Description
Book SynopsisDivine Enticement argues for a reconception of theology and its subject matter as modes of seduction, of both body and mind. Theological language as evocation opens onto rereadings of faith, sacrament, ethics, prayer, and scripture. The conclusion argues for a sense of theology as calling upon infinite possibility.
Trade Review"MacKendrick mines a Platonically-inflected Christian tradition to reimagine for today how to ask the question of God in an intertwining of memory, desire, and words that are both excessive and inadequate. Valentinus, Augustine, Nietzsche, and Chretien are among the stunning array of conversation partners in this evocative staging of a poetic theology in which God is a coincidence of 'all names' and 'not nameable.' Divine Enticement elicits theology's seductive potential in seductively elegant prose." -- -Patricia Cox Miller Syracuse University "Once again, MacKendrick's contemplative writing draws us, calls us, into a bottomlessly alluring enigma. Much too enticing, this text, for theology or philosophy proper-and yet students at the liveliest reaches of either must irresistibly respond. For with its gentle brilliance, it plumbs the deep unknowing from which any knowledge worth thinking emanates." -- -Catherine Keller Drew University "In the Republic, Plato's Socrates calls for lovers of poetry to speak in prose about the benefits of poetic instruction and pleasure; this requires respect for tragedy, but not obsession with it. Karmen MacKendrick is one of those rare thinkers-too rare in a dispirited republic-who speaks the language that Socrates is calling for. In Divine Enticement, she does for theology what Anne Carson does for classics: she restores intrigue and eros to erudition." -- -Jim Wetzel Villanova University "The book takes up traditional theological topics such as prayer, sacraments, and Scripture, reading them in a way that explores not a 'fixed' meaning, but rather how these practices and texts allow God to call and shape people. . Recommended." -Choice "Beautifully written and elegantly theorized..." -- -Virginia Burrus Drew Theological Seminary
