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"In the Embrace of Absolute Life": A Reading of Christology and Selfhood in Michel Henry's "Christian Trilogy"
No full textMichel Henry (1922-2002) was a leading 20th century French philosopher in the school of phenomenology. The final three books of his career focus on explicitly Christian themes and texts, and these books are now known as his “Christian trilogy”. This essay focuses on this trilogy in an exposition of Henry’s Christology, his concept of the Self, and how Christology and selfhood relate to each other. The exposition of Henry’s thought on this issue is stated in the following thesis, broken into three sections: 1) God always reveals himself as Christ 2) who reveals the Truth of the Self, 3) this revelation being identical with salvation. Said again, 1) God’s Revelation is always God’s self-revelation in Christ, and is never separate from 2) the human condition of the Self as a Son of God, and this condition is never separate from 3) salvation. Revelation, selfhood, and salvation. This essay is largely expository but several constructive attempts are made to apply Henry’s philosophy of Christianity to key theological themes, namely atonement, pneumatology, and ecclesiology.Acknowledgements -- Abstract -- Introduction: Christology and Selfhood After Individualism -- Henry's Concept of Revelation -- Henry's Approach to Self-Knowledge in Christ -- Henry's Path(s) of Salvation -- Conclusion: Henry, Christian Theology, and Spirituality -- Works Cite
Review of Thomas Aquinas: Faith, Reason, and Following Christ, by Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt.
No full textLiberating Tradition: An Exploration of Liberation Theology Through the Lens of Paul Ricoeur’s Hermeneutics
No full textMaster's ThesisThis thesis explores the potential for critical transformation within religious traditions by examining Latin American Liberation Theology through the lens of Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutical phenomenology. It argues that Ricoeur’s concepts of cultural imagination and collective memory provide a robust philosophical framework to understand how religious communities can generate self-critical movements from within, rather than in opposition to, their own traditions. Using the case of Liberation Theology—a movement that reinterprets Christian doctrine to address systemic oppression in Latin America—this work analyzes how reinterpretations of religious narratives can inspire social and political action toward justice. The study traces how Liberation Theology operates both ideologically, by uniting communities around shared memories of suffering, and as a utopia, by envisioning transformed futures grounded in biblical hope. Through detailed engagement with Ricoeur's theory, the thesis demonstrates how religious traditions, when reimagined through faithful and innovative memory practices, can become dynamic sources of liberation rather than instruments of oppression
M.C. Smit Collection. Manuscripts. Fond: 001-001
No full textContains general and personal manuscripts, including essays (01-001), course syllabi (01-01.1),lecture notes (o1-o2) and conference papers (o1-02.1) as well as manuscripts/documents pertaining to his dissertation (01-004
ICSD 132502/232502 F16. Vocational Wayfinding
No full text“What am I to do with my life?” “Who am I?” There appears to be an inextricable connection between the work that we do and our sense of who we are. As the poet David Whyte has suggested, work is for all of us a pilgrimage of identity. It is not, however, a pilgrimage for which any of us are provided with a GPS device, allowing us to navigate in straight lines with comfortable certainty towards clear career objectives that cohere in obvious ways with an immutable sense of our identity. Instead, this pilgrimage is more like the experience of Polynesian sailors, who traversed the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean with the help of the stars, memory, and close attention to the patterns of the waves on the surface of the ocean as these reflected features of the ocean (including far-off islands). Polynesian wayfinding was a way of navigating that required alert improvisation and frequent reorientation from within a perpetually shifting context. Our vocational pilgrimages require of us to find our way in a similar manner.
In this course we will explore particular practices, frameworks, and tools, by means of which we can engage in vocational wayfinding. Prompted by our readings we will consider some of the relationships between work and identity: How does my work prompt my discovery of my sense of self? How do I try out possible selves in relation to whatever in the world is calling me toward particular kinds of work? What am I to do with my life? We will give close attention to those passages in our lives (in particular young adulthood and the middle passage of life) when both our work contexts and our experience of our identity are most obviously in flux. In addition, we will consider how to contribute skillful leadership and insightful mentoring to others as they engage in their own vocational wayfinding, particularly in the contexts of the workplace and educational institutions
Cross-Pressured Authenticity: Charles Taylor on the Modern Challenges to Religious Identity in a Secular Age
No full textM. C. Smit Collection. Handwritten Notes Collection. Fond 001-002
No full textThis is a collection of handwritten notes by M.C. Smit; generally written on Journal Articles and important essays in philosophy, history, and theology
Narrative companionship: philosophy, gender stereotypes, and young adult literature
No full textThis dissertation contends that North American culture is in the grip of a reductionism that neglects plurality while seeking after pseudo-universality and pseudoindividuality, exemplified by the apparently contradictory tendencies to take as normative what can be generalized and to deny universally applicable normativity. I pay special attention to gender stereotypes, in which the particular (individual) becomes irrelevant, ignored, or perceived as a threat unless it can be treated as part of the general (stereotype). I argue that philosophical fiction—and, in particular, young adult fiction— contributes to a principled plurality in both lived and academic philosophy. It does so through its imaginative power to enlarge perspectives, criticize from the margins, and galvanize readers to engage with injustice. I focus on young adult fiction because of its wide reach, relevance for ethical formation, and exceptional tendency to question stereotypical understandings of human existence. After explicating the distinction between lived and academic philosophy and situating my project in the larger conversation about fiction and philosophy, I argue for the ethical significance of philosophical interaction with story. In conversation with Martha C. Nussbaum and Hannah Arendt, I draw together three themes—the integrality of form and content, the ability of storytelling to act as critical thinking in context, and the key role of particularity in the context of plurality—in order to emphasize the need to approach fiction in its intrinsic plurality without losing the possibility of shared criteria. A causal model is insufficient in this regard. Drawing on Lambert Zuidervaart’s conception of imaginative disclosure, I show that art both suggests and requires interpretation and that fiction’s ethical contribution to philosophy needs to be understood as thoroughly hermeneutical. I settle on “narrative companionship,” a variation of Wayne C. Booth’s metaphor of stories as friends, as a helpful noncausal metaphor for interaction with fiction. Then I seek to demonstrate the fruitfulness of this metaphor, in contrast to academic philosophy’s traditional approaches to fiction as either a tool or an example, by commenting on several stories that have informed my own lived philosophy.Abstract -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction of the problem -- Situation of the project -- Fiction as philosophy -- Hermeneutical situation -- Narrative friendship -- Philosophical stories -- Conclusion -- Samenvattin
M.C. Smit Collection. Dissertation Supervision Documents. Fond 001-004
No full textContains correspondence, notes, and Examination materials related to dissertations that Smit supervised throughout his career
M.C. Smit Collection. Correspondence Collection. Fond 001-0011
No full textThis is a collection of Correspondence found within the M.C. Smit Archives. This correspondence dates from throughout Smit’s career as a Professor at the V.U.Unlike other collections which are simply organized numerically, the Correspondence Collection is organized by Year. Special Permission from the I.C.S. Library/Archivist is required in order to view this collection