Givenness and Revelation

Givenness and Revelation represents both the unity and the deep continuity of Jean-Luc Marions thinking over many decades. This investigation into the origins and evolution of the concept of revelation arises from an initial reappraisal of the tension between natural theology and the revealed knowledge of God or sacra doctrina. Marion draws on the re-definition of the notions of possibility and impossibility, the critique of the reification of the subject, and the unpredictability of the event in its relationship to the gift in order to assess the respective capacities of dogmatic theology, modern metaphysics, contemporary phenomenology, and the biblical texts, especially the New Testament, to conceive the paradoxical phenomenality of a revelation. This work thus brings us to the very heart and soul of Marions theology, concluding with a phenomenological approach to the Trinity that uncovers the logic of gift performed in the scriptural manifestation of Jesus Christ as Son of the Father. Givenness and Revelation enhances not only our understanding of religious experience, but enlarges the horizon of possibility of phenomenology itself. With a Foreword by Ramona Fotiade, Senior Lecturer in French, and David Jasper, Professor of Literature and Theology, both at the University of Glasgow.

Table of Contents:
Foreword 'Jean-Luc Marion: A Reflection' by Ramona Fotiade and David Jasper Introduction 1: The Aporia of the Concept of Revelation: The Epistemological Interpretation 2: An Attempt at a Phenomenal Re-Appropriation of Revelation 3: Christ as Saturated Phenomenon: The Icon of the Invisible 4: A Logic of Manifestation: The Trinity Conclusion

About the Author :
Jean-Luc is a Member of the Académie française, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV). He is the Andrew Thomas Greeley and Grace McNichols Greeley Professor of Catholic Studies, Professor of the Philosophy of Religions and Theology, and Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Chicago. He also holds the Dominique Dubarle chair at the Institut Catholique of Paris.; Dr. Stephen E. Lewis is Professor and Chair of the English Department at the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Review :
Giveness and Revelation takes in wide historical horizons. For Marion the uniqueness of the doctrine of the Trinity lies in its revelation of a unity consisting in love, "put into operation as communion". He counters the protest that Christianity betrays the monotheism of the other Abrahamic religions by arguing that Trinitarian theology discloses a unity "well beyond the empty unicity of numeration". Marion has succeeded in showing how Western reason can be opened to a transcendence greater than explanatory reason can grasp. Marions Givenness and Revelation provides a Trinitarian account of revelation, which, though based mainly on biblical texts, ends up both redefining theology as revealed theology and realizing the principles of his phenomenology of givenness. Marion is right to identify givenness and revelation as foundational concepts for phenomenology and theology respectively. His Gifford Lectures helpfully fill out his interest in revelation as a pre-eminent example of phenomenality.