Description
Book SynopsisFor centuries people have debated the nature of the human self. Running beneath these various arguments lie three certainties -- we are born, reproduce sexually, and die.
Trade Review"...[T]his book is passionate and temperate, thoughtful and bold. It is also beautifully written and a pleasure to read."
Esther Reed, Reviews in Religion and Theology "All of us were born; all of us will die; all of us are sexual. Beverley Clack's new book takes an intelligent and thought-provoking look at these basic human realities, showing how spiritual meaning and physical reality conjoin. It is a wide-ranging and carefully argued book that makes unexpected and imaginative connections. It is also a book of compassionate humanity." Grace M. Jantzen, University of Manchester
"Western accounts of the best human life have usually pictured masculine reason and will as battling to transcend and escape from nature, sex and death, and have been marked by a weirdly negative attitude especially for the female reproductive apparatus. Beverley Clack rejects that whole tradition and instead sees the good life as growing out of an acceptance of the body, transience, sex and death. She boldly tackles, not just Augustine and Freud, but also Sade, head-on. This is a vigorous and enjoyable study, and (of course) she's right." Don Cupitt, Emmanuel College, Cambridge
"This is an engaging and thoughtful piece of work, convincing in its own terms"Elizabeth Stuart, Theology
"...it [the book] leads readers to engage philosophically with arguments that have the potential to change their fundamental attitudes" Stan van Hooft, Philosophy in Review
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments.
Introduction.
Chapter 1: Transcending Mortality: Plato's Philosophy and Augustine's Theology.
Chapter 2: Transcending the Void: Sex and Death in Sartre and Beauvoir's Existentialism.
Chapter 3: Eros, Thanatos and the Human Self: Sigmund Freud.
Chapter 4 : Sex and Death in a Meaningless Universe: The Marquis de Sade.
.
Chapter 5: Living in Accordance with Nature: Seneca.
Conclusion: Sex, Death, and the Meaningful Life.
Notes.
References and Bibliography.
Index.
