Abstract
Continuing on this task of thinking God, Mark Novak advances the idea that the approaches by William Desmond and his long-standing travelling companion Richard Kearney are closely intertwined. Both are interested in thinking, not only about God but also on doing so from the between, a middle space of porosity that does not settle in advance on eros or agape, existence or possibility. While differences in emphasis emerge in discussion between them, Desmond and Kearney are largely of one mind on how to proceed, and Novak points out that both are involved in a process of theopoetics, namely the imaginative and poetical representation of God.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Richard J. Colledge makes a similar comparison of Desmond and Kearney in a recent edited book on Kearney, though he does not pursue the theopoetic angle. Unfortunately, I did not have access to this volume before my piece was sent to the publisher. See Colledge (2018).
- 2.
See also Kearney (2001, p. 64): “But this elevation of desire towards the Most-High does not imply (as one might think) a Platonic elevation to a transcendental hinterworld. On the contrary, the experience of height arises, once again, in the midst of my relation to the concrete living other. The good beyond finds itself inscribed between one and another. Desire here again reveals itself not as deficiency but as positivity. Not as manque-à-être but as grace and gratuity, gift and surplus. Less as insufficiency than as the bursting forth of the ‘more’ in the ‘less’.”
- 3.
Though referring specifically to evil, the point he makes is relevant to all discourse.
- 4.
See also Martin Heidegger, “Hölderlin and the Essence of Poetry,”trans. Douglas Scott, in Existence and Being, (Chicago, IL: Henry Regnery Company, 1949), 279.
Bibliography
Colledge, Richard J. 2018. Kin and Stranger: Kearney and Desmond on God. In Richard Kearney’s Anatheistic Wager: Philosophy, Theology, Poetics, ed. Chris Doude van Troostwijk and Matthew Clemente, 125–141. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Desmond, William. 2006. Maybe, Maybe Not: Richard Kearney and God. In After God: Richard Kearney and the Religious Turn in Continental Philosophy, ed. John Panteleimon Manoussakis, 55–77. New York: Fordham University Press.
———. 2007. Between System and Poetics: On the Practices of Philosophy. In Between System and Poetics: William Desmond and Philosophy After Dialectic, ed. Thomas A.F. Kelly, 13–36. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company.
Heidegger, Martin. 1949. Hölderlin and the Essence of Poetry. Trans. Douglas Scott. In Existence and Being, 270–291. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company.
———. 1960. Essays in Metaphysics: Identity and Difference. Trans. Kurt F. Leidecker. New York: Philosophical Library Inc.
———. 1977. Letter on Humanism. In Basic Writings, ed. David Farrell Krell, 189–242. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers.
Kearney, Richard. 2001. The God Who May Be: A Hermeneutics of Religion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
———. 2007. Maybe Not, Maybe: William Desmond on God. In Between System and Poetics: William Desmond and Philosophy After Dialectic, ed. Thomas A.F. Kelly, 191–200. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company.
———. 2010. Anatheism: Returning to God After God. New York: Columbia University Press.
———. 2017. God Making: An Essay in Theopoetic Imagination. Journal of Aesthetics and Phenomenology 4 (1): 31–44.
Kearney, Richard, and William Desmond. 2012. Two Thinks at a Distance: An Interview by Richard Kearney on 9 January 2011. In The William Desmond Reader, ed. Christopher Ben Simpson, 229–244. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Krabbe, Silas C. 2016. A Beautiful Bricolage: Theopoetics as God-Talk for Our Time. Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Vahanian, Gabriel. 2009. No Other God: Wording the World and Worlding the Word. Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Novak, M.F. (2018). Metaxologizing Our God-Talk: Desmond, Kearney, and the Divine Between. In: Vanden Auweele, D. (eds) William Desmond’s Philosophy between Metaphysics, Religion, Ethics, and Aesthetics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98992-1_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98992-1_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-98991-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-98992-1
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)