Ricoeur&#039;s Hermeneutics of Religion

Brian Gregor

doi:10.5771/9781498584746

Summary

Religion was a constant theme throughout Paul Ricoeur’s long career, and yet he never wrote a full-length treatment of the topic. In this important new book, Brian Gregor draws on the full scope of Ricoeur’s writings to lay out the essential features of his philosophical interpretation of religion, from his earliest to his last work.

Ricoeur’s central claim is that religion aims at the regeneration of human capability—in his words, “the rebirth of the capable self.” This book provides a rich thematic account of Ricoeur’s hermeneutics of religion, showing how the theme of capability informs his changing interpretations of religion, from his early work on French reflexive philosophy and the philosophy of the will to his late work on forgiveness, mourning, and living up to death. Gregor exhibits Ricoeur’s original contribution to philosophical reflection on such themes as evil, suffering, and violence, as well as imagination, embodiment, and spiritual exercise. He also presents a critical reconsideration of Ricoeur’s separation of philosophy from theology, and his philosophical interpretation of Christian theological ideas of revelation, divine transcendence and personhood, atonement, and eschatology.

Additionally, Gregor provides an expansive look at Ricoeur’s interlocutors, including Marcel, Jaspers, Kant, Hegel, Levinas, and Girard. Theologically-inclined readers will be particularly interested in the book’s treatment of Karl Barth and the Protestant theology of the Word, which was a vital influence on Ricoeur.

The result is a study of Ricoeur that is both sympathetic and critical, provocative and original, inviting the reader into a deeper engagement with Ricoeur’s philosophical interpretation of religion.

Search publication

Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2018
ISBN-Print: 978-1-4985-8473-9
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4985-8474-6
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 224
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Abbreviations for FrequentlyCited Works by Ricoeur No access
3. Preface No access
Introduction No access Pages 1 - 10
1. Reflexive Philosophy No access
2. Karl Barth and the Theology of the Word No access
3. The Philosophy of Existence: Marcel and Jaspers No access
4. Explanation and Understanding No access
5. Phenomenology No access
6. I Can: Ricoeur’s Phenomenology of the Will No access
7. Nabert and the Mediation of Self-Knowledge No access
8. Suspicion: The Askēsis of Reflection No access
9. The Little Self that Could: Attestation No access
10. Notes No access
1. Fault and Fallibility No access
2. Ricoeur’s Hermeneutical Turn No access
3. “A Symbolics of Liberty in Bondage” No access
4. Destined for the Good yet Inclined to Evil: Kant on Radical Evil No access
5. The Trouble with Adam (and everyone else): Augustine and the Hermeneutics of Original Sin No access
6. Fragility and Suffering No access
7. Notes No access
1. Transcendence No access
2. Poetics No access
3. Poetics and the Conatus No access
4. Ricoeur’s Askēsis: Forming the Capable Self No access
5. Bodily Exercise and Spiritual Formation No access
6. The Active Cultivation of Receptivity No access
7. Reading as Embodied Practice No access
8. Notes No access
1. Kant on the Regeneration of the Will No access
2. How Kantian is Ricoeur’s Hermeneutics of Religion? No access
3. Testimony No access
4. Hegel on Religious Representation No access
5. Ricoeur’s Ontology of Human Capability No access
6. Notes No access
1. The Theology of the Word No access
2. Event, Structure, and Text No access
3. Distanciation, Appropriation, and Authorial Intent No access
4. Biblical Interpretation: Revelation, Poetic Reference, and the Plurality of Genres No access
5. The Bible: A Text among Texts? No access
6. The Genius and the Apostle No access
7. Becoming the Word of God No access
8. Notes No access
1. A Capacity to Hear the Call of the Other? No access
2. The Case of the Missing Gifford Lectures No access
3. The Summoned Subject and the Mirror of the Scriptures No access
4. Justification and Capability? No access
5. Notes No access
1. Theonomy and Desire: The Case of Abraham No access
2. Eschatological Desire and Desire for the Eschaton No access
3. The Religious Aim: Capability and Union with God No access
4. Notes No access
1. The Transcendence of God and the Immanence of Reflection No access
2. Jaspers: Ciphers of Transcendence No access
3. Heidegger, Heraclitus, and Job No access
4. Revelation as Manifestation and Proclamation No access
5. The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Spinoza? No access
6. Glimpses of the Trinity? No access
7. Notes No access
1. Ricoeur’s Nonviolent, Nonsacrificial Interpretation of the Cross No access
2. The Cross as the Unity of Love and Justice No access
3. Difficult Forgiveness No access
4. Religion, Violence, and the Fundamental No access
5. A Hermeneutical Response to Religious Violence No access
6. Notes No access
Bibliography No access Pages 205 - 216
Index No access Pages 217 - 222
About the Author No access Pages 223 - 224