Creston Davis on William Desmond and Hegel

"For some time now I have maintained that the only hope for theology to breakout of it present day deadlock is through Hegel..."


Creston Davis writes about Hegel and Desmond:

[T]ranscendence for Hegel had to risk its very being for it-self in order for transcendence to fully realize itself in materialism as such–so that transcendence could fully realize its being in-and-for-itself. In short, it is clear that Hegel’s ontological structure of the negative provides theology tools by which to realize the truth of its own discourse–a movement of risk, of embracement, and above all, of love....

This is why it is absolutely crucial to engage with the work of the Irish Catholic philosopher William Desmond. For it is Desmond’s work that calls us to radically re-think Hegel’s project on many different and interactive levels....It is my belief that Hegel is not the same without really reading Desmond.  More radically, this book posits the question: Could it be that Desmond is that which saves Hegel from himself!  And, if so, does not this very possibility change the coordinates of theology (and Continental Philosophy) today?

Read the full post HERE.  Foreword to the Desmond Reader is by John Caputo.  Info on the reader is below or HERE at the SUNY website.

Known especially for his original system of metaphysics in a trilogy of books published between 1995 and 2008, and for his scholarship on Hegel, William Desmond has left his mark on the philosophy of religion, ethics, and aesthetics. The William Desmond Reader provides for the first time in a single book a point of entry into his original and constructive philosophy, including carefully chosen selections of his works that introduce the key ideas, perspectives, and contributions of his philosophy as a whole. Also featured is an original essay by Desmond himself reflecting synthetically on the topics covered, as well as an interview by Richard Kearney. 

The William Desmond Reader

Table of Contents

Foreword by John Caputo
Acknowledgments
Introduction
List of William Desmond’s Works

Part I. Metaphysics and Philosophy
1. The Fourfold Way
2. Transcendences
3. The Truth of Metaphysics
4. What Is Metaphysical Thinking?
5. Metaphysics and Dialectic
6. The Metaxological
7. The Idiocy of Being
8. Agapeic Mind

Part II. Ethics and Ethos
9. Autonomy and Freedom
10. The Potencies of the Ethical
11. Metaxological Ethics

Part III. Religion and the Philosophy of God
12. Agapeic Origin
13. Breaking the Silence
14. Godlessness
15. Beyond Godlessness
16. Hegel’s Counterfeit Double
17. God and the Metaxological Way
18. God and Hyperbole
19. God beyond the Whole
20. God Being Over-Being: A Metaphysical Canto

Part IV. Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
21. Being Aesthetic
22. Being at a Loss: On Philosophy and the Tragic
23. Art and Transcendence

Part V. Retrospections and Reflections
24. Wording the Between
25. “Two Thinks at a Distance”: An Interview with William Desmond by Richard Kearney on 9 January 2011

Index