Jeffrey Bloechl - Böcker

What is secularity? Might it yield or define a distinctive form of reasoning? If so, would that form of reasoning belong essentially to our modern age, or would it instead have a considerably older lineage? And what might be the relation of that form of reasoning, whatever its lineage, to the Christian thinking that is often said to oppose it? In the present volume, these and related questions are addressed by a distinguished group of scholars working primarily within the Roman Catholic theological tradition and from the perspectives of Continental philosophy. As a whole, the volume constitutes a conversation among thinkers who agree in their concerns but not necessarily their conclusions. Taken individually, each essay concentrates on a range of historical developments with close attention to their intellectual and sometimes pedagogical implications. Secular reason, they argue, is neither the antipode of Christian thought nor a stable and well-resolved component of it. Christian thinking may engage with secular reason as the site of profound difficulties, but on occasion will also learn from it as a source of new insight. Christianity and Secular Reason contributes to the contemporary discussion of secularity prompted especially by Charles Taylor's book A Secular Age. Unlike Taylor's work, however, this collection concentrates specifically on secular reason and explicitly on its relation to Christianity. In this sense, it is closer to Michael J. Buckley's At the Origins of Modern Atheism or, to a lesser degree, Louis Dupré's Passage to Modernity, which concern themselves with broad cultural developments.

Exploring the relationship between phenomenology and religion in Levinas’s writingsThe philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas affirms both the urgency of peace and the fact that peace is never finally assured. This tension is a question of responsibility and of the ethical relation in which that responsibility is grounded. Jeffrey Bloechl pursues this prophetic dimension of Levinas’s philosophy—his commitment to phenomenology and to a philosophy of religion—to make the case for the mutual reinforcement and intelligibility of these two threads.Levinas on the Primacy of the Ethical traces the emergence of Levinas’s early thought in relation to modern political philosophy, his revision of Martin Heidegger’s existential phenomenology, the consolidation of his mature position, his important differences with Freudian psychoanalysis, the turn from metaphysics to language in his later philosophy, and his complex relationship with Christian theology. Starting with an exposition of how positive notions of religious transcendence are already present in some of Levinas’s early phenomenological texts, Bloechl then stakes the reverse claim: that Levinas’s conception of God is dependent on his existential phenomenology. Proceeding chronologically, but with frequent nods to later developments, this book builds toward the ultimate assertion that Levinas offers us a phenomenology of event and of relation without appeal to any foundation, ground, or causal principle. Only in this way is Levinas able to generate an argument—and not merely an exhortation—for the primacy of the ethical as he conceives it.

The Face of the Other and the Trace of God contain essays on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, and how his philosophy intersects with that of other philosophers, particularly Husserl, Kierkegaard, Sartre, and Derrida. This collection is broadly divided into two parts: relations with the other, and the questions of God.

The Face of the Other and the Trace of God contain essays on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, and how his philosophy intersects with that of other philosophers, particularly Husserl, Kierkegaard, Sartre, and Derrida. This collection is broadly divided into two parts: relations with the other, and the questions of God.

A clear, penetrating, and philosophically rich companion to Civilization and Its Discontents, this reader’s guide is a path through one of Freud’s most provocative and enduring works.Designed for students, scholars, and thoughtful readers across the humanities, it illuminates the intellectual landscape in which Freud wrote, the clinical insights that shaped his ideas, and the conceptual tensions that animate his late social theory. Unpacking the central difficulties of reading Civilization and Its Discontents, Jeffrey Bloechl takes readers through Freud’s evolving vocabulary, the complex afterlife of his earlier theories, and the challenge of tracing arguments that span psychology, anthropology, religion, and moral philosophy. Through chapter-by-chapter commentary, this guide clarifies Freud’s claims about the pleasure and reality principles, the psychic cost of social life, the formation of the super-ego, and the emergence of the death drive – all while weaving in helpful comparisons to thinkers such as Kant, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Marx.Far from offering a single “correct” reading, Bloechl invites readers into an open, critical engagement with Freud’s thought. Ultimately, this book equips its readers to grapple with Freud’s unsettling diagnosis of modern life – its suffering, its moral demands, and its inescapable malaise – while opening new paths for reflection in philosophy, theology, and psychoanalytic theory.

A clear, penetrating, and philosophically rich companion to Civilization and Its Discontents, this reader’s guide is a path through one of Freud’s most provocative and enduring works.Designed for students, scholars, and thoughtful readers across the humanities, it illuminates the intellectual landscape in which Freud wrote, the clinical insights that shaped his ideas, and the conceptual tensions that animate his late social theory. Unpacking the central difficulties of reading Civilization and Its Discontents, Jeffrey Bloechl takes readers through Freud’s evolving vocabulary, the complex afterlife of his earlier theories, and the challenge of tracing arguments that span psychology, anthropology, religion, and moral philosophy. Through chapter-by-chapter commentary, this guide clarifies Freud’s claims about the pleasure and reality principles, the psychic cost of social life, the formation of the super-ego, and the emergence of the death drive – all while weaving in helpful comparisons to thinkers such as Kant, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Marx.Far from offering a single “correct” reading, Bloechl invites readers into an open, critical engagement with Freud’s thought. Ultimately, this book equips its readers to grapple with Freud’s unsettling diagnosis of modern life – its suffering, its moral demands, and its inescapable malaise – while opening new paths for reflection in philosophy, theology, and psychoanalytic theory.

Jean-Yves Lacoste is one of the best known French philosophers alive today. Along with Jean-Luc Marion, Jean-Louis Chrétien, and Michel Henry, Lacoste is hailed as a leading figure in the revival of French phenomenology in its engagement with Christian theology. In this highly readable and stylish translation by Oliver O'Donovan, Lacoste’s In Search of Speech considers how linguistic events are precisely what enable us to escape the threat of nihilism and to survive in a world now cynically regarded as having entered a phase of 'post-truth.' In recent decades, language has been reduced by various philosophers, both Anglo-American and European, in treatments that render it abstract, flat, or distant from life. In Search of Speech seeks to do justice to speech in the various ways in which we perform it and in which it confronts us as one or more events. Speech always occurs in the world: it makes things present to us or it makes them absent from us. Speaking, reading, and even being silent, are never wholly free from anxiety, babble, boredom, humour, and concern for others. Liturgical speech deserves particular attention, and even here speech is in danger; for speech can conceal as well as reveal. Lacoste begins with very weak assumptions and slowly, using many examples, and clarifying as he goes along, builds up a rich picture of human speech and the forces that seek to drain it of meaning.

Taking a phenomenological approach, Gavin Flood explores the symbol of ascent in Christianity and south Asian religions, and uncovers its significance as a cultural idea that is both transcendent and rooted in the world. Throughout history civilizations have believed there is a spiritual reality beyond this universe and that the purpose of life is to realize this truth. This has been expressed in the symbol of ascent, a metaphoric and artistic representation of a hierarchy of levels through which the soul ascends to a transcendent reality at the peak of the cosmos. This book charts the history of this idea in Christianity and south Asian religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. It also examines the wider cultural importance of the symbol through numerous literary case studies, from Dante and Golding to the Upanishads and the poetry of North Indian Saints such as Mirabai and Namdev. Outlining and employing the theology/phenomenology debate, The Symbol of Ascent in Christianity and South Asian Religions further asks whether ascent is transcendent or of this world, and moreover whether phenomenology should be concerned with the former. To answer this question it engages numerous interlocutors, including Abhinavagupta, Plato, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche and Brentano, as well as Jane Bennett’s new materialism and Françoise d’Eaubonne’s ecofeminism. Flood argues ultimately that ascent is at the interface of theology and phenomenology as it contains both a philosophy of the sign and a philosophy of consciousness. Crossing centuries and continents, this phenomenological study reveals how ascent has been a central theme to understanding human reality, a theme that Flood proposes will continue to be relevant, as post- and trans-human philosophies seek transcendence of the limited human to the unlimited, AI-enhanced one we now know possible.

The thought of Jean-Louis Chrétien is most familiar to those who have taken up the theological turn in French phenomenology, yet it defies reduction to either phenomenology or theology, or for that matter spirituality, literature, or Greek thought. Written in beautiful French prose and argued with unsurpassed erudition, Chrétien’s works defy easy interpretation. One nonetheless finds a center of gravity in attempts to define and then elaborate an original account of human being in terms of call and response, from which there follow penetrating studies of language and body, as well as illuminating approaches to a range of themes including temporality, prayer, and religious reading. This volume gathers original work from leading scholars in the fields of philosophy, theology and poetics, including Chrétien’s collaborators, successors, and Anglophone interpreters. They engage his work along its main lines, at once presenting it in summary fashion and exploring its strengths and weaknesses for our understanding of some of the topics and problems that held his prolonged attention. Readers new to Chrétien will easily find a number of points of access, while more advanced readers will find that their understanding is both deepened and enriched.Contributors: Rudolf Bernet, Jeffrey Bloechl, Emmanuel Falque, Jérôme de Gramont, Crina Gshwandtner, Emmanuel Housset, Stephen E. Lewis, Jean-Luc Marion, Catherine Pickstock, Andrew Prevot

In this collection of essays, the sophistication and vibrancy of contemporary phenomenological research is documented, including both its engagement with key figures in the history of philosophy, and with critical problems defining future directions of philosophical investigations.