The Rebellious No: Variations on a Secular Theology of Language

by Noëlle Vahanian

Overview

This book aims to renew theological thinking by extending and radicalizing an iconoclastic and existentialist mode of thought. It proposes a theology whose point of departure assumes and accepts the critiques of religion launched by Nietzsche, Freud, Marx, and Feuerbach but nevertheless takes theological desire seriously as a rebellious force working within, but against, an anthropomorphic, phallogocentric worldview.

As a theology of language, it does not claim any privileged access to some transcendent divine essence or ground of Being. On the contrary, for Noelle Vahanian theology is a strictly secular discourse, like any other discourse, but aware of its limitations and wary of great promises—its own included. Its faith is that this secular theological desire can be a force against the constitutive indifference of thought, and it is a meditative act of rebellion. Aphoristic instead of argumentative, this book offers an original and constructive engagement with such seminal issues as indifference, belief, madness, and love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823256976
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	03/03/2014
Series:	Perspectives in Continental Philosophy
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Noëlle Vahanian is a professor of philosophy in the Social Justice and Civic Engagement program at Lebanon Valley College, in Annville, Pennsylvania. She is the author of Language, Desire, and Theology: A Genealogy of the Will to Speak (2003), The Rebellious No: Variations on a Secular Theology of Language (Fordham University Press, 2014), and co-author of An Insurrectionist Manifesto: Four New Gospels for a Radical Politics (2016). Her current research engages the problem of genocide and its relevance to philosophy of religion.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction
1. Milk of My Tears
2. The Law of the Indifferent Middle
3. Great Explanation
4. Madness and Civilization: The Paradox of a False Dichotomy
5. Two Ways to Believe
6. Rebellious Desire and the Real Within the Limits of the Symbolic Alone
7. Counting Weakness, Countering Power: The Theopolitics of Catherine Keller
8. Counter-Currents: Theology and the Future of Continental Philosophy of Religion
9. I Love You More Than a Big Sheriff

Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

"The sincerity within Vahanian's style speaks as clearly to the reader as does the style of her meditations on the difficulties of sincerity."-Joshua Ramey, Haverford College

"Noëlle Vahanian's writing style is pithy, playful, allusive, and often entertaining."-James H. Olthuis, Institute for Christian Studies

"God and Being are both words without referents. What is, then, the difference between them? God is only a version of Being (Heidegger). God is "otherwise than Being" (Levinas). God survives the death of its Being (Vahanian). Such is the profound paradox of 'secular theology'. A fascinating achievement."—Catherine Malabou, author of The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain Damage

"The Rebellious No is an important and original contribution to contemporary theological thinking. Vahanian's secular theology of language is intense, meditative and brilliant, and culminates in a profound vision of how rebellion and love are inseparable from each other."—Clayton Crockett, University of Central Arkansas

From the Publisher

Noëlle Vahanian’s writing style is pithy, playful, allusive, and often entertaining.

Institute for Christian Studies - James H. Olthuis

The Rebellious No is an important and original contribution to contemporary theological thinking. Vahanian’s secular theology of language is intense, meditative and brilliant, and culminates in a profound vision of how rebellion and love are inseparable from each other.

University of Central Arkansas - Clayton Crockett

The sincerity within Vahanian’s style speaks as clearly to the reader as does the style of her meditations on the difficulties of sincerity.

Haverford College - Joshua Ramey

God and Being are both words without referents. What is, then, the difference between them—God is only a version of Being (Heidegger). God is "otherwise than Being" (Levinas). God survives the death of its Being (Vahanian).
Such is the profound paradox of "secular theology". A fascinating achievement.

author of The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain Damage - Catherine Malabou