Ars Disputandi

Two recent monographs re-examine the central elements of the just war tradition and its contemporary applications. David Rodin's War and Self-Defense analyzes, and rejects, the common doctrine that just war is an instance of national self-defense, in parallel with the ...

Gillian Rose (1947-1995) was a highly original, enigmatic and pugnacious thinker, whose work draws together Continental philosophy, sociology, modern / post-modern Jewish and Christian reflection on ethics. She was also, famously, a convert to Christianity, baptised into the Church of England on her deathbed, from Judaism. She has been a major influence on many contemporary thinkers, not least on the thought of the Archbishop Rowan Williams. Her writings are teasingly poetic, often forbiddingly difficult, and yet at the same time vividly accessible, at any rate through her widely praised memoir, Love's Work Here, a Church of England priest writes about Rose's thought as it relates to the future of the Church she eventually joined. A significant philosopher of this century, they believe her thinking implicitly points towards a new form of Christian self-understanding. This captivatingly well written book is the first major study of Gillian Rose's thought from a theologica...

Oderberg (2002b) is a series of criticisms of Oppy (2002). Oppy (2002) is, in turn, a series of comments on Oderberg (2002a). Oderberg (2002b) claims that he “can scarcely find one thing that [Oppy (2002)] says about [Oderberg (2002a)] … that is not wrong or confused” (351). Restricting myself to the things that I said in Oppy (2002) about which Oderberg (2002b) passes comment, I propose to argue that, in quite large measure, it is actually Oderberg’s criticisms of my comments that are either wrong or confused. Moreover—and more importantly—I shall discuss some points of independent philosophical interest as I go along. (Perhaps it is worth noting that Oppy (2002) and Oderberg (2002b) were both prepared in great haste. This may well account for some of the errors that occur on each side.)

PERSPECTIVES IN CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY John D. Caputo, Series Editor 1. John D. Caputo, ed., Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversa- tion with Jacques Derrida. 2. Michael Barber, Ethical Hermeneutics: Rationality in Enrique Dussel's Philosophy of Liberation. 3. ...

1 Summary Janet Martin Soskice’s new book entitled The Kindness of God: Metaphor, Gender, and Religious Language touches on various subject areas and it does so in an original way. It can be read as a collection of essays in systematic theology, as it deals with traditional loci such as the Trinity, Christ, anthropology, and eschatology. Soskice’s interest in philosophical questions makes it interesting also for philosophers of religion, and her strong interest in feminist issues gives it a distinct feminist twist. The introduction explains the title of the book by linking up ‘kindness’ to ‘kinship’: ‘In Middle English the words “kind” and “kin” were the same—to say that Christ is ‘our kinde Lord’ is not to say that Christ is tender and gentle, although that may be implied, but to say that he is kin—our kind. This fact, and not emotional disposition, is the rock which is our salvation. The title of this book wants to recapture that association.’ (5) The notion of kinship and kindness will return time and again in the book, as a web of associations that point to the relationality of human beings among one another, the significance of our bodily being on earth, and the understanding of God as a God for and with us in Christ, rather than far away and separate from our material being. The first chapter is entitled ‘Love and Attention’, and contrasts a philosophy and religious life that remains detached and merely intellectual with one in which relationships, the concrete life and the bodily embedding of all our human life play a key role. This is brought to bear on the idea of virginity as Soskice sees it in Gregory of Nyssa and the distinction between uti and frui in Augustine, both of which she sees as pointing to a detachment from ordinary life in favour of a direct relationship with God. Soskice objects to the tendency of abstraction that is inherent in theologies that turn away from our bodily experience. Opposite to Gregory and Augustine’s tendency to the ‘man of reason’ she places the mother, thus introducing an aspect of gender to the discussion. At the end of the chapter, she suggests that a theology that is closer to our affective way of living is not alien to Christian theology, because God’s history with Israel is extended in Christian theology to include the human history of us all.

There has always been a need for Christian theologians to engage contemporary philosophy in order to reflect upon their beliefs. Too often we forget that the creeds were Hellenized in rather straightforward attempts to think through basic questions about who Jesus is, what he ...