The Fragility of Language and the Encounter with God: On the Contingency and Legitimacy of Doctrine

by Florian Klug, Marcus Pound (Foreword by)

Overview

Drawing on recent philosophical developments in hermeneutics and poststructuralism, The Fragility of Language and the Encounter with God offers a theological account of the contingency of language and perception and of how acknowledging that contingency transforms the perennial theological question of the development of doctrine. Klug applies this account to humanity's encounter with God and its translation into language. Because there exists no neutral epistemological standpoint, Klug integrates contemporary insights on the theory of the subject (especially those of _i_ek and Badiou) and presents humanity as a subject that transforms its experience of and with God into language and places it in a shared space for reception. But can the speaking subject have authority and legitimacy in making statements about the Absolute? What role do the Christian faithful play in evaluating that authority?

These questions are addressed both to biblical texts and doctrinal statements. Crucial is the Catholic perspective that legitimate statements of faith and insights are only possible through the Holy Spirit. However, humanity cannot command or control the Holy Spirit but can only show its influence indirectly through the receptive tradition of the universal church. The Fragility of Language and the Encounter with God argues that statements of faith cannot overcome contingency. Instead, the Catholic notion of receptive tradition attempts to cope rationally with the fragility of perception and language in humanity's orientation toward God.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781506473680
Publisher:	Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
Publication date:	09/28/2021
Pages:	146
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Florian Klug is a lecturer in systematic theology at the University of Würzburg in Germany. He has been a guest researcher in the United States, England, and Ireland, and is the author or editor of four books published in German.

Marcus Pound is Assistant Director of the Centre for Catholic Studies, Durham University, where he is also Associate Professor of Theology. He has taught at Bristol University, Birkbeck College London, and Nottingham University. He is the author of Theology, Psychoanalysis, and Trauma (SCM, 2007), and Slavoj Žižek: A (Very) Critical Introduction (Eerdmans, 2008), and has coedited Theology After Lacan (Wipf & Stock, 2015).

Table of Contents

Foreword Marcus Pound vii

Preface to the English Edition xi

Translator's Note xiii

Introduction: The Primary Epistemological Question xv

1 Man and Language 1

Man as a Speaking Being 1

Limitations and Possibilities of Human Speech 3

2 God's Initiative: God's Intrusion into Man's Horizon of Understanding 9

Prolegomena to a View of God in the Twenty-First Century 9

God's Intrusion into the World of the Israelites 13

God's Self-Revelation through Jesus Christ 25

The Human Horizon and the Intrusion of Absolute Reality 39

3 Human Speech about God 49

The Perspective of the Faithful 49

The Testimony of Faith 62

The Subjective Relationship to Truth: Paul in His Contemporary Horizon 62

The Bible as Holy Scripture 81

The Hermeneutics of Doctrine within Human Time 96

4 Conclusion 131

Selected Bibliography 135

Editorial Reviews

"Weaving together biblical testimony and Lacanian psychoanalysis, continental thought and conciliar documents, this book charts a promising course for Catholic theology by reimagining authority, not as an assertion of sovereign domination, but as an encounter and an opening to freedom." — Adam Kotsko, author of Neoliberalism's Demons

The Fragility of Language and the Encounter with God is a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary treatment, engaging with Scripture, postmodern philosophy, and philosophical theology, which offers a challenging and fundamental contribution to current debates on church doctrine and authority." — Stephan Van Erp, KU Leuven

"This is a deeply innovative and intelligent book . . . a stimulating interpretation of doctrine in the Catholic tradition as proclamations of hope and anticipation—that attempts to live in the gulf between human historicity and the intrusion of God into the world." —Ruth Jackson Ravenscroft, University of Cambridge

"This is an important book because it reminds women and men of today that the Christian God is a God of history. This has enormous consequences in order to understand the importance of language and ritual for religion and faith, in our age of god-like, all-powerful algorithms and big data." —Massimo Faggioli, Villanova University

"With wisdom, discernment, and a good deal of savvy, Klug models not only a deep and abiding commitment to a fides quaerens intellectum, but also the kind of intellectual charity, conceptual breadth, and genuine insight that characterize modern systematic theology at its best." —Jay Martin, University of Notre Dame

"This creative study persuasively underscores doctrine's role within the church's life as a response to, and as mediating an encounter with, the God revealed by Jesus Christ who remains semper maior." —Ryan G. Duns, SJ, Marquette University

From the Publisher