Our obsessiveness about exercise and health seems supremely anti-gnostic. But the opposite is the case. Consider the imagery: “Buns of steel” and “Abs of iron” and “Cable-like biceps.” The bodybuilder aims to exercise himself to robothood. His goal to exercise . . . . Continue Reading »
It’s not clear whether Vico (1668-1744) had actually read Descartes (1596-1650) directly, or how much he had read. But it is clear enough that he had read and understood the Cartesianism of his time. His response is perhaps most clearly seen in his treatment of ethics. He opposed the . . . . Continue Reading »
Caputo argues that for Kant God fulfills a purely “regulative” function, providing the basis for an aesthetic “as if” regarding the divine regulation of the world. God also has a moral function, giving the rational demands of duty a divine, theological umph. Kant’s . . . . Continue Reading »
Vico objected to the prioritization of natural science and logic over rhetoric in the schools of his day, arguing that “the invention of arguments are by nature prior to the judgment of their validity, so that, in teaching, that invention should be given priority over philosophical . . . . Continue Reading »
Hamann: “The connection and agreement of concepts is precisely the same in a demonstration as the relation and sympathy of numbers and lines, sounds and colours are in a musical composition or painting.” . . . . Continue Reading »
As noted in a post earlier his week, Barth sees Kant’s philosophical program as an opening for the biblical theologian to do his own thing on his own basis by his own methods, without paying much of any attention to reason. Milbank wonders if this doesn’t leave a “certain liberal . . . . Continue Reading »
Milbank closes a superb article on the “radical pietists” (Hamann and Jacobi) with this paragraph: “Because [the radical pietists] point theology to a radical orthodoxy they also show how theology can outwit nihilism. Not by seeking to reinstate reason, as many opponents of . . . . Continue Reading »
Kant viewed Judaism as a narrow, particular, hostile political entity. The fact that God promised that He would bless the nations through Abraham seems not to have registered with Kant. Kant’s treatment of Judaism has central importance in his construction of modern, Enlightened religion. And . . . . Continue Reading »
Postmodernism is rigorous disbelief in eschatology, in final judgment. And this arises from and is a reaction to Kant, who (as Hamann recognized) believed he had somehow arrived at the eschaton ahead of schedule and spend his life sending back reports. . . . . Continue Reading »
Barth’s includes an extensive treatment of Kant in his history of 19th century Protestant theology. According to Barth, Kant represents the 18th-century’s coming to self-consciousness. He saw both the possibilities and the limits of the Enlightenment’s obsessions with reason. He . . . . Continue Reading »
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