Literature and the encounter with immanence /
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In Literature and the Encounter with Immanence Brynnar Swenson collects nine original essays that approach the relationship between literature and immanence through methodologies grounded in the philosophy of Spinoza. One of Spinoza's most provocative claims is a simple declaration of ignorance: "We do not know what a body can do." A literary theory based on immanence privileges the ontological status of the text and the material act of reading. Rather than ask what a text means, the essays here ask what a text can do. Each essay documents a distinct literary and philosophical encounter with immanence and, as a result, opens up a space to read literature as one would read philosophy and vice versa .
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1 online resource (ix, 192 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004311930 :
0929-8436 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Immanenz and Einheit : Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Rolf Kühn /
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Auf der Grundlage des Werkes von Michel Henry untersuchen die in der Festschrift "Immanenz und Einheit" gesammelten Beiträge das Verhältnis von Immanenz und Einheit unter allgemein systematischen und praktischen Gesichtspunkten. Dabei wird zunächst die Grundlegung dieses Verhältnisses in der abendländischen Metaphysik und in der Phänomenologie, insbesondere im philosophischen Denken Henrys, in den Blick genommen. Darauf aufbauend werden durch Vergleiche zwischen Henrys Philosophie einerseits und den Ansätzen Meister Eckharts, Fichtes, der christlichen Theologie und fernöstlicher Religionen andererseits religionsphilosophische Perspektiven dieses Verhältnisses aufgezeigt. Schließlich werden die ethischen Konsequenzen des Verhältnisses von Immanenz und Einheit analysiert und dessen existentiell-lebenspraktische Bedeutung herausgestellt. Daher bietet die Festschrift einen wichtigen Beitrag zum Verständnis des für die Philosophie Michel Henrys so bedeutenden Verhältnisses von Immanenz und Einheit. Based on the oeuvre of Michel Henry, the contributions collected in the Festschrift "Immanenz und Einheit" examine the relation between immanence and unity under general systematic and practical aspects. First, the foundation of this relation in occidental metaphysics and in phenomenology, especially in the thinking of Michel Henry, is analysed. Then, the view of Michel Henry is compared with those of Meister Eckhard, Fichte, Christian theology and eastern religions in order to develop the perspectives of this relation for the Philosophy of Religion. Furthermore, the consequences of the relation between immanence and unity for ethics and its existential significance are considered. Thus, the Festschrift offers a significant contribution to the understanding of the relationship between immanence and unity which is especially relevant for the thinking of Michel Henry.
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1 online resource (xvi, 189 pages) : illustrations (some color) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004288638 :
1877-0029 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Conceptualizing Religion, Immanent Anthropologists, Transcendent Natives, and Unbounded Categories.
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How might we transform a folk category - in this case, religion - into an analytical category suitable for cross-cultural research? In addressing that question, this book critically explores various approaches to the problem of conceptualizing religion for scholarly purposes, particularly with respect to certain disciplinary interests of anthropologists. The author argues that the most plausible analytical strategy can be based on the idea of family resemblances, especially as that idea has been used and developed in contemporary prototype theory. In the solution proposed, religion is conceptualized as an affair of 'more or less' rather than a matter of 'yes or no,' and no sharp line is drawn between religion and non-religion.
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1 online resource. :
9789004378797
Rabbinic discourse as a system of knowledge : "the study of Torah is equal to them all" /
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In Rabbinic Discourse as a System of Knowledge Hannah Hashkes employs contemporary philosophy in describing rabbinic reasoning as a rational response to experience. Hashkes combines insights from the philosophy of Quine and Davidson with the semiotics of Peirce to construe knowledge as systematic reasoning occurring within a community of inquiry. Her reading of the works of Emmanuel Levinas and Jean-Luc Marion allows her to create a philosophical bridge between a discourse of God and a discourse of reason. This synthesis of pragmatism, hermeneutics and theology provides Hashkes with a sophisticated tool to understand Rabbinic Judaism. It also makes this study both unique and pathbreaking in contemporary Jewish philosophy and Rabbinic thought.
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1 online resource (xiii, 280 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-271) and index. :
9789004290488 :
2210-481X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Christ who Embraces : An Orthodox Theology of Margins /
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Jacob Joseph's book, The Christ who Embraces: An Orthodox Theology of Margins , explores the intersection of Orthodox Christian mission and caste dynamics among St. Thomas/Syrian/Orthodox Christians in India. It defines a liturgical touch or embrace in the context of 'untouchability,' where people identify as equal without discrimination, reflecting the inseparable unity of Christ's transcendental (divine) and immanent (human) nature. See Less
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1 online resource (231 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004703629
Christianity and the notion of nothingness : contributions to Buddhist-Christian dialogue from the Kyoto school /
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This publication by Muto Kazuo is a significant Christian contribution to the predominantly Buddhist "Kyoto School of Philosophy." Muto proposes a philosophy of religion in order to overcome the claim for Christian exclusivity, as proposed by Karl Barth and others. On such a foundation, he investigates the possibilities for mutual understanding between Buddhism and Christianity. Thereby he engages in a critical exchange with the Kyoto School philosophers Nishida, Tanabe, and Nishitani. Throughout his discourse, Muto applies their method of logical argument (the "dialectic" of soku ) to the dialogue between Christianity and Buddhism. He thus opens up new perceptions of Christian faith in the Asian context and, together with his Buddhist teachers, challenges the modern Western dialectical method of reasoning.
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1 online resource (244 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004228429 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The influence of Abraham Cohen de Herrera's kabbalah on Spinoza's metaphysics /
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In this book the author seeks to find historiographical and textual evidence that Abraham Cohen de Herrera 's main kabbalistic work, Puerta del Cielo , influenced Spinoza's metaphysics as it is expounded in his later work, the Ethica . Many of the most important ontological topics maintained by the philosopher, like the concept of the first cause as substance, the procession of the infinite modes, the subjective or metaphorical reality of the attributes, and the two different understandings of God, were anticipated in Herrera's mystical treatise. Both shared a particular consideration of panentheism that entails acosmism. This influence is proven through a comparative examination of the writings of both authors, as well as a detailed research on previous Jewish philosophical thought.
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1 online resource (ix, 449 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004315686 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Consciousness and loneliness : theoria and praxis /
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Current research claims loneliness is passively caused by external conditions: environmental, cultural, situational, and even chemical imbalances in the brain and hence avoidable. In this book, the author argues that loneliness is actively constituted by acts of reflexive self-consciousness (Kant) and transcendent intentionality (Husserl) and is, therefore, unavoidable. This work employs a historical, conceptual, and interdisciplinary approach (philosophy, psychology, literature, sociology, et cetera) criticizing both psychoanalysis and neuroscience. The book pits materialism, mechanism, determinism, empiricism, phenomenalism, behaviorism, and the neurosciences against dualism, both subjective and objective idealism, rationalism, freedom, phenomenology, and existentialism. It offers a dynamic of loneliness, whose spontaneous subconscious sources undercuts the unconscious of Freud and the "computerism" of the neurosciences by challenging their claims to be predictive sciences.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004385979 :
0929-8436 ;
The doctrine of God in African Christian thought : the Holy Trinity, theological hermeneutics, and the African intellectual culture /
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The Christian faith knows and worships one God, who is revealed in the Son and in the Holy Spirit. This is the meaning of the doctrine of the Trinity in Christian thought. Although Christian orthodoxy defines the doctrine of the Trinity, the intellectual tools used to capture it significantly vary. At different times and in different places, Western Christianity has, for instance, used neo-Platonism, German Idealism, and the conceptual tools of the second-century Greeks. Taking elements from the known African intellectual framework, this book argues that for African Christians, the respective pre-Christian African understanding of God and the Ntu -metaphysics, in particular, function as conceptual gates for an attempt towards articulating the Trinity for African Christian audiences.
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Originally presented as the author's thesis (D. Th.)--University of Stellenbosch, 2000. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [279]-292) and indexes. :
9789047420224 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Looking beyond? : shifting views of transcendence in philosophy, theology, art, and politics /
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Religion is undergoing a transformation in current Western society. In addition to organized religions, there is a notable movement towards spirituality that is not associated with any institutions but in which experiences and notions of transcendence are still important. Transcendence can be described as God, the absolute, Mystery, the Other, the other as alterity, depending on one's worldview. In this book, these shifts in the views of transcendence in various areas of culture such as philosophy, theology, art, and politics are explored on the basis of a fourfold heuristic model (proposed by Wessel Stoker). In conversation with this model, various authors, established scholars in their fields, explain the meaning and role, or the critique, of transcendence in the thought of contemporary thinkers, fields of discourse, or cultural domains. Looking Beyond? will stimulate further research on the theme of transcendence in contemporary culture, but can also serve as a textbook for courses in various disciplines, ranging from philosophy to theology, cultural studies, literature, art, and politics.
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1 online resource (527 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789401207522 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Wrestling with God and with evil : philosophical reflections /
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The fact of evil continues to raises questions - questions about the relationship between God and evil but also questions about human involvement in it. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is now time to see the existence of evil not just as a problem for belief in God; it is a problem for belief in humanity itself as well. For human involvement in evil is not simply a matter of coping with evil but also concerns the fact that humans themselves often seem to do wrong and evil inevitably. Human finitude, ignorance and the unforeseeable consequences of good intentions as well as of neglect can often lead to tragedy. This volume contains contributions from an equal number of male and female scholars in Western Europe and America. It contains discussions of thinkers like Kant, Kierkegaard, Barth, Weil, Levinas, Naber, Caputo and Johnson. It deals with issues like tragedy, finitude, critiques of Western culture, violence and God, and the question of whether theodicies are needed or are even honest. This volume offers an interesting survey of 'wrestling with God and evil' from a variety of perspectives in the philosophy of religion on both sides of the Atlantic.
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International conference proceedings.
This volume is part of the project on The problem of evil in religious traditions: origins, forms and coping, on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the Vrije Universiteit and the exhibition "Religion & Evil" in the Tropenmuseum. :
1 online resource (240 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789401204019 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Physics and philosophy of nature in Greek Neoplatonism : proceedings of the European Science Foundation Exploratory Workshop (Il Ciocco, Castelvecchio Pascoli, June 22-24, 2006) /
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Traditional scholarship has generally neglected the philosophy of nature in Greek Neoplatonism. In the last few decades, however, this attitude has changed radically. Natural philosophy has increasingly been regarded as a crucial aspect of late antique thought. Furthermore, several studies have outlined the impressive historical legacy of Neoplatonic physics. Building on this new interest, the ten papers published here concentrate on Neoplatonic philosophy of nature from Plotinus to Simplicius, and on its main conceptual features and its relation to the previous philosophical and scientific traditions. The papers were presented at a conference sponsored by the European Science Foundation in Castelvecchio Pascoli in June 2006. This volume makes an important contribution to the understanding of Greek Neoplatonism and its historical significance.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [283]-296) and indexes. :
9789047427261 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Beyond metaphysics? : explorations in Alfred North Whitehead's late thought /
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Alfred North Whitehead's interpreters usually pay less attention to his later monographs and essays. Process and Reality is taken to be the definitive center of the Whiteheadian universe and the later works, thereby, appear to many only as applications or elaborations of themes already introduced earlier. Yet, is it also possible that the dominance of this perspective has obscured or even distorted further creative developments of Whitehead's thought? This volume offers a sort of Copernican revolution in Whitehead interpretation, methodologically and conceptually inviting its contributors to observe Whitehead's work from the perspective of his later works. The aim of this preferencing is meant not to invalidate earlier approaches to Whitehead's thought nor is the inference that the later works are more authoritative. Yet, just as the first space-based images of our planet forever changed humanity's understanding of its place in the universe, shifting the alleged center of, or even decentering of the view on, Whitehead's "philosophy of organism" to the later works, we might discover previously obscured ideas or new vistas of thought relevant not only to our current philosophical landscape, but also to the pressing issues of our fragile and endangered world. This volume invites its contributors and readers to consider whether one thereby also moves beyond metaphysics?
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1 online resource (xv, 340 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 293-313) and index. :
9789042031227 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Recognition and freedom : Axel Honneth's political thought /
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Recognition and Freedom brings together leading international scholars to discuss the political thought of the social philosopher Axel Honneth. In addition to providing an introduction to Honneth's political thought, the book examines topics such as education, solidarity, multiculturalism, agonism, neo-liberalism and the ways in which these issues challenge core aspects of liberal democracies. The book includes an interview with Axel Honneth in the light of his most recent work, Freedom's Right, as well as an essay by him previously unpublished in English.
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1 online resource (x, 286 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004287341 :
1572-459X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Transcendence and sensoriness : perceptions, revelation, and the Arts /
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Protestant theology and culture are known for a reserved, at times skeptical, attitude to the use of art and aesthetic forms of expression in a religious context. In Transcendence and Sensoriness , this attitude is analysed and discussed both theoretically and through case studies considered in a broad theological and philosophical framework of religious aesthetics. Nordic scholars of theology, philosophy, art, music, and architecture, discuss questions of transcendence, the human senses, and the arts in order to challenge established perspectives within the aesthetics of religion and theology.
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Description based upon print version of record. :
1 online resource (583 pages) : color illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004291690 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Michel Henry et l'affect de l'art : recherches sur l'esthétique de la phénoménologie matérielle /
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Quel est le statut de l'art et de l'affectivité esthétique chez Michel Henry ? Le champ occupé par l'art dans l'économie de la phénoménologie matérielle est-il le lieu le plus propre pour l'exploration immanente de l'apparaître et l'auscultation de l'affectivité transcendantale de la vie ? Ce livre offre un repérage de quelques pistes remarquables à partir desquelles le besoin de poser les jalons d'une esthétique matérielle se fait suffisamment pressant pour qu'on y prête attention. C'est pour frayer cette voie et faire les premiers pas dans la direction qu'elle infléchit que les études ici réunies engagent, chacune à sa manière, l'examen du statut de l'art chez Michel Henry : du côté de la peinture bien sûr, mais aussi dans les champs du langage, de la littérature, de la danse, de l'architecture et de la musique. L'ensemble est précédé par un texte de Michel Henry, consacré à l'œuvre picturale de Pierre Magré. What is the status of art and aesthetic affectivity in Michel Henry? Is the place occupied by art within the economy of his material phenomenology the most appropriate site for the immanent exploration of appearing and the auscultation of the transcendental affectivity of life? This book locates some remarkable avenues through which the need to prepare the ground for a material aesthetic becomes urgent enough to be given attention. In order to clear this path and take the first steps in the direction it leads, the studies gathered here, each in its own way, are engaged in the study of the status of art in Michel Henry, from the perspective of painting, of course, but also the fields of language, literature, dance, architecture and music. The collection is preceded by an essay by Michel Henry, devoted to the painting of Pierre Magré.
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1 online resource (xlii, 343 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004186811 :
1875-2470 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Central Problems of Medieval Jewish Philosophy /
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This book deals with central issues of medieval Jewish philosophy. Among the subjects treated are divine immanence, the intellect, miracles, and esoteric writing and its limits. The work provides a new perspective on the history of Jewish philosophy in the Middle Ages. Relying on many as yet unpublished manuscripts, which enable it to offer new insights relating to such thinkers as Judah Halevi, Maimonides, and Gersonides, it also presents a new and original perception of the dynamics of Jewish thought in general.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047416845
9789004148055
Reimaging Zen in a Secular Age : Charles Taylor and Zen Buddhism in the West /
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In Reimagining Zen in a Secular Age André van der Braak offers an account of the exciting but also problematic encounter between enchanted Japanese Zen Buddhism and secular Western modernity over the past century, using Charles Taylor's magnum opus A Secular Age as an interpretative lens. As the tenuous compromises of various forms of "Zen modernism" are breaking down today, new imaginings of Zen are urgently needed that go beyond both a Romantic mystical Zen and a secular "mindfulness" Zen. As a Zen scholar-practitioner, André van der Braak shows that the Zen philosophy of the 13th century Zen master Dōgen offers much resources for new hermeneutical, embodied, non-instrumental and communal approaches to contemporary Zen theory and practice in the West.
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1 online resource. :
9789004435087
9789004435070
The scriptural tale in the fourth gospel : with particular reference to the prologue and a syncretic (oral and written) poetics /
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A more nuanced view of the Fourth Gospel's media nature suggests a new and promising paradigm for assessing expansive and embedded uses of scripture in this work. The majority of studies exploring the Fourth Evangelist's use of scripture to date have approached the Fourth Gospel as the product of a highly gifted writer, who carefully interweaves various elements and figures from scripture into the canvas of his completed document. The present study attempts to calibrate a literary approach to the Fourth Gospel's use of scripture with an appreciation for oral poetic influences, whereby an orally-situated composer's use of traditional references and compositional strategy could be of one and the same piece. Most importantly, pre-formed story-patterns-thick with referential meaning-were used in the construction of new works. The present study makes the case that the Fourth Evangelist has patterned his story of Jesus after a retelling of the story of Adam andamp; Israel in two interrelated ways: first in the prologue, and then in the body of the Gospel as a whole.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004326552 :
0928-0731 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.