Wiley Transcending Subjects: Augustine, Hegel, and Theology (Challenges in Contemporary Theology)

Transcending Subjects: Augustine, Hegel and Theology engages the seminal figures of Hegel and Augustine around the theme of subjectivity, with consideration toward the theology and politics of freedom.  Review This book is a worthy effort to rethink a robust sense of divine transcendence, which helpfully highlights important philosophical, theological, ethical and political dimensions relevant to contemporary discussion. I particularly liked how it takes seriously a sense of divine transcendence that is not reducible to the forms of immanent transcendence currently more common, and that is also fully intimate with the immanent world, in a way more dualistic conceptions often failed to be in the past.  The book importantly challenges a negative view of Augustine and a positive predilection for a non-metaphysical version of Hegel among some contemporary thinkers. It is very well versed in the works of Hegel and Augustine, and informed by the relevant scholarship. It is a readable and engaging book which insightfully and deftly unfolds a significant dialogue between Augustine and Hegel, as well as between the author and their significant contemporary interpreters.William Desmond, Professor of Philosophy, Katholieke Universiteit, David Cook Chair in Philosophy, Villanova University From the Inside Flap Transcending Subjects: Augustine, Hegel and Theology connects the seminal figures of Hegel and Augustine around the theme of subjectivity, with consideration toward the theology and politics of freedom.After the demise of Kantian liberalism and secularism, scholars are returning to Hegel as the first great post-secular critic of Enlightenment liberalism. As a result of this return, and Hegel’s influence in philosophy and theology, those who seek to understand and engage modern theology and politics must be familiar with Hegel. However, Holsclaw argues that such a return to Hegel should only come after a deeper return to Augustine’s theological and philosophical perspective.  Without polemicizing the difference between transcendence and immanence, Holsclaw takes the often daunting figures of Hegel and Augustine and clearly shows how they articulate two fundamental options from which theology and politics develop: the former oriented toward immanence and the latter toward transcendence.  In addition to providing a new interpretation of major works of Hegel and Augustine, Holsclaw engages recent interpretations of Hegel, by scholars such as Pippin and ÂiÂek, and Augustine, by scholars such as Milbank and Gregory, with the goal of reorienting theology and the politics of freedom around a subjectivity that is transcended. From the Back Cover Transcending Subjects: Augustine, Hegel and Theology connects the seminal figures of Hegel and Augustine around the theme of subjectivity, with consideration toward the theology and politics of freedom.After the demise of Kantian liberalism and secularism, scholars are returning to Hegel as the first great post-secular critic of Enlightenment liberalism. As a result of this return, and Hegel’s influence in philosophy and theology, those who seek to understand and engage modern theology and politics must be familiar with Hegel. However, Holsclaw argues that such a return to Hegel should only come after a deeper return to Augustine’s theological and philosophical perspective.  Without polemicizing the difference between transcendence and immanence, Holsclaw takes the often daunting figures of Hegel and Augustine and clearly shows how they articulate two fundamental options from which theology and politics develop: the former oriented toward immanence and the latter toward transcendence.  In addition to providing a new interpretation of major works of Hegel and Augustine, Holsclaw engages recent interpretations of Hegel, by scholars such as Pippin and ÂiÂek, and Augustine, by scholars such as Milbank and Gregory, with the goal of reorienting the