Customer Reviews

God and the Between (Illuminations: Theory & Religion)

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I had heard a lot about the metaxological metaphysics of William Desmond prior to purchasing this work. As a theologian, I was intrigued with the obvious implications of Desmond's philosophy. One would definitely benefit from a familiarity with Hegelian dialectic, as well as Desmond's previous works in this trilogy (Being & the Between, and Ethics & the Between). The present work will, however, stand on its own. The prose is dense, and to the uninitiated will often seem inpenetrable. However, the concepts are fascinating and intriguing, and will serve as impetus to more explicitly theological research. With diligence, one can master Desmond's terminology, but this will take repeated, close reading. For those with the requisite skills, background, and patience, this book will prove a fascinating journey into the arena of philosophical theology.

A great work on the cutting edge of dialogue between religion and philosophy. Especially pertinent examination of the role of agapeics in philosophy's realization of its metaphysical debts to religion. Hardly a just review, the book speaks for itself.

p.s. The original introductory poems for each section as well as the keen use of rhetoric throughout make for an enjoying read of some difficult conceptual terrain.

It is a great work, added by William Desmond to his trilogy of thinking from and in the between. It launches an invitation to philosophers, theologians, religious and to anyone who is truly porous to discover the divine to come and "hear, as it were, God's own metaxology." Through this work Desmond intones the `arrival' of the "time when one must break silence, and break a silence that has been philosophically chosen or enforced in recent centuries." It undertakes to re-think God-question philosophically/religiously contra any post-modern/post-structuralist or any deconstructive reductionist tendencies of the current era that resolves to be determinately indifferent or silent about God