From the point of view of non-Christian philosophers and thinkers, the Christian doctrine of the Trinity is the greatest insult to the human intellect ever devised. St. Augustine, however, thinks otherwise and demonstrates how a Christian doctrine can be used to further philosophy. Below are various reflections/thoughts that I am working through (that is, these [...]

Describing the main strength of Cyril of Alexandria’s approach in addressing the Nestorian heresies, Balthasar writes,
“Cyril does not start out from the ‘open’ structure of man’s transcendence’, but from God’s self-abnegation, and the Love that stoops down. For God, the Incarnation is no ‘increase’, but only emptying. No doubt, to Cyril’s mind it [...]

In the history of Western philosophy, it is interesting to note the primacy given to “seeing” as the metaphor for knowing. In a cursory reading of Plato, for example, one encounters this “seeing” metaphor time and again. In the Republic, Plato speaks of “seeing,” “looking to” and “viewing” the Forms. He also describes certain people [...]

As Michael Hanby notes, in the Confessions, Augustine teaches that there is a “plenitude of true meanings for a single text” […] The ontological warrant that underlies this insistence throughout the Augustinian corpus derives, in part, from the very nature of truth’s oneness, which defies its circumscription or possession” (Augustine and Modernity, p. 34). For [...]

Describing the divine “must” that defines Jesus’ earthly journey, i.e., that He must drink this cup, be baptized with the baptizing fire of the Cross, Balthasar says that all this takes place within and in perfect harmony with His sovereign freedom (p. 18). [As a side note, the fact that Balthasar says that without [...]

Because of the recent Marion posts and my growing interest in Marion’s work in general and (in light of my thesis) on Descartes in particular, I thought I’d post a few of my findings over the next few days.
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In this section, Marion calls into question Descartes’ use of the principle of causality, claiming [...]

As Balthasar explains, the Cross is the “mid-point of saving history, all the promises are realized in it, every aspect of the Law, with its quality as curse, is dashed to pieces on the Cross. [...] What he [St. Paul] takes it upon himself to announce thereby is not just one historical fact among others, [...]

In light of Michael D.’s excellent comments relating to the previous post, I thought I’d offer a few additional thoughts defending my take on Augustine (of course I am not alone in my observations—e.g., Michael Hanby, in his book Augustine and Modernity, argues that that Augustine’s theology must not be separated from his philosophy, lest [...]

In marked distinction from the dichotomous divisions found in philosophers such as Descartes and Kant—i.e., rigid divisions between faith and reason, philosophy and theology, divine and human rationality, etc.—with Augustine we encounter mutually influencing harmonies [1] in all areas of Augustine’s thought—whether epistemology, anthropology, metaphysics or aesthetics. Here it might be helpful to [...]

This is my last post on the BG series. It has been great to interact with new theophenomenology friends. Going back through these notes makes me want to read the book again and to continue further study of Marion.
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Marion begins book V with a critique of the shortcomings of the modern view of the subject. [...]

For those of you, who like myself, are new to Balthasar, I wanted to post a few lines written by Aidan Nichols OP in the Introduction to Balthasar’s Mysterium Paschale. As Nichols explains,
“Balthasar presents the beautiful as the ‘forgotten, transcendental’, pulchrum, an aspect of everything and anything as important as verum, ‘the [...]

In book IV, Marion continues his deconstruction but now focuses on the “privilege of certainty” that metaphysics has given to what he calls “poor phenomena,” i.e., phenomena poor in intuition and which “claim only a formal intuition in mathematics or a categorical intuition in logic” (222). This abstract epistemological certainty is for Marion a radical [...]

I want to add two additional “blogs of note.”
Ressourcement: Restoration in Catholic Theology. An excellent blog for those interested in learning more about the ressourcement tradition.
Theophenomenon.com. This excellent new website is dedicated to the promotion of phenomenology and its use in theological studies (created and maintained by Michael Deem and company).

In the preface of his second edition of, Mysterium Paschale, Balthasar comments on the mystery of the Kenosis of the Son–desiring both to take serious the assertions made in Scripture (e.g., those OT passages which address seem to indicate immutability) and to avoid falling into Nestorian or other Christological heresies.
“It seems to me that the [...]

In book III, Marion introduces the essential characteristics of the given phenomenon, each of which describes how the event becomes accessible: anamorphosis, unpredictable landing, incident, event and fait accompli. Here what is significant about these features of the given is that because they are neither metaphysical nor causal, the given is not determined by any [...]

The second book of Being Given is devoted to question of the Gift. In light of the fact that Marion wants to avoid falling into metaphysics, the model will be centered on his idea of the gift and not on a metaphysical model. Here the question becomes, “Can we use existing categories in order to [...]

While reading through a section of Augustine’s De Trinitate this afternoon, I came across a fascinating passage and wanted to share it.
In the passage below, Augustine not only indicates an ethical dimension of knowledge and wisdom in that one cannot obtain adequate or proper understanding apart from divine “cleansing,” but he also points to the [...]

Can Van Til and C.S. Lewis be harmonized?
For a fascinating post on C.S. Lewis and Van Til, check out Mike Vendsel’s blog, DoxVendsel.
Faith and Theology.
Ben Myers’ blog, Faith and Theology, is also highly recommended. I particularly like his posts on Barth, his creativity and the “tone” of his blog.

At the end of section 3 (book I), Marion has said that his task is to define givenness on its own terms. Before digging in to Marion’s analysis, it is helpful to review a bit of Heidegger. According to Heidegger, we only have access to Being (Sein) through beings (Seiendes). That is, we have to [...]

In the section entitled, “Preliminary Answers,” Marion makes explicit the dominant theme of his book, “what shows itself first gives itself” (5). Beginning with this theme and developing creative variations, Marion culminates the work with the “saturated phenomenon,” which becomes the paradigm for givenness.
In book I, sections 1-3, Marion enters into dialogue with Husserl and [...]