1st Edition
Mystical Theology and Continental Philosophy Interchange in the Wake of God
Exploration of the interface between mystical theology and continental philosophy is a defining feature of the current intellectual and even devotional climate. But to what extent and in what depth are these disciplines actually speaking to one another; or even speaking about the same phenomena? This book draws together original contributions by leading and emerging international scholars, delineating emerging debates in this growing and dynamic field of research, and spanning mystical and philosophical traditions from the ancient, to the medieval, modern, and contemporary. At the heart of which lies Meister Eckhart, perhaps the single most influential Christian mystic for modern times. The book is organised around significant historical and contemporary figures who speak across the intersections of philosophy and theology, offering new insights into key interlocutors such as Pseudo-Dionysius, Augustine, Isaac Luria, Eckhart, Hegel, Heidegger, Marion, Kierkegaard, Deleuze, Laruelle, and Žižek. Designed both to contribute to current trends in mystical theology and philosophy, and elicit dialogue and debate from further afield, this book speaks within an emerging space exploring the retrieval of the mystical within a post-secular context.
Introduction: Mystical Theology and Continental Philosophy: Interchange in the Wake of God
Part 1: Receiving Mystical Tradition in Post/Modernity
1 Learning Presence: The Mystical Text as Intimate Hyper-communication across time
Oliver Davies
2 God of Luria, Hegel, Schelling: The Divine Contraction and the Modern Metaphysics of Finitude
Agata Bielik-Robson
3 From Text to Presence: Ricoeur and Medieval Monastic Biblical Contemplation
Joseph Milne
Part 2: Apophasis and Continental Philosophy
4 Different Deserts: Deconstructionism and Dionysian Apophaticism
Maria Exall
5 The Apophatic Dimension of Revelation
Miroslav Griško
6 Augustine, Dionysius and Jean-Luc Marion
Rico Monge
Part 3: Revisiting Eckhart through Heidegger
7 The Role of Mysticism in the Formation of Heidegger’s Phenomenology
George Pattison
8 Eckhart’s Why and Heidegger’s What: Beyond Subjectivistic Thought to Groundless Ground
Duane Williams
9 Meister Eckhart's Speculative Grammar: a Foreshadowing of Heidegger’s Der Satz vom Grund?
Christopher M. Wojtulewicz
10 Pay Attention! Exploring Contemplative Pedagogies between Eckhart and Heidegger
David Lewin
Part 4: Re-readings and New Boundaries
11 Mysterium Secretum et Silentoisum: Praying the Apophatic Self
Simon D. Podmore
12 Becoming Mystic, Becoming Monster: The Logic of the Infinite in Kierkegaard, Cusa, and Deleuze
Steven Shakespeare
13 Non-philosophical Immanence, or Immanence without S
Biography
David Lewin is Lecturer in Education at Strathclyde University. His recent publications include articles in the Journal of Philosophy of Education, Ethics and Education, and the European Journal of Special Educational Needs. He is co-editor of New Perspectives in Philosophy of Education (Bloomsbury, 2014) and has recently published a monograph for Routledge entitled Educational Philosophy for a Post-Secular Age
Simon D. Podmore is Senior Lecturer in Systematic Theology at Liverpool Hope University and co-convenor, with Louise Nelstrop, of the Mystical Theology Network. He is author of Kierkegaard and the Self Before God: Anatomy of the Abyss (Indiana University Press, 2011) and Struggling With God: Kierkegaard and the Temptation of Spiritual Trial (James Clarke & Co., 2013). He is currently writing a monograph entitled Dark Night of the Holy, exploring a theological account of the Negative Numinous in Mystical Theology.
Duane Williams is a Senior Lecturer in the Theology, Philosophy, and Religious Studies Department at Liverpool Hope University. He is editor of the journal Medieval Mystical Theology, a trustee of the Eckhart Society, and a co-facilitator of the Association for Continental Philosophy of Religion. He is the author of the monograph The Linguistic Christ, and is to soon publish a new monograph titled Language and Being: Heidegger's Linguistics.
"It is a collection worth the time of any scholar who finds themselves at the intersection of mystical theology and continental philosophy whether in search of a new ground or not."
- Jason Blakeburn, McGill University, Quebec
