351 research outputs found
Overcoming Onto-Theology: Toward a Postmodern Christian Faith
No full textOvercoming Onto-theology is a stunning collection of essays by Merold Westphal, one of America’s leading continental philosophers of religion, in which Westphal carefully explores the nature and the structure of a postmodern Christian philosophy. Written with characteristic clarity and charm, Westphal offers masterful studies of Heidegger’s early lectures on Paul and Augustine, the idea of hermeneutics, Schleiermacher, Hegel, Derrida, and Nietzsche, all in the service of building his argument that postmodern thinking offers an indispensable tool for rethinking Christian faith. A must read for every student and professor of continental philosophy and the philosophy of religion, Overcoming Onto-theology is an invaluable collection that brings together in one place fourteen provocative and lucid essays by one of the most important thinkers working in American philosophy today
The concept of Aufhebung in the thought of Merold Westphal
No full textMerold Westphal’s method often consists in recontextualizing, or appropriating, various sources in order to either make his own argument or to make other’s arguments seem self-evident. This method is especially noteworthy in his use of Aufhebung, a term which he initially discovers in his early work on Hegel. Westphal will eventually appropriate this term and, as this article will show, utilize it throughout his other academic works, particularly in his reading of Kierkegaard, for many an ‘anti-dialectical’thinker. This article further explores Westphal’s use of the term in order to reveal that his utilization of the term extends beyond Hegel’s own original intention and that,in doing so, Westphal creates something quite unique and separate from the term itself: a ‘Westphalian Aufhebung.’status: Publishe
Passing through Customs: Merold Westphal, Richard Kearney, and the Methodological Boundaries between Philosophy of Religion and Theology
No full textContinental philosophers of religion and the theologians who engage with them have recently began to blur the lines between the disciplines of philosophy and theology. This is particularly true after the so-called “theological turn” in phenomenology. I argue for an appreciation of their approaches but will also express that these explorations must remain interdisciplinary. Far too often philosophers and theologians alike appropriate freely within their interdisciplinary research with little regard for the presuppositions and methodologies latent within their appropriations. This article will demonstrate these appropriations through an exploration of Merold Westphal and Richard Kearney’s use of hermeneutical phenomenology, and will claim that their use of this methodology falls upon two distinct discourses, a theological one for Westphal and a philosophical one for Kearney. The upshot of this exploration is an argument for a renewal of methodological restraint when appropriating from other disciplines and a respect for the difference between academic disciplines
On reading God the author
No full textThe first part of the essay explore's three features of Wolterstorff's
account of God as a performer of speech acts: (1) the claim that God literally speaks,
suggesting that this claim needs something like a Thomistic theory of analogy as an
alternative to univocity and mere metaphor; (2) the claim that speaking is not
reducible to revealing; and (3) the political implications of these claims, especially
in relation to Habermasian theory. The second part focuses on the theory of double
discourse, which seeks to make sense of the notion that God speaks to us through
the human voices of prophets, apostles, and especially of Scripture, and seeks to
show that a fuller account of the speech act by which God deputizes or appropriates
human speech is needed. The final section suggests that Ricoeur and Derrida are
not the threat to his theory that Wolterstorff takes them to be and that their
emphasis on the text, rather than the author, makes sense in contexts where we
have only the text to consult.</jats:p
Finitude, Fallenness, and Immediacy Husserlian Replies to Westphal and Smith
No full textMerold Westphal and James K. A. Smith argue forcefully that Christians should embrace the postmodern turn to interpretation. They draw upon Derrida and Heidegger, and they criticize Edmund Husserl’s “metaphysics of presence” and our ability to know reality directly. They reject his epistemology as modern and arrogant, as an attempt to gain pristine knowledge. But I argue that they radically misunderstand and therefore wrongly reject Husserl. This will allow me to show why their view, that “everything is interpretation,” is mistaken. It also will allow me to show why Husserl’s earlier work shows us how we can know reality immediately
Faithful obligations: Merold Westphal’s middle class liberation theology
No full textOften, liberation theology’s preferential option for the poor is pushed aside within theological discourses as being too specific, too focused on social problems, to function as a viable theology for the Church as a whole. Through this line of reasoning, many often see liberation theology as something that can remind Christians of their need to help others, but it cannot become the foundation for a sustainable belief system. In response to this, I claim that a liberation theology can be viable for daily life of all persons and this article explores this argument through the work of Merold Westphal, who’s philosophical theology founds a style of liberation theology that is directed at the middle class – in his context the American middle class. This article explores the ways in which liberation theology can work as a general, programmatic theology for all within the Church, which not only empowers those at the margins but society as a whole
Bertrand Westphal, un referente de la geocrítica
No full textResumen: Bertrand Westphal, profesor de literatura general y comparada de la Université de Limoges, desarrolla como ensayista una obra fundada en la geocrítica. Este eje de investigación, iniciado por el mismo autor, explora las interacciones entre los espacios humanos y la literatura y, al mismo tiempo, su repercusión en la configuración de las identidades culturales. Westphal ha desplegado estas tesis interdisciplinares principalmente en tres ensayos (2007; 2011; 2016); el último de ellos, La Cage des méridiens, es analizado en este artículo una vez introducidas las principales características de su perspectiva geoliteraria.
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Abstract: Bertrand Westphal, Professor of general and comparative literature at the Université de Limoges (France), develops his work as an essayist in the field of geocriticism. This axis of investigation, originated by the same author, explores the interactions between the human spaces and literature and, at the same time, its impact on the configuration of cultural identities. Westphal has mainly deployed its interdisciplinary thesis in three essays (2007, 2011, 2016); the last one, La Cage des méridiens, is analysed in this article once introduced the main features of his geoliterary perspective.
Bertrand Westphal as a reference of geocriticism
No full textBertrand Westphal, Professor of general and comparative literature at the Université de Limoges (France), develops his work as an essayist in the field of geocriticism. This axis of investigation, originated by the same author, explores the interactions between the human spaces and literature and, at the same time, its impact on the configuration of cultural identities. Westphal has mainly deployed its interdisciplinary thesis in three essays (2007, 2011, 2016); the last one, La Cage des méridiens, is analysed in this article once introduced the main features of his geoliterary perspective.Bertrand Westphal, profesor de literatura general y comparada de la Université de Limoges, desarrolla como ensayista una obra fundada en la geocrítica. Este eje de investigación, iniciado por el mismo autor, explora las interacciones entre los espacios humanos y la literatura y, al mismo tiempo, su repercusión en la configuración de las identidades culturales. Westphal ha desplegado estas tesis interdisciplinares principalmente en tres ensayos (2007; 2011; 2016); el último de ellos, La Cage des méridiens, es analizado en este artículo una vez introducidas las principales características de su perspectiva geoliteraria.Este artículo se ha realizado en el marco del proyecto de investigación P1·1B2015-62.
Funcions educatives de la literatura a l’entorn de les emocions, la imaginació i la construcció
d’identitats
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