Transcendence and Self-Transcendence: On God and the Soul (Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion)

255 Pages·2004·1.6 MB·English

by  Merold Westphal

Transcendence and Self-Transcendence
Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion
Merold Westphal, general editor
Transcendence and
Self-Transcendence:
On God and the Soul
Merold Westphal
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
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∫ 2004 by Merold Westphal
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Westphal, Merold.
Transcendence and self-transcendence : on God and the soul / Merold Westphal.
p. cm. — (Indiana series in the philosophy of religion)
Includes bibliographical references
and index.
ISBN 0-253-34413-1 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-253-21687-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Religion—Philosophy. 2. Transcendence (Philosophy)
I. Title. II. Series.
BL51.W3735 2004
212—dc22
2003025352
1 2 3 4 5 09 08 07 06 05 04
Contents
acknowledgments / vii
list of abbreviations / ix
Introduction: For Orientation / 1
PART 1. ONTO-THEOLOGY AND THE NEED TO
TRANSCEND COSMOLOGICAL TRANSCENDENCE
1. Heidegger: How Not to Speak about God / 15
2. Spinoza: The Onto-theological Pantheism of Nature / 41
3. Hegel: The Onto-theological Pantheism of Spirit / 66
PART 2. EPISTEMIC TRANSCENDENCE: THE DIVINE MYSTERY
4. Augustine and Pseudo-Dionysius: Negative Theology as a Break with
the Onto-theological Project / 93
5. Pseudo-Dionysius and Aquinas: How to Speak Nevertheless about God—
The Analogy of Being / 115
6. Barth: How to Speak Nevertheless about God—The Analogy of Faith / 142
PART 3. ETHICAL AND RELIGIOUS TRANSCENDENCE:
THE DIVINE IMPERATIVE
7. Levinas: Beyond Onto-theology to Love of Neighbor / 177
8. Kierkegaard: Beyond Onto-theology to Love of God / 201
Conclusion / 227
index / 233

acknowledgments
I would like to thank Fordham University and the Pew Evangelical Schol-
ars Program for their generous support, providing me with time to work on this
project. I also offer my thanks to Harvard Divinity School for giving me the
opportunity to give this book as a course while it was in preparation, and to the
students in that class for the help they gave me in clarifying what I was trying to
say. Finally, I am pleased to express gratitude to the Society of Christian
Philosophers for giving me the opportunity to present an overview of my
argument in the form of a keynote address to a conference at Bethel College
and for the further clarification that afforded.

abbreviations
The following abbreviations will be used in text and notes.
Aquinas
CDA A Commentary on Aristotle’s De Anima. Trans. Robert Pasnau. New
Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999.
CMA Commentary on the Metaphysics of Aristotle. Trans. John P. Rowan.
2 vols. Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1961.
DEE Aquinas on Being and Essence (De Ente et Essentia). Trans. Joseph
Bobik. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1965.
DP On the Power of God (Quaestiones Disputatae de Potentia Dei).
Trans. Dominican Fathers. 3 vols. London: Burns Oates & Wash-
bourne, 1934.
DV Truth (Quaestiones Disputatae de Veritate). 3 vols. Trans. Robert
W. Mulligan, S.J., James V. McGlynn, S.J., and Robert W.
Schmidt, S.J. Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett, 1994.
ST Summa Theologiae, in Basic Writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas.
Ed. Anton C. Pegis. 2 vols. New York: Random House, 1945.
1.2.3 signifies article 1, question 2, reply to objection 3. In the case of ST, the
initial number signifies the part, thus 1–2 signifies the first part of the second
part.
Augustine
C Confessions. Trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin. Baltimore, Md.: Penguin,
1961.
T The Trinity. Trans. Edmund Hill, O.P. Brooklyn, N.Y.: New City
Press, 1991.
TC Teaching Christianity (De Doctrine Christiana). Trans. Edmund
Hill, O.P. Hyde Park, N.Y.: New City Press, 1996.