Theological Territories: A David Bentley Hart Digest

415 Pages·2020·17.743 MB·English

by  David Bentley Hart

THEOLOGICAL TERRITORIES

DAVID BENTLEY HART
T H E O L O G I C A L
T E R R I T O R I E S
A David Bentley Hart Digest

University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
Copyright © 2020 by David Bentley Hart
Published by the University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hart, David Bentley, author.
Title: Theological territories : a David Bentley Hart digest / David
Bentley Hart.
Description: Notre Dame, Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press, [2020]
|
Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019054882 (print) | LCCN 2019054883 (ebook) | ISBN
9780268107178 (hardback) | ISBN 9780268107185 (paperback) | ISBN
9780268107208 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9780268107192 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Theology. | Philosophical theology. | Bible. New
Testament—Criticism, interpretation, etc. | Bible—Theology.
Classification: LCC BR118 .H3646 2020 (print) | LCC BR118 (ebook) | DDC
230—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019054882
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019054883
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-
party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability
issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [email protected].
for
John and Laura Betz

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
PART ONE. Theology and What May Be Said
1 The Gospel According to Melpomene: Reflections on
Rowan Williams’s The Tragic Imagination 3
2 Remarks Made to Jean-Luc Marion regarding
Revelation and Givenness 26
3 What Is Postmodern Theology?
Reflections for Tomáš Halík 45
4 Martin and Gallaher on Bulgakov 55
5 Remarks to Bruce McCormack regarding the Relation
between Trinitarian Theology and Christology 65
6 The Devil’s March: Creatio ex Nihilo, the Problem of Evil,
and a Few Dostoyevskian Meditations 77
7 Tradition and Authority: A Vaguely Gnostic Meditation 98
viii Contents
PART TWO. The Borderlands of Theology and Science
8 Where the Consonance Really Lies 123
9 Should Science Think? 138
10 The Illusionist: On Daniel Dennett’s
From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds 153
11 Consciousness and Grace: Thoughts on Bernard Lonergan 167
PART THREE. Gospel and Culture
12 Concerning By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed:
A Catholic Defense of Capital Punishment,
by Edward Feser and Joseph M. Bessette 183
13 Further Reflections on Capital Punishment
(and on Edward Feser) 198
14 Orthodoxy in America 212
15 University and Magisterium: Remarks in Response
to Reinhard Hütter 225
16 The Story of the Nameless: The Use and Abuse of
History for Theology 232
17 Beauty, Being, Kenosis 245
18 A Sense of Style: Beauty and the Christian Moral Life 257
PART FOUR. Literatures of Transcendence
19 The Shock of the Real: On Journey to the Land of the Real,
by Victor Segalen 275
20 Empson in the East: On The Face of the Buddha 289
Contents ix
21 David Jones: The Forgotten Modernist 297
22 An Introduction to Léon Bloy’s The Pilgrim of the Absolute 314
PART FIVE. The New Testament
23 The First Radicals 325
24 Paul’s Theology Was Rather Different from What We Think 331
25 What It Says, Not What It Means 335
26 The Spirit of the Text 340
27 A Prayer for the Poor 344
28 Different Idioms, Different Worlds: Various Notes
on Translating the New Testament 351
Index 390