The thought of Jean-Louis Chretien is most familiar to those who have taken up the theological turn in French phenomenology, yet it defies reduction to either phenomenology or theology, or for that matter spirituality, literature, or Greek thought. Written in beautiful French prose and argued with unsurpassed erudition, Chretien's works defy easy interpretation. One nonetheless finds a center of gravity in attempts to define and then elaborate an original account of human being in terms of call and response, from which there follow penetrating studies of language and body, as well as illuminating approaches to a range of themes including temporality, prayer, and religious reading. This volume gathers original work from leading scholars in the fields of philosophy, theology and poetics, including Chretien's collaborators, successors, and Anglophone interpreters. They engage his work along its main lines, at once presenting it in summary fashion and exploring its strengths and weaknesses for our understanding of some of the topics and problems that held his prolonged attention. Readers new to Chretien will easily find a number of points of access, while more advanced readers will find that their understanding is both deepened and enriched. Contributors: Rudolf Bernet, Jeffrey Bloechl, Emmanuel Falque, Jerome de Gramont, Crina Gshwandtner, Emmanuel Housset, Stephen E. Lewis, Jean-Luc Marion, Catherine Pickstock, Andrew Prevot
Jeffrey Bloechl is professor and chair of the department of philosophy at Boston College. He is also honorary research fellow of the Australian Catholic University. His research and teaching is concentrated in contemporary European thought, philosophy of religion, philosophical anthropology, and ethics.
Acknowledgements Editor's Introduction, Jeffrey Bloechl 1. Knowing the Secret After and According to Jean-Louis Chretien, Jean-Luc Marion 2. Blessed Failing, Jerome de Gramont 3. Fatigue, Illness and Joy, Rudolf Bernet 4. Wrestling with the Angel, Emmanuel Falque 5. Hospitality and Responsibility. The Possibility of an Antiphonal Ethics in Jean-Louis Chretien, Crina Gschwandtner 6. The Body of the Response, Emmanuel Housset 7. The Poetics of the Symbolic Body in Chretien's "Symbolique du Corps", Stephen E. Lewis 8. Praying with Jean-Louis Chretien, Andrew Prevot 9. The Cosmic Poetics of Jean-Louis Chretien, Catherine Pickstock About the Contributors Index
