The Givenness of Desire: Concrete Subjectivity and the Natural Desire to See God(Lonergan Studies)

In The Givenness of Desire, Randall S. Rosenberg examines the human desire for God through the lens of Lonergan's "concrete subjectivity." Rosenberg engages and integrates two major scholarly developments: the tension between Neo-Thomists and scholars of Henri de Lubac over our natural desire to see God and the theological appropriation of the mimetic theory of Rene Girard, with an emphasis on the saints as models of desire. With Lonergan as an integrating thread, the author engages a variety of thinkers, including Hans Urs von Balthasar, Jean-Luc Marion, Rene Girard, James Alison, Lawrence Feingold, and John Milbank, among others. The theme of concrete subjectivity helps to resist the tendency of equating too easily the natural desire for being with the natural desire for God without at the same time acknowledging the widespread distortion of desire found in the consumer culture that infects contemporary life. The Givenness of Desire investigates our paradoxical desire for God that is rooted in both the natural and supernatural.

Acknowledgements

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE: DE LUBAC, RESSOURCEMENT, AND NEO-THOMISM

CHAPTER 1: De Lubac’s Lament: Loss of the Supernatural 
CHAPTER 2: Ressourcement and Neo-Thomism: A Narrative under Scrutiny, A Dialogue Renewed 

PART TWO: A LONERGAN RETRIEVAL: PURE NATURE TO CONCRETE SUBJECT

CHAPTER 3: The Erotic Roots of Intellectual Desire  
CHAPTER 4: Concretely-Operating Nature: Lonergan on the Natural Desire to See God 
CHAPTER 5: Being-in-Love and the Desire for the Supernatural: Erotic-Agapic Subjectivity

PART III: MIMETIC DESIRE, MODELS OF HOLINESS, AND THE LOVE OF DEVIATED TRANSCENDENCE

CHAPTER 6: Incarnate Meaning and Mimetic Desire: Saints and the Desire for God 
CHAPTER 7: The Metaphysics of Holiness and the Longing for God in History: Thérèse of Lisieux and Etty Hillesum 
CHAPTER 8: Distorted Desire and the Love of Deviated Transcendence 

CONCLUSION

Randall S. Rosenberg is an assistant professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University.

‘This volume is a valuable resource for any scholar interested in the desire for self-transcendence and the natural desire for God.’

"Rosenberg has achieved something rare: a genuine and sympathetic conversation among neo-Scholastics, Lonergan, Girard, and la nouvelle théologie. The result is a valuable and immensely stimulating book, funded by terrific insight, for a theologically sophisticated readership."