Transcendence and Self-Transcendence

by Westphal, Merold

• ISBN13: 9780253216878
• ISBN10: 0253216877
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-06-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

The question of the transcendence of God has traditionally been thought in terms of the difference between pantheism, which affirms that God is wholly "within" the world, and theism, which affirms that God is both "within" and "outside" the world, both immanent and transcendent. Against Heidegger's critique of onto-theology and the general post-modern concern for respecting and preserving the difference of the other, Merold Westphal seeks to rethink divine transcendence in relation to modes of human self-transcendence. Touching upon Spinoza, Hegel, Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius, Aquinas, Barth, Kierkegaard, Levinas, Derrida, and Marion, Westphal's work centres around a critique of onto-theology, the importance of alterity, the decentered self, and the autonomous transcendental ego. Westphal's phenomenology of faith sets this book into the main currents of Continental philosophy of religion today.

Author Biography

Merold Westphal is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University. He is the author of God, Guilt, and Death (IUP, 1987) and History and Truth in Hegel's Phenomenology, 3rd ed. (IUP, 1998), and editor of Postmodern Philosophy and Christian Thought (IUP, 2000).

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS	ix
Introduction: For Orientation	1	(14)
PART 1. ONTO-THEOLOGY AND THE NEED TO TRANSCEND COSMOLOGICAL TRANSCENDENCE
1. Heidegger: How Not to Speak about God	15	(26)
2. Spinoza: The Onto-theological Pantheism of Nature	41	(25)
3. Hegel: The Onto-theological Pantheism of Spirit	66	(27)
PART 2. EPISTEMIC TRANSCENDENCE: THE DIVINE MYSTERY
4. Augustine and Pseudo-Dionysius: Negative Theology as a Break with the Onto-theological Project	93	(22)
5. Pseudo-Dionysius and Aquinas: How to Speak Nevertheless about God-The Analogy of Being	115	(27)
6. Barth: How to Speak Nevertheless about God-The Analogy of Faith	142	(35)
PART 3. ETHICAL AND RELIGIOUS TRANSCENDENCE: THE DIVINE IMPERATIVE
7. Levinas: Beyond Onto-theology to Love of Neighbor	177	(24)
8. Kierkegaard: Beyond Onto-theology to Love of God	201	(26)
Conclusion	227	(6)
INDEX	233