Minimal Theologies: Critiques of Secular Reason in Adorno and Levinas

Are theology, metaphysics, and ethics outdated as modes of rigorous philosophical inquiry? Is the concept of reason now exclusively subjective or entirely illusory? Is faith possible in the aftermath of the twentieth century? In their writings, Theodor Adorno and Emmanuel Levinas suggest that "after Auschwitz," one can no longer assume the presence of a divinity originating or directing the course of the world. At the same time, they contend, one must doubt the claims of rigid nihilism and lax relativism. What remains, they each argue in their own way, is a trace of a transcendent Other, whatever its nature. In Minimal Theologies, Hent de Vries analyzes, systematizes, and formalizes this idea of the Other in Adorno and Levinas, positing that theology is still possible in the modern and postmodern world, though only a theology stripped of its lofty pretensions: a theology in pianissimo, a minimal theology. Confronting the language, argumentation, and images employed by these two otherwise divergent thinkers, de Vries argues that rationality and faith can be reconciled. Offering the first extensive comparative analysis of Adorno and Levinas, Minimal Theologies also provides intriguing insights into the works of their respective intellectual heirs, Habermas and Derrida. Originally published in German to critical acclaim - it received the University of Leiden's Legatum-Stolpianum Prize in 1994, awarded once every five years to the best study in philosophical theology - this book has been revised to take into account recent scholarship on Adorno and Levinas and de Vries's further reflections on the subject.

Table of Contents:
Preface and Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction: Tertium Datur Part I. Antiprolegomena Chapter 1. Toward a Critique of Theology Chapter 2. A Possible Internal and External Differentiation of Habermas's Theory of Rationality Part II. Dialectica Chapter 3. Paradox and Aporia in Adorno's Philosophy of Nonidentity Chapter 4. The Construction of Occidental Subjectivism: Reductio ad hominem versus Remembrance of Nature in the Subject Chapter 5. The Breaking Apart of Western Objectivism and the Resurrection of the Particular and the Ephemeral in the Philosophy of History Chapter 6. Metaphysical Experience Part III. Phaenomenologica Chapter 7. Paradox and Aporia in Levinas's Philosophy of the Ethical-Religious Other Chapter 8. Levinas on Art and Truth Chapter 9. The Dialectics of Subjectivity and the Critique of Objectivism Chapter 10. Loosening Logocentrism: Language and Skepticism Part IV. Hermeneutica Sacra sive Profana Chapter 11. From Unhappy Consciousness to Bad Conscience Chapter 12 "The Other Theology": Conceptual, Historical, and Political Idolatry Appendix. The Theology of the Sign and the Sign of Theology: The Apophatics of Deconstruction Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Hent de Vries is professor of Modern European Thought in the Humanities Center and the Department of Philosophy at the Johns Hopkins University and professor of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. Among his books are Philosophy and the Turn to Religion and Religion and Violence: Philosophical Perspectives from Kant to Derrida, both available from Johns Hopkins. He is the co-editor, with Samuel Weber, of Violence, Identity, and Self-Determination and Religion and Media, and, with Mieke Bal, of the book series Cultural Memory in the Present.

Review :
This fiercely intricate and intriguing work gestures towards a 'theological' position that avoids the Scylla of false hope and the Charybdis of nihilism... A suggestive, intelligent and erudite (non-linear) journey alongside Habermas, Adorno, Levinas and Derrida. -- Christopher J. Insole Times Literary Supplement 2006 A deeply impressive achievement and an important contribution to theological debate in the wake of Critical Theory and deconstruction. -- Colin Davis Modern Language Review 2006 Is modern or twentieth-century philosophy, as any cursory look would seem to indicate, overwhelmingly secular, or is there perhaps an unacknowledged entanglement with religion that may be constitutive of what the most sophisticated thinking was and continues to be? It is the latter alternative that Hent de Vries has explored in his now substantial body of research on the works of thinkers such as Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-Luc Marion, Jacques Derrida and Theodor W. Adorno-all of whom he takes to represent a kind of 'working through' of theological motifs in the register of conceptual, philosophical reflection. De Vries has previously published two acclaimed books on this topic- Philosophy and the Turn to Religion (1999) and Religion and Violence (2001)... Minimal Theologies is an important book that ought to find a wide readership. -- Espen Hammer Radical Philosophy 2005 A substantial contribution to the philosophy of religion and to the study of the thought of Adorno and Levinas. Studies in Religion / Sciences Religieuses 2006 Very demanding but rewarding book. -- Marsha Aileen Hewitt Religious Studies Review 2006 Deserves to be examined with care. -- Ryan Coyne Journal of Religion 2007