Reconsidering the significance of the question of God in contemporary French philosophy, the essays in this volume open new pathways for thinking foreclosed by the metaphysical frameworks of our age.
How better to unfurl our long-restricted powers of reason than to engage with the possibility of the limitless and infinite? What better way to measure our progress beyond metaphysical captivity than to discuss the question of God?
With twelve contributions from leading experts in French philosophy of religion, the essays in this volume use the question of God to deconstruct the metaphysical patterns still carved into our thought, and reconstruct new paths that might be open to philosophy after we abandon them. Discussing the work of Augustine, Heidegger, Husserl, Nietzsche, Leibniz, and others, the contributions range across topics including the influence of neo-platonic philosophy on theology, phenomenology’s interest in Christianity, truth in the era of fake news and conspiracy theories, and Buddhist wisdom.
Asserting that French phenomenology’s engagement with the question of God marks a deep awareness of its place in the history of thought, the work collected here answers Dominique Janicaud's critique of the “Theological Turn” which argued that theological orientations exceeded the remit and methodological competence of phenomenology. Making available in English the work of major philosophers and historians, and building connections with the critical perspectives of lesser-known thinkers, the volume promises to deepen the Anglophone reception and understanding of contemporary French philosophy.
Introduction, M.E. Littlejohn (Sorbonne Université, France) and Stephanie Rumpza (Sorbonne Université, France)
Part I: Before the Theological Turn
1. Forgetting History: Behind the Philosophy-Theology Polemic in France, Stephanie Rumpza (Sorbonne Université, France)
2. Metaphysics and its Double: A Proposal for a Counter-History of Ontology, Dan Arbib
3. The Problem of Reason and the Question of the Divine. Levinas reads Kant, Inga Römer
Part II: The Tribunal of Reason
4. The Situation of Faith in Western Societies, Camille Riquier (Institut Catholique de Paris, France)
5. Apologetics Then and Now: On the Program of the Apologeticum, Vincent Carraud (Sorbonne Université, France)
6. God without Evil: The Idolatry of Theodicy, Olivier Boulnois (École pratique des Hautes Études, France)
4. From the Otherwise Said to Speaking Otherwise, Jean-Yves Lacoste (Cambridge University, UK)
5. When Truth Invites us to an Encounter, Jean Greisch (Institut Catholique de Paris, France)
6. Approaching God in Early Phenomenology: The Early “Theological Turn” of Jean Hérin, Claudia Serban (Université de Toulouse II - Jean Jaurès, France)
7. From One-Alone to One-Alone: Plotinus and the Trinity through the Spirit, according to Basil of Caesarea and Gregory Nazianzen, Anca Vasiliu (Sorbonne Université, France)
Part III: Phenomenological Expansions
8. Approaching God in Early Phenomenology: The Early “Theological Turn” of Jean Héring, Claudia Serban
9. On Superposition: Notes on the Relationship between Phenomenology and Religion, Stefano Bancalari
10. Phenomenology and Revelation: Parable and Paradox, Jean-Luc Marion
Part IV: Paths of Truth
11. Truth After Heidegger and Derrida. Joseph S. O’Leary (Sophia University, Japan)
12. On Contemplation and Truth, Kevin Hart (University of Virginia, USA)
13. Saying Things Differently, Jean-Yves Lacoste
List of Contributors
Index
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