Description
Book SynopsisThis book’s relational theology analogically unfolds a view of a God of enjoyment whose exuberant passion contains the traces of suffering, yearning, permeability, intensity, and impropriety. God, in affectively embracing all living beings, takes on their form, and in incarnating the divine self as hospitable pleasure, vivifies the cosmos.
Trade Review"Elaine Padilla's book offers a breath of fresh air into a theological discourse that often dwells on suffering and survival, ignoring our desire and attempts to achieve enjoyment. Her theology of enjoyment emphasizes reciprocal and communal relations between God and God's creation. Padilla's poetic, erotic, and aesthetic approach expands theological language about the sacred and offers an alternative metaphysics infused with passion and pleasure." -- -Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado University of Miami "Brimming with laughter, subversion, and fiesta, Divine Enjoyment leads us with utter grace in a new theological dance. Attentive to the open wounds of human suffering precisely as open ends of a boundless passion, Elaine Padilla has with stunning lucidity and erudition opened a cosmos of erotic splendor, enjoyed by a God of utter permeability and care. Here-with the most sensitive polyamory-Aquinas, Whitehead, Maduro, Marion, and Althaus Reid form with her a carnivalesque ensemble, inviting philosophical theology to its own most vibrant becoming." -- -Catherine Keller author of The Cloud of the Impossible: Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement (forthcoming) "Padilla's constructive proposal of a theology of a passionate and exuberant God- the God of eros, desire, compassion, suffering, love, and self-transformation- will resonate deeply with contemporary readers of diverse religious persuasions. The book is a highly erudite and breathtakingly creative synthesis of classical theological works. It transforms and enriches our understanding of who God is in a way totally unexpected. It is no doubt one of the best books on God by the younger American theologians." -- -Peter Phan Georgetown University
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Pain: Groans and Birth Pangs of the Divine Enjoyment 2. Yearning: Traces of the Divine Erotic Existence in the Cosmos 3. Permeability: The Open Wounds of the Lovers' Flesh 4. Intensity: Passionate Becomings of the Divine Complex 5. Impropriety: Incarnations of Carnivalesque Passion and Open-Ended Boundaries Notes Selected Bibliography Index
