Bloomsbury Approaching God: Between Phenomenology and Theology

Approaching God explores the ways in which phenomenology, metaphysics and theological enquiry can throw light upon each other. This is a matter of great interest and importance to the future of philosophical theology and the philosophy of religion. What, if anything, has philosophical reflection about God to contribute to Christian theology? And if indeed philosophy plays a positive role in theological reflection what kind of philosophy? The first-person philosophical perspective of phenomenology or the objective philosophical perspective of metaphysics? Masterson devotes three chapters to, respectively, phenomenological, metaphysical, and theological approaches to God. Each are seen as animated by a first principle from which a comprehensive account of everything is said to follow 'Human Consciousness' in the case of phenomenology; 'Being' in the case of metaphysics; and 'God' in the case of theology. Although philosophers and theologians such as Ricoeur, Levinas, Kearney, Caputo, and Barth are considered briefly, Approaching God essentially provides a dialogue about theological and theistic issues between the phenomenological approach of the leading French Christian phenomenologist Jean-Luc Marion and the realist metaphysical approach of Aquinas. Masterson maintains that all three approaches are needed in trying to speak appropriately about God they are irreducible but complementary. Review "Patrick Masterson's new book is a welcome contribution to the debate concerning the meta-phenomenological and meta-theological question of the mode of approach to and from God. [...] For Masterson there are no tidy answers to the question of the relation of phenomenology, metaphysics and theology. The intersection of these three approaches needs to be continuously negotiated. Masterson sees himself as setting out a roadmap for a complex landscape (159), and he has certainly done this." --Felix Ó Murchadha, National University of Ireland, Galway, Notre Dame Philosophical Review "The title of this volume by Masterson (emer., University College Dublin) is appropriately ambiguous. Is it God that one is approaching in philosophy and theology? Or merely discourses about 'God'? According to Masterson, this ambiguity is necessary. To speak of God is always to speak about pre-philosophical experiences. And yet to speak of such experiences is to use the available philosophical (and/or theological) categories. Thus masterson's book might be viewed primarily as a practice of metaphilosophy insofar as it attempts to think about the primary ways in which 'God-talk' occurs and the entailments regarding people's models of God that such varying talk would yield. Suggesting that these primary ways are appropriately labeled 'phenomenological, ' 'metaphysical, ' and theological, ' Masterson offers sustained engagements with the representative figures for each approach: Jean-Luc Marion, Thomas Aquinas, and Karl Barth, respectively. The differences between these approaches are a matter of which first principles are in play in each: consciousness, being, and God. Ultimately, thought most of this volume is devoted to working through the differences between these approaches, the eventual, complementary account of how they must work together, given human limitations, is quite compelling. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty." -- J.A. Simmons, Furman University, CHOICE About the Author Patrick Masterson is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Religion at University College Dublin, Ireland. His publications include Atheism and Alienation: A Study of the Philosophical Sources of Contemporary Atheism (Penguin, 1973), The Sense of Creation (Ashgate, 2008), and, with Seamus Heaney, Articulations: poetry, philosophy, and the shaping of culture (2008). Professor Masterson has had the honor of serving as President of University College Dublin (1986-93), Vice-Chancellor of