Graven Ideologies : Nietzsche, Derrida and Marion on Modern Idolatry

by Benson, Bruce Ellis

• ISBN13: 9780830826797
• ISBN10: 0830826793
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-07-01
• Publisher: INGRAM

Summary

What do the philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche, Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Marion have in common with Christianity? Surprisingly, they are all concerned about idolatry, about the tendency we have to create God in our own image and about what we can do about it. Can we faithfully speak of God at all without interposing ourselves? If so, how?Bruce Ellis Benson explores this common concern by clearly laying out the thought of each of these postmodern thinkers against the background of modern philosophers such as Descartes, Locke and Hume and in light of the rise of phenomenology as developed by Husserl and Heidegger. All these thinkers he brings into conversation with a full range of biblical teaching.The result is an illuminating survey of some key postmodern thinkers and profound insight into the nature of conceptual idolatry. Benson also exposes some of the limitations inherent in postmodern attempts to provide a purely philosophical solution to the problem of ideological idolatry. Ultimately, he argues, there is a need for something greater than human philosophy, religion or theology--namely, the biblical revelation of God in Jesus Christ.

Author Biography

Bruce Ellis Benson is associate professor of philosophy at Wheaton College.

Table of Contents

Preface	9	(5)
Abbreviations	14	(3)
Introduction: A History of Idolatry	17	(1)
Graven Ideologies	17	(7)
The Danger of Vain Philosophy	24	(3)
Phenomenology and Idolatry	27	(1)
The Idolatry of Adaequatio	28	(11)
The Hammer of the Postmoderns	39	(9)
Jesus the Deconstructor	48	(5)
Friedrich Nietzsche
The Idol of Philosophy	53	(17)
Lying About ``Truth''	54	(6)
The Idols of Simplicity, Systemism and the True World	60	(6)
Philosophy's logos and Christ the Logos	66	(4)
``God Had to Die''	70	(25)
Who Died?	71	(11)
God's Death and the Possibility of Life	82	(6)
Heidegger on Nietzschean Idolatry	88	(7)
Jesus and ``Morality''	95	(15)
Nietzsche and Jesus	95	(5)
Faith as Anti-agon	100	(10)
Jacques Derrida
Levinas and Derrida	110	(15)
A New Derrida?	111	(1)
The Other as Radical Transcendence	112	(6)
The Ultimate Other	118	(3)
Does Levinas Escape Violence?	121	(4)
Deconstruction and Justice	125	(21)
Deconstruction, Undecidability, Differance	126	(8)
Foundations as Antimorality	134	(6)
Being Just	140	(6)
Faith and Dogma	146	(23)
Saying God's Name	147	(8)
Faith and Its Reasons	155	(8)
Dogma Against Idolatry	163	(6)
Jean-Luc Marion
Husserl and Heidegger on Otherness	169	(19)
The Problem of the Transcendental Ego in Husserl	169	(5)
Heidegger and the Logos of Phenomenology	174	(14)
The Objectifying Idol and the Transcending Icon	188	(13)
Icons Versus Idols	190	(6)
How Should We Speak of God?	196	(5)
Logos Versus logos?	201	(23)
Getting ``Outside of the Text''	201	(7)
The Call and the Horizon	208	(7)
Is There Truly a ``Third Way''?	215	(9)
Epilogue	224	(17)
The Aporia of Knowing God	225	(7)
Should Faith Overcome Philosophy?	232	(6)
Bearing Witness	238	(3)
Index	241