Marion and Theology

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Jean-Luc Marions early work on Descartes and his more recent writings in phenomenology have not only elicited huge interest in France and the US, but also created huge potential in the field of theology. This book is organised around central questions about the divine raised by Marions work: how to speak of God, how to approach God, how to experience God, how to receive God, how to believe in God, how to worship God. Within that context it deals with the important aspects of his philosophical work: the inspiration of his writings in what he calls Descartes white theology and its late medieval context as well as the apophatic theology associated with Dionysius the Areopagite; his important claims about idolatrous and iconic ways of speaking of the divine; his notion of the saturated phenomenon or a phenomenology of revelation and givenness, and his extensive writings on love. Christina M. Gschwandtner also considers Marions explicitly theological writings and establishes their relationship to his larger phenomenological oeuvre. Overall, it approaches Marions work not only as a philosophy of religion, but with specifically theological questions in mind. It hence shows how Marions extensive historical and phenomenological work can be profitable and inspiring for theology today, for both systematic questions and for concerns of spirituality, in a way that holds the theoretical and the practical together.

Reviews

This is possibly the most user-friendly introduction to the thought of Jean-Luc Marion ... This book will be extremely helpful for students of both philosophy and theology and especially for those trying to understand the philosophical presuppositions of Communio-style theology. * Reviews in Religion and Theology *
If there is one door that opens broadly and easily into the beautiful and difficult world of Jean-Luc Marion, it is the book you are holding in your hands as you read these words: a work that traces, with exemplary rigor, the mutual involvement of phenomenology and theology in the thought of this major philosopher. The lucidity, thoroughness and the generousity of Christina Gschwandtner's book are nothing short of extraordinary. * Kevin Hart, University of Virginia, USA *
This is a splendid twofer from a writer who is probably our finest interpreter of Marion;s work. Because of its clarity and comprehensiveness it serves as the best introduction to his thought. Because of the connections and continuities it shows among elements that might otherwise seem to stand along, it will provide insight and illumination to those who are long time readers of Marion. * Merold Westphal. Fordham University, USA *

Author Bio

Christina M. Gschwandtner is Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University, USA. She is the author of Reading Jean-Luc Marion: Exceeding Metaphysics (2007) and Postmodern Apologetics Arguments for God in Contemporary Philosophy (2012).