2002
First Published
4.14
Average Rating
243
Number of Pages
What do the philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche, Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Marion have in common with Christianity? Surprisingly, they are all concerned about idolatry, about the tendency we have to create God in our own image and about what we can do about it. Can we faithfully speak of God at all without interposing ourselves? If so, how? Bruce Ellis Benson explores this common concern by clearly laying out the thought of each of these postmodern thinkers against the background of modern philosophers such as Descartes, Locke and Hume and in light of the rise of phenomenology as developed by Husserl and Heidegger. All these thinkers he brings into conversation with a full range of biblical teaching. The result is an illuminating survey of some key postmodern thinkers and profound insight into the nature of conceptual idolatry. Benson also exposes some of the limitations inherent in postmodern attempts to provide a purely philosophical solution to the problem of ideological idolatry. Ultimately, he argues, there is a need for something greater than human philosophy, religion or theology—namely, the biblical revelation of God in Jesus Christ.
Avg Rating
4.14
Number of Ratings
57
5 STARS
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4 STARS
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3 STARS
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2 STARS
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Author
Bruce Ellis Benson
Author · 6 books
Dr. Benson has been a visiting scholar at the New School and a guest lecturer in philosophy of religion at Union Theological Seminary. He is currently the chair of the philosophy department at Wheaton College (IL).
