Dickinson - Between the canon and the Messiah : the structure of faith in contemporary Continental thought

Between the Canon and the Messiah

Bloomsbury Studies in Continental Philosophy

Bloomsbury Studies in Continental Philosophy is a major monograph series from Bloomsbury. The series features first-class scholarly research monographs across the field of Continental philosophy. Each work makes a major contribution to the field of philosophical research.

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Between the Canon and the Messiah

The Structure of Faith in Contemporary Continental Thought

Colby Dickinson

Bloomsbury Academic

An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

www.bloomsbury.com

First published 2013

Colby Dickinson, 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

Colby Dickinson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.

No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

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

ePub ISBN: 978-1-4411-4203-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dickinson, Colby.

Between the canon and the Messiah: the structure of faith in contemporary Continental thought/Colby Dickinson.

p. cm. (Bloomsbury studies in Continental philosophy)

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

ISBN 978-1-4411-9224-0 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-4411-7780-3 (ebook) ISBN 978-1-4411-4203-0 (epub) 1. ReligionPhilosophy.

2. Philosophical theology. 3. Continental philosophy. 4. Theology. I. Title.

BL51.D495 2013

202.3dc23

2012038376

Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India

To Lieven Boeve, Frederiek Depoortere, and Joeri Schrijvers

who fostered this project until it became a reality

and

To my parents, Ron and Phyllis Dickinson

supporters of life-long learning

Contents

I am first of all in need of giving thanks and recognition to the K. U. Leuven Research Fund which has made this work possible and provided generous support over the course of the past several years. I would also like to thank the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek-Vlaanderen (FWO) and the Academische Stichting Leuven (ASL) for providing valuable conference funding when it was needed. Such financial supports were what, in the end, provided the means to conduct this research, and for this I am very grateful.

A large percentage of the present study was presented at a number of conferences over the past four years, each of which provided a series of unique opportunities. I am thankful to both the organizers of such events as well as those who provided an abundance of funding to make such academic incursions possible. Such conferences include: Ethics, Identity and Recognition: Latin American Congress on Paul Ricoeurs Thought, Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2011), Freud After , Leuven, Belgium (October 2008).

I wish also to acknowledge that the following essays which appear in this book, either in part or in whole, were first published elsewhere in print. Chapter Two contains significantly reworked material from the article Canon as an act of creation: Giorgio Agamben and the extended logic of the messianic, Bijdragen: International Journal in Philosophy and Theology 71:2 (2010) 13258. Chapter Three contains portions of The Relationship of Canon and Messiah: The Convergence of Jan Assmann and Walter on a Theory of Monotheistic Canon, The Bible and Critical Theory 7:1 (2011) 115. And Chapter Four includes material from The Absent Notion of Canonicity in Paul Ricoeurs Memory, History, Forgetting in J. Verheyden, T. L. Hettema and P. Vandecasteele, eds., Paul Ricoeur: Poetics and Religion, Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 240, Leuven: Peeters, 2011, pp. 487501; Examining the theopolitical dimensions of representation: The exception in Ricoeurs hermeneutics in Todd Mei and David Lewin, eds, From Ricoeur to Action: The Socio-Political Significance of Ricoeurs Thinking, London: Continuum, 2012, pp. 22945; and, The guises of violence: Paul Ricoeur on the difficulties of constructing an ontotheological bridge between metaphor and politics, in Greg Johnson and Dan Stiver, eds, Paul Ricoeur and the Task of Political Philosophy, Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2012. I am grateful to each of these journals, books and publishers for the permission to use these materials.

There have been a number of people responsible for the production of this book, which began as my dissertation, and thanking them for their assistance now strikes me as no small matter. I wish first of all to thank the trio of persons most responsible for promoting my work, as well as the many methods of support they have thrown my way. Thanks to Lieven Boeve for offering his support and encouragement, as well as for the many opportunities to conduct research at this level. His insight and influence are directly responsible for the many paths my work has taken, and I am immensely indebted to his willingness to guide me on many counts. Thanks to Frederiek Depoortere for so many moments of support and understanding, as well as advice when I would need it suddenly. I have also benefitted greatly from his prolific research, something for which I am very grateful indeed. Thanks also to Joeri Schrijvers for valuable feedback and comment upon my research as it has progressed over the years. For these reasons, among others, I have been blessed by the kindness of all three.