Appearing of God

The nine essays in The Appearing of God are situated on the fluid border of philosophy and theology, and follow a path leading from classic modern philosophical discussions of experience to some leading themes in contemporary phenomenology. After an introductory exploration of Kierkegaard's classic text that straddles the border between philosophy and theology, the reader is introduced to Husserl's account of perception, with its demonstration that the field of phenomena is wider than that of perceptible entities, allowing phenomena that give themselves primarily to feeling. Husserl's theory of reduction is then subjected to a critique, which identifies phenomena wholly resistant to reduction. John Paul II's encyclical on Faith and Reason elicits a critical rejection of its attempt to reify the boundary between natural and supernatural, the author asserting in its place that love is the distinguishing mark of the knowledge of God. This theme is continued in a discussion of Heidegger's Being and Time, where a passing reference to Pascal invites interrogation of the work's 'methodological atheism', which is found to leave more room than appears for love of the divine. The next three chapters deal with the themes of Anticipation, Gift and Self-Identity, all exploring aspects of a single theme, the relation of present experience to the passage of time, and especially to the future. The final chapter puts that theme, together with the theme of love and knowledge, to the service of an enquiry into how theology as an intellectual enterprise relates to the practice of worship.

An independent scholar living and working in Paris, Jean-Yves Lacoste has taught at Universities throughout Europe and the United States, and is a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. Having worked extensively in the translation and publication of theological and philosophical reference works, his has since come to be regarded as one of the most interesting of contemporary French philosophers working at the border between philosophy and theology, the focus of a body of secondary literature and credited by Jean-Luc Marion with 'uncluttering the horizon of Fundamental Theology decisively'. In 2002 he received the Prix Laurentin of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. Oliver O'Donovan held chairs in Oxford and Edinburgh, and is now an Honorary Professor at the University of St Andrews. An Anglican priest, he is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His publications include Resurrection and Moral Order (1986), The Desire of the Nations (1996), The Ways of Judgment (2005), Self, World and Time, Finding and Seeking (2013-4), and Entering into Rest (2017). He is also the translator of Persons, by Robert Spaemann (2006).