Interstices of the Sublime: Theology and Psychoanalytic Theory (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy) [Paperback]

Clayton Crockett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0823227227 | ISBN-13: 978-0823227228 | Edition: 3

Interstices of the Sublime represents a powerful theological engagement with psychoanalytic theory in Freud, Lacan, Kristeva and Zizek, as well as major expressions of contemporary Continental philosophy, including Deleuze, Derrida, Marion, and Badiou. Through creative and constructive psycho-theological readings of topics such as sublimation, schizophrenia, God, and creation ex nihilo, this book contributes to a new form of radical theological thinking that is deeply involved in the world. Here the idea of the Kantian sublime is read into Freud and Lacan, and compared with sublimation. The sublime refers to a conflict of the Kantian faculties of reason and imagination, and involves the attempt to represent what is intrinsically unrepresentable. Sublimation, by contrast, involves the expression and partial satisfaction of primal desires in culturally acceptable terms. The sublime is negatively expressed in sublimation, because it is both the sourceof sublimation as well as that which resists being sublimated. That is, the Freudian sublime is related to the process of sublimation, but it also distorts or disrupts sublimation, and invokes what Lacan calls the Real. The effects of the sublime are not just psychoanalytic but, importantly, theological, because the sublime is the main form that Godtakes in the modern world. A radical postmodern theology attends to the workings of the sublime in our thinking and living, and provides resources to understand the complexity of reality. This book is one of the first sustained theological readings of Lacan in English.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Draws on psychoanalytic theory and Continental philosophy to develop a radical postmodern theology." -- The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 27, 2007 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

CLAYTON CROCKETT is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Central Arkansas. He is the author of A Theology of theSublime and Interstices of the Sublime: Theology and Psychoanalytic Theory (Fordham), as well as editor of Religion and Violence in a Secular World and of the online Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory.

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Fordham University Press; 3 edition (May 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823227227
• ISBN-13: 978-0823227228
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #734,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Clayton Crockett is Associate Professor and Director of Religious Studies at the University of Central Arkansas. His work focuses on postmodern theology, Continental philosophy of religion, psychoanalytic theory and theoretical issues concerning religion and politics. He is a co-editor of the book series Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics and Culture for Columbia University Press. He lives in Conway, Arkansas, with his wife and two children.