What does it mean to give a "gift"? In this timely collection, distinguished anthropologists--Maurice Godelier, George Marcus, Stephen Tyler--and philosophers--Mark C. Taylor, John D. Caputo, Jean-Joseph Goux and Adriaan Peperzak, explore an enigma that has disturbed contemporary philosophers from Marcel Mauss to Jacques Derrida. The essays included in the volume: Some Things You Give, Some Things You Sell, But Some Things You Must Keep for Yourselves: What Mauss Did Not Say about Sacred Objects by Maurice Godelie. The Gift and Globalization: A Prolegomenon to the Anthropological Study of...

In seven essays that draw from metaphysics, phenomenology, literature, Christological theology, and Biblical exegesis, Marion sketches several prolegomena to a future fuller thinking and saying of love's paradoxical reasons, exploring evil, freedom, bedazzlement, and the loving gaze; crisis, absence, and knowing.

Peter Spader has written a magisterial study on Max Scheler, one of phenomenology's earliest and greatest figures, whose theory of ethical personalism has become a major voice in the formulation of phenomenological ethics today. Spader follows Scheler's use of the classic phenomenological approach, by means of which he presented a fresh view of values, feelings, and the person, and thereby staked out a new approach in ethics. Spader recreates the logic of Scheler's quest, revealing the basis of his thought and the reasons for his dramatic changes of direction. This remarkable study provides a...

In this first English translation of an important work, a leading phenomenologist unfolds the ideas of memory and loss, of the immemorable, and of hope, as he opens a phenomenological path to the heart of classical thought. He stands with Levinas, Marion, and Henry in attempting to join philosophy and religion after Kant, Nietzsche, and Heidegger.

Don Cupitt is best known for developing a non-realistic interpretation of Christian doctrine and an ever-more radically antirealist position in philosophy.Cupitt has sought to go beyond ecclesiastical religion to a purely this-worldly humanistic religion of life: he argues for a kingdomversion of Christianity that will bring it closer to the original Jewish Jesus. This book contains essays written over twenty years that appear in book form for the first time.

In the third book in the trilogy that includes Reduction and Givenness and Being Given. Marion renews his argument for a phenomenology of givenness, with penetrating analyses of the phenomena of event, idol, flesh, and icon. Turning explicitly to hermeneutical dimensions of the debate, Marion masterfully draws together issues emerging from his close reading of Descartes and Pascal, Husserl and Heidegger, Levinas and Henry. Concluding with a revised version of his response to Derrida, In the Name: How to Avoid Speaking of It, Marion powerfully re-articulates the theological possibilities of...

Differencehas been a term of choice in the humanities for the last few decades, animating an extraordinary variety of work in philosophy, literary studies, religion, law, the social sciences-indeed, in virtually every area of the academy.In projects ranging from deconstructive readings of canonical texts to a radical rethinking of the sacred, differencehas been the node around which theorists have explored questions of conflict, power, identity, meaning, and knowledge itself in postmodern culture. At this point, what difference does differencemake?In this imaginatively conceived book, Julian...

Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905N1988) was one of the most prolific and influential theologians of the twentieth century. This book, the first English-language study of Balthasar, seeks to show the fruitfulness of his thought by drawing out its philosophical implications for the question of truth.D. C. Schindler argues that a dramaticapproach, shaping both the form and content of philosophy, enables a new conception of being, of human consciousness, and of their coming together to satisfy both traditional concerns about unity and postmodern calls for difference-while avoiding the pitfalls of a...

Plato's chora as developed in the Timaeus is a creative matrix in which things arise and stand out in response to the lure of the Good. Chora is paired with the Good, its polar opposite; both are "beyond being" and the metaphors hitherto thought to disclose the transcendent. They underlie Plato's distinction of a procreative gap between being and becoming. The chiasmus between the Good and chora makes possible their mutual participation in one another. This gap makes possible both phenomenological and cosmological interpretations of Plato. Metaphor is restricted to beings as they appear in...

Heidegger's interpretations of the poetry of Holderlin are central to Heidegger's later philosophy and have determined the mainstream reception of Holderlin's poetry. Gosetti-Ferencei argues that Heidegger has overlooked central elements in Holderlin's poetics, such as a Kantian understanding of aesthetic subjectivity and a commitment to Enlightenment ideals. These elements, she argues, resist the more politically distressing aspects of Heidegger's interpretations, including Heidegger's nationalist valorization of the German language and sense of nationhood, or Heimat. In the context of...