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Graven Ideologies: Nietzsche, Derrida & Marion on Modern Idolatry

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Bruce Benson has written the clearest treatment of the religious turn in phenomenology in print. Focusing on the idol as a root metaphor for the human proclivity to absolutize conceptual constructs, the author takes us on a tour from Nietzsche to Jean-luc Marion explaining their struggle to speak about the Other in a non-metaphysical idiom; that is to say, in a manner that will remain vigilant of the inadequacy of all possible idioms. Philosophy's conceit that it could ground its epistemological claims and subjugate the Real via rational schemas proved to be a delusion. The story of that delusion culminated in the death of God and the reductio ad absurdum of the modernist project at Auschwitz.

The only serious flaw in the book was the author's exposition of Heidegger which lacked sufficient depth. Heidegger represents an epochal shift in the consciousness of the Western tradition, a mode of thinking which evolved from the classical paradigm of the form/particular (ideational/material), to critical reason and Kant's architectonic model of subjectivity. Hegel's transitional thinking toward a deeper awareness of the historical conditioning of mind, as well as the evolutionary unfolding of consciousness as a universal phenomenon, laid the groundwork for a new, transpersonal gnosticism which would begin to manifest itself in the Heideggarian corpus. Heidegger's receptivity to the numinous, the uncanniness and mystery of Being - which opens up a horizon of luminosity (Lichtung, clearing) wherein Being can disclose itself to Da-sein - marked the beginning of a dialectical conversion to a trans-rational philosophical thinking. That is to say, a thinking which is willing to abandon the desire for conceptual closure or instrumental reason in order to explore its temporal nature and ontological contingency; and also a thinking which seeks to encounter the Other as Other. Heidegger thus provided the necessary impetus for both Derrida's deconstructive readings and Marion's abandonment of a theology ensconced in metaphysical categories.

Bruce Benson's most recent offering GRAVEN IDEOLOGIES is an excellent overview of the several important advances in recent continental philosophy. From the pioneering work of Friedrich Nietzsche to more contemporary works by Emmanuel Levinas and Jean-Luc Marion, Benson consistently and lucidly outlines the battle against the human proclivity to construct conceptual idols that European philosophy and theology have waged for the last two centuries. It also quite refreshing to hear a confessing Christian--and evangelical even!--say that we believers might have something important to learn from Nietzsche and Derrida.

But the work is not without problems, of course. While Benson is doubtless, strongest on his home turf of phenomenology, he is less confident--and less convincing--in the chapters dealing with the relationship between Nietzsche and Jesus. On a related issue, as another reviewer has already pointed out, the material on Heidegger is superficial, and the scope of Benson's work could have been greatly expanded by a more substantive treatment of this central figure.

In the end, though, Benson's work is an excellent introduction highly recommended for anyone engaging in a first-time study of these key thinkers.

those who will find this book helpful are college majors and dabblers, these are also the individuals Benson has written this text for. It will also help those of us who need to brush up on our basic grasp of these figures and their additions to questions of religious speech and truth. if you read this book, you will be able to score chicks at bars....