Identifies what is most radically distinctive about Christian belief. Addressed to a non-technical audience, the book helps the reader examine the most basic questions concerning Christian faith.
Pictures, Quotations, and Distinctions presents an anthology of the essays of Robert Sokolowski, a thinker who excels in questions of conceptual analysis. The essays constitute Sokolowski's sustained project of critical phenomenological analysis of many different forms of presentation as well as many different forms of human experience. Aimed at the specialist in phenomenology and the generalist in the philosophical tradition, Sokolowski's work describes various ways in which things appear: as pictured, quoted, measured, distinguished, explained, meant, and referred to. Through the analysis of appearances, he probes the question of being and clarifies the human condition. The fourteen essays are grouped into pairs or triplets. "Picturing" and "Quotation" describe representation in image and speech. "Making Distinctions" clarifies how we can isolate something as an issue for thought, and "Explaining" discusses what we do after we have isolated it. "Timing" and "Measurement" describe two ways in which wholes are articulated into parts, and "Exact Science and the World in Which We Live" further develops the theme of measurement. "Exorcising Concepts" and "Referring" are a phenomenological attempt to treat sense and reference. "Grammar and Thinking" and "Tarskian Harmonies in Words and Pictures" discuss the formal composition of sentences and images and their relationship to the way things are disclosed. The final three essays are studies in the phenomenology of ethical performance. By providing concrete analysis of human themes familiar to everything, such as picturing and quotation, these examples of applied phenomenology take appearances seriously, while making philosophical distinctions among them."--
This book is an exposition of and a philosophical commentary on the work of Edmund Husserl. It presents his doctrines systematically, not chronologically, and interprets many of his texts"--
In this insightful, interdisciplinary study, Robert Sokolowski uses the methods of phenomenology to examine Christian religious beliefs, particularly the sacrament of the Eucharist. In so doing, he comes to terms with many theological and cultural issues raised by modernity. Although the Eucharist is the center of focus, other issues in Christian faith are also examined, such as the Christian understanding of God, Creation, the Incarnation, Redemption, and biblical Revelation. Sokolowski employs a method that he calls "the theology of disclosure," which studies the structures of appearance and should be distinguished from both positive and scholastic theology. He takes appearances as objective disclosures, not as mere psychological events. When discussing the Eucharist, he shows how it uses the form of quotation and how it draws on various temporal dimensions of human existence as it reenacts the sacrifice of Christ before the eternal Father. The author also considers how Christian belief differs from other forms of religion and from modern atheism. By demonstrating how the Christian understanding of God differs from other ways of understanding the divine, he attempts to show that Christianity is not simply one religion among many but the truth of religion. These deeper themes are explored as necessary contexts for the Eucharist, which could not be properly understood except against the background of the Christian understanding of God as eternal and as Creator and Redeemer. The author provides a comprehensive theological treatment of major issues in Christian faith and does so with categories that are appropriate to our present intellectual and cultural world. This study, which draws upon the work of many classical and contemporary theologians, especially Hans Urs von Balthasar, contributes significantly to speculative theology and to Eucharistic studies. It will be of great use to theologians and philosophers, as well as to students of Christian philosophy and sacramental theology. Robert Sokolowski, a priest of the Archdiocese of Hartford, has taught philosophy at The Catholic University of America since 1963. He has written six books and numerous articles dealing with phenomenology, philosophy and Christian faith, moral philosophy, and issues in contemporary science. He has been an auxiliary chaplain at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., since 1976 and was named monsignor in 1993. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Indispensable for graduate and divinity programs with interests in Catholic theology and phenomenology of religions.--Religious Studies Review "Intellectually stimulating. . . . The author contributes many insights to the theology of the Eucharist, some of which I had never seen before and found enlightening and moving. The depth of his scholarship is obvious."--Rev. James T. O'Connor, St. Joseph's Seminary, New York "A careful reading of this profound analysis of the Holy Eucharist will be rewarded with a more fruitful participation at Mass. Here we find a modern model of the Catholic theologian who shows us in the concrete how to practice 'faith seeking understanding.'"--Kenneth Baker, S.J., Editor, Homiletic and Pastoral Review
“Presence and Absence is a book of importance for all who are actively engaged in the philosophical enterprise, whatever their differing persuasions. It shows philosophy to be flourishing in the midst of its own self-proclaimed signs of morbidity.” – The Review of Metaphysics “A splendid, provocative and profound work, this book explores the manifold ways in which the contrast of presence and absence operate to establish the possibility of human discourse and truthfulness...belongs in every philosophy collection.” – Choice “Quite simply a superb book, which deserves more than one careful reading. A fresh, unified treatment of a grand philosophical theme, the theme of the connections between thought, truth, and being.” – Man and World “A thoughtful book about thoughtfulness and truthfulness and their ontological conditions. Simply put, this is a book that will reward its careful reader a hundredfold, for Sokolowski is a speaker who says things in ways that are provocative, exciting, and invariably insightful.” – Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology “Has few peers in phenomenological literature.” – International Philosophical Quarterly “[Sokolowski is] an original thinker of the first rank, who has significantly furthered the path of phenomenological philosophy. As well as being an exciting synthesis, a thinking of the previously unthought in predecessors, and a ground-breaking movement, this work is written with a sensitivity to language and its graceful use that one would hope for from one exploring its richness and power.” – Human Studies
In this collection of essays, renowned philosopher Robert Sokolowski illustrates how Christian faith is not an alternative to reason, but rather an enhancement of it.
“In this carefully written study of the constituents of human decision making, Robert Sokolowski lays an elaborate groundwork to develop the importance of the distinction between choice and the voluntary in moral discourse...offers a new way of looking at m
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