God, the Mind's Desire: Reference, Reason and Christian Thinking

by Paul D. Janz

Overview

How can human discourse refer meaningfully to a transcendent God? Paul Janz's book reconfigures this fundamental problem of Christian thinking as a twofold demand for integrity—integrity of reason and integrity of transcendence. It centers around an original yet faithful re-reading of Kant's empirical realism. Drawing on MacKinnon, Bonhoeffer, Barth and Marion, Janz challenges recent rushes to obscurantism and radicalization and culminates in a convergence between Christology and epistemology within empirical reality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521822411
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/06/2004
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine , #11
Pages:	246
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Paul D. Janz is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Trinity Western University, Canada.

Table of Contents

1. A reconnaissance of theology and epistemology; 2. Theology and the lure of obscurity; 3. Philosophy's perpetual polarizations: Anti-realism and Realism; 4. Philosophy's perpetual polarizations: making and finding; 5. Philosophy's perpetual polarizations: act and being; 6. The Kantian inversion of 'all previous philosophy'; 7. Tragedy, empirical history and finality; 8. Penultimacy and Christology.

Editorial Reviews

"...a commendable achievement. It is a serious book that grapples with serious questions and refuses to settle for easy and fashionable answers." - William D. Wood

"The journey is worth the intellectual effort even if one disagrees with some of the paths taken and interpretive commentary along the way. The destination will be greeted with varying degrees of acclaim." Studies in Religion Jonathan R. Wilson, Acadia Divinity College

"His book provides an alternative to the obsurantism, radicalization, and anti-reason in many recent assessments of theological cognition while remaining alert to the hazards of traditional metaphysics. Finally, he offers a new way of understanding epistemology and christology which preserves the integrity of both of them." - Theology Digest

From the Publisher