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Charles E. Winquist,
Epiphanies of Darkness: Deconstruction in
Theology
Philosophical and Cultural Studies in
Religion
Few religious thinkers have the philosophical sophistication of this
author. Epiphanies of Darkness is profound in its ability to
bring together much of what is deepest and most disturbing in our
age together with the reality of a theological desire for more.
“Epiphanies of Darkness
represents a searching and courageous appraisal of the state of
theological discourse, as well as a powerfully constructive
intervention into that discourse, with the aim of a completely
reconstituting what we mean by theology. Winquist was one of a group
of contemporary radical theologians engaged in truly creative and
constructive work, pressing the boundaries of what theology as a
discipline is and can be, who refuse to allow piety to pass for
serious theological thinking…. Winquist brought
interdisciplinary breadth and insights to bear intensively and
insistently on theology itself.” (from the Foreword)
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1.
The
Subversion and Transcendence of the Subject
Chapter 2.
The
Epistemology of Darkness
Chapter 3.
The
Archeology of the Imagination
Chapter 4.
Metaphor and the Accession to Theological Language
Chapter 5.
Body, Text and Imagination
Chapter 6.
Theology
and the Public Body
Chapter 7.
Desire
and the Subtle Body of Theology
Appendix: The Deconstruction of the
Theology of Proclamation
Index
Reviewers
said
“[…] wonderful thing to have
(Professor Winquist’s) Epiphanies of Darkness available again. I
think, personally, that this is his best book, best because of the
uncanny balance between a highly poetical language, a language of
rare beauty and emotional investment, on the one hand, and a
penetrating theoretical insight on the other, an insight that
self-confidently charted the then-unexplored territory without ever
failing to maintain doubts about the possibility of such a pursuit.”
— Aleš Debeljak, Northwestern University.
Epiphanies of Darkness
is an important book that marks a significant contribution to the
growing area of deconstructive theology. By combining a
sophisticated understanding of contemporary philosophy and literary
criticism with his long-standing interest in depth psychology,
Winquist produces a highly imaginative work that forces the reader
to rethink the very foundations of theological reflection.”
— Mark C.
Taylor in The Journal of Religion
“The theme of
Epiphanies of
Darkness is religious and theological, animated by the conflict
between the persistence of religious experience and the inability to
grasp it conceptually…employs the resources especially of the
Freudian aspect of deconstruction (Lacan) in order to formulate a
theory of theological thinking and to fashion a theological
discourse…”
— Robert
P. Scharlemann in Religious Studies Review
“In its sophisticated reworking or
dis-articulation of traditional problems this work constitutes an
important addition to the literature of deconstructive theology.”
— Edith
Wyschogrod in Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Author
Charles E.
Winquist (Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1970) was Thomas J.
Watson Professor of Religion at Syracuse University from
1986 until his death in 2002. He was a pioneer in
postmodern, deconstructive theology and is a highly regarded
theoretician of religion whose work is “constitutive of one
of the more original sets of theological reflections of the
late twentieth century.” (James J. DiCenso, University of
Toronto). Among his publications are
The Surface of the
Deep (2002),
Desiring Theology (1995),
Theology at the End of the Century (1990),
Practical
Hermeneutics (1980),
Homecoming (1978), Communion
of Possibility (1975), and
The Transcendental
Imagination (1972).
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