David Lewin - Mystical Theology and Continental Philosophy

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 iek. 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.

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 soon to publish a new monograph titled Language and Being: Heideggers Linguistics.

Contemporary Theological Explorations in Christian Mysticism

Series Editors: Patricia Z. Beckman, Oliver Davies, Mark McIntosh and George Pattison

This series facilitates new points of synergy and fresh theological engagements with Christian mystical traditions. Reflecting the plurality of theological approaches to Christian mystical theology, books in the series cover historical, literary, practical, and systematic perspectives as well as philosophical, psychological, and phenomenological methods.

Although the primary focus of the series is the Christian tradition, exploration of texts from other traditions also highlight the theological, psychological and philosophical questions that Christian mysticism brings to the fore.

Titles in the series:

Mystical Theology and Continental Philosophy

Interchange in the Wake of God

Edited by David Lewin, Simon D. Podmore and Duane Williams

Mystical Anthropology

Authors from the Low Countries

Edited by John Arblaster and Rob Faesen

Mysticism in the French Tradition

Eruptions from France

Edited by Louise Nelstrop and Bradley B. Onishi

Exploring Lost Dimensions in Christian Mysticism

Opening to the Mystical

Edited by Louise Nelstrop and Simon D. Podmore

Christian Mysticism and Incarnational Theology

Between Transcendence and Immanence

Edited by Louise Nelstrop and Simon D. Podmore

Mystical Theology and Continental Philosophy

Interchange in the Wake of God

Edited by

David Lewin, Simon D. Podmore, and Duane Williams

First published 2017

by Routledge

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2017 selection and editorial matter, David Lewin, Simon D. Podmore and Duane Williams; individual chapters, the contributors.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Lewin, David, (educator), editor.

Title: Mystical theology and continental philosophy : interchange in the wake of God / edited by David Lewin, Simon D. Podmore, & Duane Williams.

Description: New York : Routledge, 2017. | Series: Contemporary theological explorations in Christian mysticism | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016043510 | ISBN 9781472478610 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315597133 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Philosophical theology. | Mysticism. | Continental philosophy.

Classification: LCC BT40 .M97 2017 | DDC 261.5/1--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016043510

ISBN: 978-1-4724-7861-0 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-59713-3 (ebk)

Agata Bielik-Robson received her PhD in philosophy in 1995. She works as a Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Nottingham and at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. She has published articles in Polish, English, Russian and German on philosophical aspects of psychoanalysis, romantic subjectivity, and the philosophy of religion (especially Judaism and its crossings with modern philosophical thought). Her publications include books: The Saving Lie. Harold Bloom and Deconstruction (in English, Northwestern University Press, 2011), Erros. Messianic Vitalism and Philosophy (Cracow, 2012), In the Wilderness. Cryptotheologies of Late Modernity (Cracow, 2008), Romanticism. An Unfinished Project (Cracow, 2008), The Spirit of the Surface. Romantic Revision and Philosophy (Cracow, 2004) Another Modernity (Cracow, 2000) and On the Other Side of Nihilism (Warsaw, 1997). Together with Adam Lipszyc she coedited the collection of essays: