Books by Orion Edgar
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The philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty was developing into a radical ontology when he died prema... more The philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty was developing into a radical ontology when he died prematurely in 1961. Merleau-Ponty identified this nascent ontol- ogy as a philosophy of incarnation that carries us beyond entrenched dualisms in philosophical thinking about perception, the body, animality, nature, and God.
What does this ontology have to do with the Catholic language of incarnation, sacrament, and logos on which it draws? In this book, Orion Edgar argues that Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy is dependent upon a logic of incarnation that finds its roots and fulfillment in theology, and that Merleau-Ponty drew from the Catholic faith of his youth. Merleau-Ponty’s final abandonment of Christianity
was based on an understanding of God that was ultimately Kantian rather than orthodox, and this misunderstanding is shared by many thinkers, both Christian and not. As such, Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy suggests a new kind of natural theology, one that grounds an account of God as ipsum esse subsistens in the questions produced by a phenomenological account of the world. This philosophical ontology also offers to Christian theology a route away from dualistic compromises and back to its own deepest insight.
Articles by Orion Edgar
Conference Papers by Orion Edgar
In this paper, initially prepared for the 2013 conference of the Society for the Study of Theolog... more In this paper, initially prepared for the 2013 conference of the Society for the Study of Theology, (University of Nottingham, 6–8 April 2013) I take up Simone Weil’s idea that education serves as preparation for the work of prayer, by developing the learner’s capacity for attention. I argue that this emphasis on attention demands a fuller account of habit, which, though it might seem to be the opposite of the strenu- ous attention of Weil’s thought, is a kind of bodily sedimentation of conscious attention. Through our habits we can take responsibility for our personhood and enable its shaping and transformation. As such, the transformation of desire is central to the work of education, which must prefigure the goods it wishes to instill in learners, to prophetically name the learner’s virtue and thus to call it into being.
Book Reviews by Orion Edgar
Radical Orthodoxy: Theology, Philosophy, Politics, Vol. 2, Number 3 (December 2014): 405-409
Modern Theology, Apr 2010
... The Theology of Food: Eating and the Eucharist By Angel F. Méndez Montoya. Orion Edgar. Art... more ... The Theology of Food: Eating and the Eucharist By Angel F. Méndez Montoya. Orion Edgar. Article first published online: 11 MAR 2010. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0025.2009.01607. x. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Issue. Modern Theology. ...
Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 2009
Theses by Orion Edgar
Drafts by Orion Edgar
In this paper, initially prepared for the 2013 conference of the Society for the Study of Theolog... more In this paper, initially prepared for the 2013 conference of the Society for the Study of Theology, (University of Nottingham, 6–8 April 2013) I take up Simone Weil’s idea that education serves as preparation for the work of prayer, by developing the learner’s capacity for attention. I argue that this emphasis on attention demands a fuller account of habit, which, though it might seem to be the opposite of the strenu- ous attention of Weil’s thought, is a kind of bodily sedimentation of conscious attention. Through our habits we can take responsibility for our personhood and enable its shaping and transformation. As such, the transformation of desire is central to the work of education, which must prefigure the goods it wishes to instill in learners, to prophetically name the learner’s virtue and thus to call it into being.
Papers by Orion Edgar
Journal of The British Society for Phenomenology, 2009
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Books by Orion Edgar
What does this ontology have to do with the Catholic language of incarnation, sacrament, and logos on which it draws? In this book, Orion Edgar argues that Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy is dependent upon a logic of incarnation that finds its roots and fulfillment in theology, and that Merleau-Ponty drew from the Catholic faith of his youth. Merleau-Ponty’s final abandonment of Christianity
was based on an understanding of God that was ultimately Kantian rather than orthodox, and this misunderstanding is shared by many thinkers, both Christian and not. As such, Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy suggests a new kind of natural theology, one that grounds an account of God as ipsum esse subsistens in the questions produced by a phenomenological account of the world. This philosophical ontology also offers to Christian theology a route away from dualistic compromises and back to its own deepest insight.
Articles by Orion Edgar
Conference Papers by Orion Edgar
Book Reviews by Orion Edgar
Theses by Orion Edgar
Drafts by Orion Edgar
Papers by Orion Edgar
What does this ontology have to do with the Catholic language of incarnation, sacrament, and logos on which it draws? In this book, Orion Edgar argues that Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy is dependent upon a logic of incarnation that finds its roots and fulfillment in theology, and that Merleau-Ponty drew from the Catholic faith of his youth. Merleau-Ponty’s final abandonment of Christianity
was based on an understanding of God that was ultimately Kantian rather than orthodox, and this misunderstanding is shared by many thinkers, both Christian and not. As such, Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy suggests a new kind of natural theology, one that grounds an account of God as ipsum esse subsistens in the questions produced by a phenomenological account of the world. This philosophical ontology also offers to Christian theology a route away from dualistic compromises and back to its own deepest insight.