Adam, Benjamin H. Dunning provides the fullest and most acute critique of 'the philosophers' Paul' thus far. In Romans and First Corinthians, Paul places embodied humanity in a theological space defined by Adam and Christ, who are inseparably linked-a space haunted by the female Eve. By showing how Stanislas Breton, Alain Badiou, and Slavoj Zizek ignore or play down Paul's Adam in their diverse appropriations of Paul's Christ, Dunning exposes the suppression of sexual difference that their versions of Pauline universalism entail. He compellingly argues that Paul's Adam-Christ typology renders queerly unstable gendered identities that some philosophers and theologians claim to be naturally and eschatologically stable. An outstanding contribution not only to Pauline studies and critical theory but also to contemporary Christian theological anthropology. -- David Brakke, Ohio State University Dunning pointedly unpacks theorists' misreadings and partial readings of Paul. He constructively suggests how looking to Paul, while paying closer attention to human embodiment and sexual differentiation, might provide a richer Christian anthropology. A smart and timely book. -- Elizabeth Clark, Duke University In this theoretically and theologically sophisticated book, Dunning argues against the reclamation of the 'universal' attempted in Breton, Badiou, and Zizek, rendered problematic by their erasure of sexual difference in their 'Pauline universal.' Dunning draws on poststructuralist feminist theorists-Judith Butler, Amy Hollywood, Eve Kosofski Sedgwick, and Jacqueline Rose, among others-to argue instead for an unsettled queer and variable sexuality in theological anthropology. Dunning makes a Christian theological argument that Paul's texts, no matter the 'historical Pauline intention,' allow us to imagine open-ended ways of being sexed and gendered, and that such a possibility need not mean falling into uncritical 'identity politics,' so despised especially by Badiou and Zizek. Dunning's proposals are fresh and compelling-and surprisingly generative for constructive theology. -- Dale B. Martin, Yale University Thoughtful... An important book for advanced students of theology and philosophy. CHOICETable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Reading Anthropology in Breton's Saint Paul 2. Mysticism, Femininity, and Difference in Badiou's Theory of Pauline Discourses 3. "Adam Is Christ": Zizek, Paul, and the Collapse of the Anthropological Interval 4. Pauline Typology, Theological Anthropology, and the Possibilities of Impossible Difference Notes Bibliography Index
£18.70
Columbia University Press Rawls and Religion
Book SynopsisEstablished scholars of Rawls and the philosophy of religion reexamine and rearticulate the central tenets of Rawls’s theoryTrade ReviewJohn Rawls's liberal theory of justice has been one of the most exciting and influential developments in political philosophy formore than a century. Yet the place of religion in his philosophy remains underexplored. Rawls and Religion is essential reading on this topic, featuring groundbreaking essays by leading philosophers in the field. -- Thom Brooks, Durham University A superb volume that takes up questions of deep and topical interest, brings together major scholars in the field, and encourages us all to rethink the role of religion in the liberal state. -- Cecile Laborde, University College London For those interested in religion and its role in political philosophy, this is a must read... Highly recommended. Choice An excellent collection. -- Daniel A. Dombrowski Social Theory and Practice An excellent book -- Pietro Maffettone ID: International Dialogue The chapters are well written and insightful. This book will be a relevant read for critics and supporters of Rawls alike. Journal of Church and StateTable of ContentsForeword, by Sebastiano Maffettone Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction, by Tom Bailey and Valentina Gentile Part I. Reinterpreting Rawls on Religion 1. Respect and War: Against the Standard View of Religion in Politics, by Christopher J. Eberle 2. Religion and Liberalism: Was Rawls Right After All?, by Robert B. Talisse 3. Inclusivism, Stability, and Assurance, by Paul Weithman 4. Rethinking the Public Use of Religious Reasons, by Andrew F. March Part II. Accommodating Religions with Rawls 5. The Liberal State and the Religious Citizen: Justificatory Perspectives in Political Liberalism, by Patrick Neal 6. Reasoning from Conjecture: A Reply to Three Objections, by Micah Schwartzman 7. The Religious Hermeneutics of Public Reasoning: From Paul to Rawls, by Johannes A. van der Ven Part III. Transcending Rawls 8. E Pluribus Unum: Justification and Redemption in Rawls, Cohen, and Habermas, by James Gledhill 9. A Reasonable Faith? Pope Benedict's Response to Rawls, by Peter Jonkers 10. Islamic Politics and the Neutral State: A Friendly Amendment to Rawls?, by Abdullahi A. An-Na'im Bibliography List of Contributors Index
£83.60
Columbia University Press Rawls and Religion
Book SynopsisEstablished scholars of Rawls and the philosophy of religion reexamine and rearticulate the central tenets of Rawls’s theoryTrade ReviewJohn Rawls's liberal theory of justice has been one of the most exciting and influential developments in political philosophy formore than a century. Yet the place of religion in his philosophy remains underexplored. Rawls and Religion is essential reading on this topic, featuring groundbreaking essays by leading philosophers in the field. -- Thom Brooks, Durham University A superb volume that takes up questions of deep and topical interest, brings together major scholars in the field, and encourages us all to rethink the role of religion in the liberal state. -- Cecile Laborde, University College London For those interested in religion and its role in political philosophy, this is a must read... Highly recommended. Choice An excellent collection. -- Daniel A. Dombrowski Social Theory and Practice An excellent book -- Pietro Maffettone ID: International Dialogue The chapters are well written and insightful. This book will be a relevant read for critics and supporters of Rawls alike. Journal of Church and StateTable of ContentsForeword, by Sebastiano Maffettone Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction, by Tom Bailey and Valentina Gentile Part I. Reinterpreting Rawls on Religion 1. Respect and War: Against the Standard View of Religion in Politics, by Christopher J. Eberle 2. Religion and Liberalism: Was Rawls Right After All?, by Robert B. Talisse 3. Inclusivism, Stability, and Assurance, by Paul Weithman 4. Rethinking the Public Use of Religious Reasons, by Andrew F. March Part II. Accommodating Religions with Rawls 5. The Liberal State and the Religious Citizen: Justificatory Perspectives in Political Liberalism, by Patrick Neal 6. Reasoning from Conjecture: A Reply to Three Objections, by Micah Schwartzman 7. The Religious Hermeneutics of Public Reasoning: From Paul to Rawls, by Johannes A. van der Ven Part III. Transcending Rawls 8. E Pluribus Unum: Justification and Redemption in Rawls, Cohen, and Habermas, by James Gledhill 9. A Reasonable Faith? Pope Benedict's Response to Rawls, by Peter Jonkers 10. Islamic Politics and the Neutral State: A Friendly Amendment to Rawls?, by Abdullahi A. An-Na'im Bibliography List of Contributors Index
£25.20
Columbia University Press Paving the Great Way
Book SynopsisFeaturing close studies of Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakosabhasya, Vyakhyayukti, Vimsatika, and Trisvabhavanirdesa, among other works, this book identifies recurrent treatments of causality and scriptural interpretation that unify distinct strands of thought under a single, coherent Buddhist philosophyTrade ReviewVasubandhu, one of the greatest minds in the history of Buddhism, is brought to life in these pages. Jonathan Gold's synthetic treatment of his most important ideas is a model for how to treat the work of a classical Buddhist thinker. Written in clear and lively prose, Paving the Great Way will be the definitive work on this great Buddhist philosopher for many years to come. Essential reading for anyone interested in classical Buddhist thought. -- Jose Ignacio Cabezon, University of California, Santa Barbara Gold has done something extraordinary: he has pulled together the key philosophical strands running through Vasubandhu's works, thereby demonstrating far greater continuity than might have been suspected, and he has given us a much deeper and more compelling author as a result. This book will forever change the way we read Vasubandhu. -- Mark Siderits, Seoul National University A rare example of a sustained and subtle engagement with the whole career of one of history's greatest Buddhist philosophers, Paving the Great Way makes an important and eminently readable case for thinking that the works of the prolific Buddhist thinker Vasubandhu represent the development of a unified philosophical project. -- Dan Arnold, University of Chicago Paving the Great Way is a masterpiece of philosophical exposition, synthesis, and creative commentary. Gold addresses every facet of Vasubandhu's considerable and varied corpus and integrates them in his articulation of Vasubandhu's original synthesis of Buddhist ideas. Gold brings to this project great philological erudition, deep philosophical insight, scrupulous commentarial skills, and a marvelous lucidity in exposition. This book is a major contribution not only to Vasubandhu scholarship but also to Yogacara studies, the history of Indian philosophy, the history of world philosophy, and the engagement between Western and Buddhist philosophical scholarship. -- Jay L. Garfield, Yale-NUS College This book makes a major contribution not only to Vasubandhu scholarship but also to Yogacara scholarship as well as to the history of Indian Buddhist philosophy and contemporary engagement between Western and Asian Buddhist philosophical scholarship... Highly recommended. Choice Beautifully written and cogently argued... A superb assessment of one of Buddhism's greatest thinkers. Buddhadharma An erudite, informative, impressively organized and presented study, Paving the Great Way: Vasubandhu's Unifying Buddhist Philosophy is a model of insightful scholarship. Midwest Book Review I am sure that students of Buddhism will use Gold's extraordinary book for a long time to come. Journal of ReligionTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Abbreviations 1. Summarizing Vasubandhu: Should a Buddhist Philosopher Have a Philosophy? 2. Against the Times: Vasubandhu's Critique of His Main Abhidharma Rivals 3. Merely Cause and Result: The Imagined Self and the Literalistic Mind 4. Knowledge, Language, and the Interpretation of Scripture: Vasubandhu's Opening to the Mahayana 5. Vasubandhu's Yogacara: Enshrining the Causal Line in the Three Natures 6. Agency and the Ethics of Massively Cumulative Causality Conclusion: Buddhist Causal Framing for the Modern World Appendix A. Against the Existence of the Three Times Appendix B. Brief Disproof of the Self Appendix C. Discussion of "View" (Drsti) Appendix D. Against the Eternality of Atoms (Paramanu) Appendix E. The Proper Mode of Exposition on Conventional and Ultimate Appendix F. The Twenty Verses on Appearance and Memory Appendix G. The Three Natures Exposition Notes Bibliography Index
£80.39
Columbia University Press Broken Tablets Levinas Derrida and the Literary
Book SynopsisOver thirty years, Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida conversed across texts about the interrelation of philosophy, religion and literature. In Broken Tablets, Sarah Hammerschlag traces that conversation and argues for its political significance, highlighting the role that Judaism played in their relationship.Trade ReviewThis text offers a careful tracking of the intellectual dynamic between Derrida and Levinas, showing how a biographical and philosophical proximity coexisted with divergent views on religion and language. The ethical claim in Levinas's work is taken up by Derrida with gravity and irony. This careful historical and textual analysis allows us to see how these thinkers are bound up with one another even as Levinas presses philosophy toward religion and for Derrida, it is literature that is at the heart of sanctity and betrayal. At stake in this copious and attentive comparative work is the question, what is it to be a Jewish thinker? In the end, it appears that 'otherness' remains and persists as a broken tablet whose secret meaning is never fully revealed but hides out in public view. This is a welcome book, exacting and detailed, that gives us a story and a theory, a scene of enigmatic and provocative encounter between Levinas and Derrida. -- Judith Butler, University of California, Berkeley A remarkably clear, incisive, and important book. It will be required reading for those interested in Levinas and Derrida and for all of those in the study of religion who wish to explore the relationship between ethics, politics, religion, and literature. -- Amy Hollywood, Harvard Divinity School Deconstruction teaches us to question the integrity of binary oppositions, destabilizing conventional wisdom about the fixity of our categorical distinctions. But what if the field of contesting terms has three or more components? Beginning with the legacies of Derrida and Levinas, Hammerschlag investigates the oscillating similarities that united and dissimilarities that divided them. But then with her customary analytical acumen, she builds upon that exercise to explore their dynamic implications for the triangulated relationship between philosophy, religion, and literature, while complicating the argument still further by adding politics to the mix. The result is a remarkable, four-dimensional map of the rolling and jagged landscape of recent theoretical discourse. -- Martin Jay, University of California, Berkeley From early texts such as Violence and Metaphysics to late works such as Adieu, Derrida sustained a powerful and philosophically productive bond with Levinas. But their differences, in matters of metaphysics and on the question of Jewish 'communitarianism,' were profound. In this searching and suggestive meditation, Hammerschlag asks us to consider anew this troubled affiliation and examines the dialectic of fidelity and betrayal that marked their intellectual friendship across the decades. -- Peter E. Gordon, Harvard UniversityTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Abbreviations 1. "What Must a Jewish Thinker Be?" 2. Levinas, Literature, and the Ruin of the World 3. Between the Jew and Writing 4. To Lose One's Head: Literature and the Democracy to Come 5. Literature and the Political-Theological Remains Epilogue: "There Is Not a Pin to Choose Between Us" Notes Bibliography Index
£25.20
Columbia University Press Pauls Summons to Messianic Life Political
Book SynopsisCompares the Pauline dialectic of awakening to attempts by Hellenistic philosophers to rouse their contemporaries from moral lethargy and to the Marxist idea of class consciousnessTrade ReviewA courageous and welcome grappling with contemporary philosophers by a New Testament scholar who has expertise in the history, languages, and methodologies of reading Paul. Paul's Summons to Messianic Life reminds us of the relevance of New Testament scholarship to important contemporary debates on universalism, time, and even political action. -- Laura Nasrallah, Harvard Divinity School A manifesto for a Paulinism received histories have strategically forgotten, Welborn's book presents a compelling rethinking of the historical Paul in ancient contexts that substantially transforms the way we hear Paul in recent theoretical or philosophical conversations. -- Ward Blanton, University of Kent Paul's Summons to Messianic Life should spark a lively and far-reaching debate in both departments of religion and philosophy that might indeed make Paul 'legible' in entirely new ways. -- Brigitte Kahl, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York A provocative sociopolitical analysis of Paul's letters... Recommended. Choice [I] eagerly await a sequel and recommend this book to anyone interested in the contemporary political implications of St. Paul's theology. Journal of Church and State An interesting read that offers food for thought. Journal of Theological StudiesTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments 1. Neighbor (a) 2. Kairos (b) 3. Awakening (c) 4. Awakening (c') 5. Kairos (b') 6. Neighbor (a') 7. Coda Notes Index
£63.00
Columbia University Press An Insurrectionist Manifesto
Book SynopsisA call for new forms of solidarity and spiritual practice.Trade ReviewEach gospel-like contribution to The Insurrectionist Manifesto can be read separately, but when they are read in tandem, a particular disturbing power is occasioned. I found myself stimulated and conceptually shaken in equal fashion. The call of these gospels has the potential to disturb the ground of our being. Those who hear it will be positively afflicted by a series of challenges that are exciting and demanding in equal measure. -- Mike Grimshaw, University of Canterbury Attempts to break the age-old grip of the transcendent on theological thought have multiplied in recent years. In this indispensable provocation to thought, these wonderfully intrepid and scholarly philosophers of religion have pushed the accompanying turn toward immanence in the direction of the political in all its hugely varied insurrectionist forms. -- Kenneth Surin, Duke University In these unapologetic, interlocking essays, we find a radical theology that finally lives up to its name. Here theology tumbles kenotically, inexorably, into political economy, literature, climate science, postcoloniality, critical race theory, and nonequilibrium thermodynamics, forcing us to face the earth, sky, mortals, and gods as they are-and in all that they're not-and only then as they might yet be. -- Mary-Jane Rubenstein, author of Worlds Without End: The Many Lives of the Multiverse New concepts are very rare, but when philosophers manage to create them, everything changes. This manifesto thrust us into an 'insurrectionist' theology where Nietzsche's death of God, Zizek's ontology of the Real, and Malabou's plastic materiality come together to overcome those metaphysical frames that still condition our lives. Anyone interested in radical theology, philosophy, and politics in the 21st century must read this book carefully since he might find himself also to be an insurrectionist. -- Santiago Zabala, ICREA Research Professor of Philosophy at Pompeu Fabra UniversityTable of ContentsForeword, by Peter Rollins Preface, by Creston Davis Introduction: What Is Insurrectionist Theology?, by Ward Blanton, Clayton Crockett, Jeffrey W. Robbins, and Noelle Vahanian 1. Earth: What Can a Planet Do?, by Clayton Crockett 2. Satellite Skies; or, The Gospel and Acts of the Vampirisms of Transcendence, by Ward Blanton 3. A Theory of Insurrection: Beyond the Way of the Mortals, by Jeffrey W. Robbins 4. The Gospel of the Word Made Flesh: Insurrection from Within the Heart of Divinity, by Noelle Vahanian Afterword, by Catherine Keller Notes Index
£79.20
Columbia University Press An Insurrectionist Manifesto
Book SynopsisA call for new forms of solidarity and spiritual practice.Trade ReviewEach gospel-like contribution to The Insurrectionist Manifesto can be read separately, but when they are read in tandem, a particular disturbing power is occasioned. I found myself stimulated and conceptually shaken in equal fashion. The call of these gospels has the potential to disturb the ground of our being. Those who hear it will be positively afflicted by a series of challenges that are exciting and demanding in equal measure. -- Mike Grimshaw, University of Canterbury Attempts to break the age-old grip of the transcendent on theological thought have multiplied in recent years. In this indispensable provocation to thought, these wonderfully intrepid and scholarly philosophers of religion have pushed the accompanying turn toward immanence in the direction of the political in all its hugely varied insurrectionist forms. -- Kenneth Surin, Duke University In these unapologetic, interlocking essays, we find a radical theology that finally lives up to its name. Here theology tumbles kenotically, inexorably, into political economy, literature, climate science, postcoloniality, critical race theory, and nonequilibrium thermodynamics, forcing us to face the earth, sky, mortals, and gods as they are-and in all that they're not-and only then as they might yet be. -- Mary-Jane Rubenstein, author of Worlds Without End: The Many Lives of the Multiverse New concepts are very rare, but when philosophers manage to create them, everything changes. This manifesto thrust us into an 'insurrectionist' theology where Nietzsche's death of God, Zizek's ontology of the Real, and Malabou's plastic materiality come together to overcome those metaphysical frames that still condition our lives. Anyone interested in radical theology, philosophy, and politics in the 21st century must read this book carefully since he might find himself also to be an insurrectionist. -- Santiago Zabala, ICREA Research Professor of Philosophy at Pompeu Fabra UniversityTable of ContentsForeword, by Peter Rollins Preface, by Creston Davis Introduction: What Is Insurrectionist Theology?, by Ward Blanton, Clayton Crockett, Jeffrey W. Robbins, and Noelle Vahanian 1. Earth: What Can a Planet Do?, by Clayton Crockett 2. Satellite Skies; or, The Gospel and Acts of the Vampirisms of Transcendence, by Ward Blanton 3. A Theory of Insurrection: Beyond the Way of the Mortals, by Jeffrey W. Robbins 4. The Gospel of the Word Made Flesh: Insurrection from Within the Heart of Divinity, by Noelle Vahanian Afterword, by Catherine Keller Notes Index
£22.50
Columbia University Press The Intimate Universal
Book SynopsisWilliam Desmond sees religion, art, philosophy, and politics as essential and distinctive modes of human practice, manifestations of an intimate universality that illuminates individual and social being. By observing their permeable relations, Desmond captures notes of a clandestine conversation that transforms ontology.Trade ReviewA marvelously articulated work with a consummately refined language of its own for conceiving the perennial issues of philosophy in fresh and compelling terms. -- William Franke, Vanderbilt University and University of Macao Desmond combines the virtues of scope, systematic rigor, and highly individual manner of perception and expression. -- Cyril O'Regan, University of Notre Dame In this excellent and interesting work, Desmond is expanding and refining his already considerable contribution to contemporary continental philosophy in a metaphysical register. -- Christopher Ben Simpson, Lincoln Christian University How can something singular, in all the depths of its singularity, communicate with the universal, with the result that the singular is not contracted to itself and the universal is not a free floating abstraction? William Desmond explores this basic question in all its dimensions in the steady, systematic and meticulous manner we have come to expect from him in this not to be missed new volume. -- John D. Caputo, Emeritus Professor, Syracuse University and Villanova University There is today no more important philosophical project being undertaken than that of William Desmond's poetic, unshirkingly apposite and yet unpretentious attempt to rethink a metaphysics of analogy and mediation. This book represents another chapter in its unfolding. -- John Milbank, University of NottinghamTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: For and Against the Universal-Doing Justice Part I: The Intimate Universal-Exoteric Reflections: Religion 1. Religion and the Intimate Universal: Neither Cosmopolis nor Ghetto 2. Art and the Intimate Universal: Neither Imitation nor Self-Creation 3. Philosophy and the Intimate Universal: Neither Theory nor Practice 4. Politics and the Intimate Universal: Neither Servility nor Sovereignty Part II: The Intimate Universal-Systematic Thoughts: From the Idiotic to the Agapeic 5. The Idiotics of the Intimate Universal 6. The Aesthetics of the Intimate Universal 7. The Erotics of the Intimate Universal 8. The Agapeics of the Intimate Universal Glossary Notes Index
£52.70
Columbia University Press The Sacrality of the Secular
Book SynopsisAs philosophers in the continental tradition have taken an interest in the return of religion, anthropologists and sociologists have rejected the once-dominant secularization thesis. Bradley B. Onishi connects these lines of thought to reveal how philosophy’s religious investigations have enabled critical reflections on the category of the secular. Trade ReviewThe Sacrality of the Secular is a sophisticated study of religious resources implicit in ostensibly secular culture. Onishi demonstrates how the American appropriation of Heidegger and post-Heideggerian philosophy contributed to “the religious turn” in continental philosophy. The significance of this work extends far beyond the field of religious studies. Through a critical reassessment of theories of modernization and disenchantment, Onishi charts new directions for cultural inquiry at a time when the humanities have lost their way. -- Mark C. Taylor, Columbia UniversityIn The Sacrality of the Secular, Bradley B. Onishi seeks to answer two questions: Does secularity equate to disenchantment? And what and how does philosophy of religion, in particular continental philosophy of religion, contribute to religious studies? Onishi has done a brilliant job at the difficult task of bringing these two questions together, showing how the answer to the second opens the path for a creative response to the impasses to which the first has come. -- Jeffrey Kosky, Washington and Lee UniversityIn his timely and welcome book, Onishi argues persuasively that philosophers of religion working out of continental philosophy have significant contributions to make to the study of religion and to the study of the modern opposition between the religious and the secular. -- Tyler Roberts, Grinnell CollegeOnishi's book is clearly written, offers a thoughtful introduction to the field of continental philosophy of religion, and lays out a coherent case for why the secular can be sacred on its own terms. -- Anthony D. Traylor * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Valuable as a contribution to philosophical research on secularity and as a survey of the Continental philosophy of religion after Heidegger. * Choice *Onishi’s rewriting of the history of the field nevertheless provides a constructive, and for that reason welcome vision for the future of philosophy of religion. * Journal of Religion *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: Philosophy’s “Turn to Religion” and Secularities 1. Different Worlds: Weber, Heidegger, and the Meaning of Life2. Philosophizing with Religion: Secular Reenchantment in the Early Heidegger3. Excendence and Heterology: Religious and Secular in Interwar Paris4. A Prophet of the Impossible: Bataille’s Mystical Turn and Continental Philosophy of Religion5. The Sacrality of the Secular: On the History and End of Philosophy of ReligionConclusion: Contemporary Philosophy of Religion and Religious Studies—Three ExamplesNotesBibliographyIndex
£52.70
Columbia University Press The Limits of Tolerance
Book SynopsisDenis Lacorne traces the emergence of the modern notion of religious tolerance in order to rethink how we should respond to its contemporary tensions. He defends the Enlightenment concept against recent attempts to circumscribe it, arguing that without it a pluralistic society cannot survive.Trade Review[Lacorne] gives no pat answers, but an implicit lesson runs throughout. Defending toleration is not like protecting a jewel. It takes fixity of aim but also a feel for the changing context, persistence with a task that never ends, and readiness to start again. Toleration does gradually spread. It can also suddenly vanish. * The Economist *I simply don’t know a book on toleration that compares to this one. Denis Lacorne has managed to weave together both an intellectual history of ideas about toleration and a wide-ranging international survey of policies related to it. Theory and practice come together in a very illuminating way and will expand the American reader’s horizon beyond our borders. -- Mark Lilla, author of The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity PoliticsLiving in a religiously tolerant society, Americans no longer understand what the challenge of achieving religious toleration originally meant: learning to coexist with beliefs and practices that one detested. Denis Lacorne begins this critical survey by recalling the great Enlightenment voices for toleration: Locke, Voltaire, and the American founders. But he then examines modern European and American disputes to demonstrate why the struggle for toleration and free exercise remains so problematic—a fight that never quite ends but that we grasp much better after reading Lacorne's crisp and incisive chapters. -- Jack N. Rakove, author of Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the ConstitutionA timely, erudite, and insightful book that sheds light on issues concerning whether and when contemporary democracies should restrict the practices and beliefs of nonmainstream religious and political groups. It is the best book written on this subject to date. -- Bruce Cain, author of Democracy More or Less: America’s Political Reform QuandaryThis insightful study will be useful to all who are interested in clarifying their own views of this critical subject. * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsNew Introduction for the American Edition1. Tolerance According to John Locke2. Voltaire and Modern Tolerance3. Tolerance in America4. Tolerance in the Ottoman Empire5. Tolerance in Venice6. On Blasphemy7. Multicultural Tolerance8. Of Veils and Unveiling9. New Restrictions, New Forms of Tolerance10. Should We Tolerate the Enemies of Tolerance?Epilogue for the American Edition: Tolerance in the Age of TerrorismNotesIndex
£69.26
