With close attention to seminal, pre-modern Christian thinkers such as Pseudo-Dionysius and Thomas Aquinas and in close conversation with contemporary scholars such as Clouser, Cupitt, McFague, Moltmann, and Rorty, along with key resources from the arts, literature, and popular culture, this course will explore some of the ways in which a traditional understanding of transcendence and immanence, rooted in the extremely influential notion of the analogia entis, has been maintained, modified, challenged, and reconceived since the advent of: the “linguistic turn,” the much-heralded “end of metaphysics,” and the alleged peril (and promise!) of a “post-truth” era. Is there a biblically oriented way of departing from (the ghost of) Perfect Being notions in theology and philosophy? Can we develop a view of transcendence and immanence that is not overly tied to spatial metaphors (“transcendence and beyond”)? Is mysticism the antidote to metaphysics? What grounds our privileged, centring, or root metaphors? Might a post-or-non-realist view of truth help us reconnect with our faith, and vice-versa? Are there key non-academic (re)sources that can speak to us as we negotiate these and other questions?
ICS 2400AC W20
Drs. Nik Ansell, Robert (Bob) Sweetman
Tuesdays, 1:45pm - 4:45pm
Location: ICS Learning Studio, Knox College
(MA, PhD)
Syllabus
