Books in the Perspectives in Continental Philosophy series

Presents a translation of the complete text of Jacques Derrida's ten-hour address to the 1997 Cerisy conference entitled "The Autobiographical Animal," the third of four such colloquia on his work. This book was assembled posthumously on the basis of two published sections, one written and recorded session, and one informal recorded session.

The Trace of God treats Derrida's discussion and use of religious ideas. Examining his writings both early and late, it provides accounts of his engagement with the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, offering a variety of perspectives on the meaning of his work and its implications today.

Brings together essays on the topics of the ego and of God. This book illustrates the profound connection between the author's phenomenological concerns and his writings on Descartes. It highlights the topics - liberating god and the self from the constrictions of metaphysics - in the philosophy of Descartes.

Miracle & Machine is an introduction to the work of Jacques Derrida by means of a detailed reading of his 1994-5 essay "Faith and Knowledge," Derrida's most important work on the nature of religion in general and on the unprecedented forms it is taking today through science and the media.

Bigger's larger goal is to align the primacy of the Good in Plato and Christian Neoplatonism with the creator God of Genesis and the God of love in the New Testament.

Paul Ricoeur''s entire philosophical project narrates a "passion for the possible" expressed in the hope that in spite of death, closure, and sedimentation, life is opened by superabundance, by how the world gives us much more than is possible. Ricoeur''s philosophical anthropology is a phenomenology of human capacity, which gives onto the groundless ground of human being, namely, God. Thus the story of the capable man, beginning with original goodness held captive by a servile will and ending with the possibility of liberation and regeneration of the heart, underpins his passion for the more than possible. The essays in this volume trace the fluid movement between phenomenological and religious descriptions of the capable self that emerges across Ricoeur''s oeuvre and establish points of connection for future developments that might draw inspiration from this body of thought.

A collection seeks to examine exactly what Levinas' writings mean for both Jews and Christians. It takes a snapshot of the state of Jewish-Christian dialogue, using Levinas as the rationale for the discussion. It represents three generations of Levinas scholars.

Neuroscience, in replacing the old model of the brain as a single centralized source of control, has emphasized 'plasticity,' the quality by which our brains develop and change throughout the course of our lives. This book develops a radical meaning for plasticity.

Dealing with the relationship between philosophy and theology, this work is useful for understanding the progression of the author's thought on such topics as the saturated phenomenon and the possibility of something like "Christian Philosophy". It explores the boundary line between philosophy and theology or their mutual enrichment and influence.

Accuses Levinas, Henry, Marion, and Chrtien of veering from phenomenological neutrality to a theologically inflected phenomenology. This title interrogates whether phenomenology's proper starting point is agnostic or atheistic.

The sublime refers to a conflict of the Kantian faculties of reason and imagination, and involves the attempt to represent what is intrinsically unrepresentable. Through topics such as sublimation, schizophrenia, God, and creation ex nihilo, this book contributes to a form of radical theological thinking that is involved in the world.

Develops a philosophy of life in opposition to the notion of "bio-power," which reduces the human to the question of power over what Giorgio Agamben terms "bare life," mere biological existence. This book provides conceptual tools for intervening in issues such as the AIDS epidemic and life-support for the infirm.

"Breaks new ground in a number of promising directions, and will surely be viewed as a major contribution to the developing field of Scheler studies...comprehensive and sympathetic, yet without being uncritical."-Philip Blosser, Lenoir-Rhyne College

Reads resurrection in the context of contemporary philosophy, notably Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and Deleuze

This work brings together in one volume a collection of encounters with some of the most significant philosophers of our time. Here, he brings together eighteen conversations.

Here, philosopher and theologian Jean-Louis Chretien revisits a favourite theme: how human life is shaped by the experience of call and response, explored with art as the context. For Chretien, art is about acts in response to what the artist sees or hears and how these acts provoke responses from viewers.

Nietzsche advocates the affirmation of earthly life as a way to counteract nihilism and asceticism. This volume takes stock of the complexities and wide-ranging perspectives that Nietzsche brings to bear on the problem of life's becoming on earth by engaging various interpretative paradigms reaching from existentialist to Darwinist readings of Nietzsche.

Explores the significance of human animality in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and covers the animal theme in Nietzsche's corpus as a whole. This book argues that the animal is neither a random theme nor a metaphorical device in Nietzsche's thought.

Corpus II is a collection of recent essays by Jean-Luc Nancy dealing with embodiment, sexuality, pleasure and the crossing of borders and boundaries. It is both a celebration of our sexual existence and an unflinching philosophical reflection on all our ways of being together.

What is it to be a Jew and a philosopher? How has the notion of "Jewish identity" been written into and across Jewish literature, Jewish thought, and Jewish languages? This title addresses these questions, contrasting Derrida's thought with philosophical predecessors such as Rosenzweig, Levinas, Celan, and Scholem.

Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988) was one of the most prolific and influential theologians of the twentieth century. This study seeks to show the fruitfulness of his thought by drawing out its philosophical implications for the question of truth.

Contemporary continental philosophy approaches metaphysics with great reservation. A point of criticism concerns traditional philosophical speaking about God. Derrida, Marion, Bataille, Adorno, Taubes, and Bakhtin, each in their own way, continue the exploration begun by Nietzsche and Heidegger.

"... remarkably accessible ... indispensable for Christians who perceive a second, more positive postmodernism."-Third Way

This book offers a new materialist interpretation of Derrida's later work, including his engagements with religion and politics. It argues that there is a shift from a context or background motor scheme of writing to what Derrida calls the machinic, and Catherine Malabou calls plasticity.

"Westphal here brings together his discussions over the last decade of how Christianity can and should engage and appropriate post-modernism...it's easily the best contribution to the discussion that I know of."-Nicholas Wolterstorff, Yale University

Focuses upon the systematic interest that so many European philosophers take in modernism. In this study, the author answers that the culture of modernism is a kind of anarchist community, where the work of art is apt to be as much an event or experience - or, indeed, an alternative form of life - as a formal object.

An introduction to the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961) which guides through the three main phases of his work. Both for beginners and for confirmed scholars.

Jean-Luc Marion: The Essential Writings is an anthology of Marion's diverse writings in the history of philosophy, Christian theology, and phenomenology. The general introduction provides students with sufficient background for them to tackle the work of this important contemporary philosopher without first having to take preliminary courses on Husserl and Heidegger.