Books by George Pattison

This text is an exposition of and commentary on Kierkegaard's critical view of the modern city of Paris.

The book offers an interpretation of a posthumously published poem by Edwin Muir (1887-1959), beginning ""The heart could never speak / But that the Word was spoken."" The poem is read as summing up Muir''s lifelong struggle with fundamental questions about the meaning of existence, questions often developed in dialogue with such figures as Nietzsche, Holderlin, and Kafka. These references allow us to bring Muir into conversation with modern existentialist philosophy and theology, and Muir''s poetic thought is seen as both illuminating and as illuminated by such existentialist thinkers as Heidegger, Bultmann, Kierkegaard, and Berdyaev. Themes such as death, time, love, the nature of language, and the alienation brought about by technological mass society, and the threat of nuclear catastrophe are central to the poem''s subject-matter and are dealt with by Muir in such a way as to make possible a Christian version of existentialist thought. The perennial nature of such questions in modern society makes the poem as relevant to contemporary issues in religious thought today as when it was written. For all its simplicity, it is the argument of the book that it makes an abiding contribution to human self-understanding.""This fine and original book offers a conversation between poetry and philosophy that succeeds . . . in being both a rigorous analysis and a deeply moving meditation. Sensitive to the poetic text and learned in the existential philosophy of modernity, the author unveils a ''heart'' to which poets, philosophers, and theologians bear witness, a heart speaking of love, broken in time, and resurrected by human art and divine word.""--Paul S. Fiddes, Professor of Systematic Theology, University of Oxford""There are many ways to read a poem and some of them allow a poem to read us. This beautiful short meditation on a late poem by Edwin Muir is rooted in a lifetime''s scholarship in Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and existentialist thought. . . . Written with clarity yet moving and profound, this engagement with one poem explores the nature of faith in our technological world, yet a world that still breathes with the wonder of poetry and faith.""--David Jasper, Professor of Literature and Theology, University of Glasgow and Renmin University of China""In the spirit of Augustine and Merton, Kierkegaard and the later Heidegger, Pattison takes us on a profound poetic journey--his own edifying discourse. Muir, and his one poem, are not just read closely: under the winds of Christian contemplation and existential experience, they become part of a richly expansive landscape of poetry, theology, and philosophy, one open to all travelers interested in the maneuverings of the heart.""--Andrew W. Hass, Lecturer in Religion, University of Stirling""George Pattison has an acute ear for ''the language of the heart,'' and in this terrific new study he explores the complex connections between emotion, time, and grace with admirable precision. His focus on a single poem is a rare example of attentive, patient, and close reading, and, like all stimulating theology, it opens a door to new perspectives on shared reality.""--Andrew Tate, Senior Lecturer in English, Lancaster UniversityGeorge Pattison is Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford. He is the author of many books on theology and philosophy of religion, including works on Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and the visual arts.

Kierkegaard''s Pastoral Dialogues takes a selection of Kierkegaard''s most insightful spiritual writings and transforms them into a series of dialogues between two friends, a believer and a nonbeliever. In this way, some of Kierkegaard''s complex religious thought is made accessible to a wider readership, so as to provide a resource for individual or group study in pastoral, counseling, or spiritual direction contexts. Each dialogue is accompanied by a commentary and questions to help discussion by groups or application by individuals. Finally, there are three responses from, respectively, a philosopher, a theologian, and a hospital chaplain, looking at how the dialogues may be relevant to these different fields of practice.""Kierkegaard is a profound, Socratic, and dialogic thinker. Sometimes this dialogue is implicit in his work, and other times explicit. Kierkegaard''s Pastoral Dialogues offers a way into this thinking that makes the dialogical element both explicit and attentive, relating Kierkegaard''s dialogue with his reader to a contemporary pastoral context. A good book that presents, not learning about, but from Kierkegaard.""--Eberhard Harbsmeier, Professor, Aarhus University ""In these imaginative dialogues, Pattison and Jensen have captured the pith of Kierkegaard''s thinking on matters of life and death. They have done so without bowdlerizing or oversimplifying the texts. It is an achievement in the art of communication that Kierkegaard himself would have smiled upon!""--Gordon Marino, Director of Hong Kierkegaard Library, St. Olaf College""Can Kierkegaard comfort the anguished--acknowledging wounds and also ways to staunch them--through reflection and also through posture and bearing? This book is an utter success in bringing Kierkegaard''s ''Lilies of the Fields and Birds of the Air'' into immediate resonance with believer and nonbeliever alike, addressing aching questions, not as aberrant, but as profoundly and touchingly human. It provides heartfelt pastoral dialogues on sorrow and delight that a reader will find transforming.""--Edward F. Mooney, Professor at Syracuse University""This is a most welcome book, full of fresh and vibrant vistas on faith, prayer, virtue and Christian character. Pattison and Jensen''s adaptation is richly complemented by essays from John Lippit, Simon Podmore, and John McLuckie, who provide helpful and illuminating reflections on Kierkegaard''s extraordinary pastoral wisdom. This is an outstanding book that will both challenge and nourish all who study pastoral theology.""--Martyn Percy, Ripon College CuddesdonGeorge Pattison is Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford and has written extensively on Kierkegaard and modern religious thought. His most recent books are Kierkegaard and the Theology of the Nineteenth Century and Kierkegaard and the Quest for Unambiguous Life.Helle Moller Jensen has a doctorate in Systematic Theology from the University of Aarhus. After eleven years of experience as a hospital chaplain, she is currently a parish priest in the Danish People''s Church and is also a military chaplain to the Danish Royal Lifeguards.

This title explores Christian doctrine as a dynamic teaching process or communicative practice. It incorporates a running dialogue with modern European philosophy, and contains a discussion of the cultural context of Christian teaching, with references to the visual arts and film.

Seeks to address the contemporary crisis of theology, exploring the possible future for an academic discipline that is rooted in the life and teaching of the Christian church, in a situation of intellectual pluralism. Argues for a commitment to dialogue.

Leads the reader through a more or less historical narrative of the relationship between Christianity and the visual arts beginning with the deep-rooted fear of images in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. Shows how significant for religion art can be.

Aimed at introductory students and general readers interested in thinking and God in the context of modern thought and experience.Discusses work by Kant, Dostoevsky and Heidegger amongst others.

These readings of Kierkegaard begin with a series of reflections on the background to his thought and writings, examining Romanticism, German Idealism and Danish intellectual history in the early 19th century. The author analyzes the role of indirect communication in Kierkegaard's authorship.

This book examines the question of death in the light of Heidegger's paradigmatic discussion in Being and Time. Pattison reveals where and how Heidegger and theology part ways but also how Heidegger can helpfully challenge theology to rethink one of its own fundamental questions.

A bold and innovative reassessment of Kierkegaard's Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses and our reading of his work as a whole. The first full length assessment of the discourses in English.

This Routledge Philosophy GuideBook offers a clear introduction to Heidegger's notoriously difficult later thought, examining key later influential works concerning the nature of technology, art and thinking.

Paul Tillich's Philosophical Theology takes up the challenge as to whether his thought remains relevant fifty years after his death. In opposition to those who believe that his writings have little to say to us today, this book argues that his thought is largely exemplary of open theological engagement with the contemporary intellectual situation.