Religious Experience & the End of Metaphysics

Does religious thinking stand in opposition to postmodernity? Does the existence of God present the ultimate challenge to metaphysics? Strands of continental thought, especially those running from Kant, Husserl, and Heidegger, focus on individual consciousness as the horizon for all meaning and provide modern philosophy of religion with much of its present ferment. In Religious Experience and the End of Metaphysics, 11 influential continental philosophers share the conviction that religious thinking cannot afford to disengage from the challenges of modern European philosophy. Together they provide a rich and intriguing set of answers to questions surrounding the meaning of religious experience. Topics include subjectivity, selfhood, and rationality; language, community, and ethics; the influence of Jewish and eastern religions on religious experience; God as phenomenology; and religion in the postmodern age. These lucid and arresting essays bring together many of the leading voices in the contemporary continental debate on God and religion.

Jeffrey Bloechl is Edward Bennett Williams Fellow and Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the College of the Holy Cross, in Worcester, MA.

Contributors are Jeffrey Bloechl, Emilio Brito, John D. Caputo, Richard A. Cohen, Kevin Hart, Jean-Yves Lacoste, John C. Maraldo, Joseph S. O'Leary, Adriaan Peperzak, Ben Vedder, and Ignace Verhack.

Preliminary Table of Contents:

Preface

Editor's Introduction Jeffrey Bloechl

1. The Disappearance of Philosophical Theology in Hermeneutic Philosophy: Historicizing and Hermeneuticizing the Philosophical Idea of God Ben Vedder

2. Rethinking God: Heidegger in Light of Absolute Nothing, Nishida in the Shadow of Onto-theology John C. Maraldo

3. Light and Shadows from the Heideggerian Interpretation of the Sacred Emilio Brito

4. The Word and Complement of Appearing Jean-Yves Lacoste

5. Affective Theology, Theological Affectivity Adriaan Peperzak

6. Immanent Transcendence as Way to "God": Between Heidegger and Marion Ignace Verhack

7. Derrida and Marion: Two Husserlian Revolutions John D. Caputo

8. The Universal in Jewish Particularism: Benamozegh and Levinas Richard A. Cohen

9. The Kingdom and the Trinity Kevin Hart

10. Ultimacy and Conventionality in Religious Experience Joseph S. O'Leary

Contributors

Index