Humanism, education and spirituality: Approaching psychosis with levinas

The article investigates the recent turn towards Emmanuel Levinas’ writings in the philosophy of Education. Engaging this turn, the article sets out to develop an ethical, personal and contemplative approach towards understanding and responding to psychosis. By imagining a Levinasian horizon for understanding the experience of psychosis in the Teaching-Learning environment, Levinas’ thought gives hope to take on the work of justice and offer a gift of friendship especially when faced with students experiencing psychosis. The approach towards people suffering the moods and difficulties of psychosis, the article argues, parallels the very spiritual practice of contemplation

Book Review: David Matzko McCarthy and M Therese Lysaught, \u3cem\u3eGathered for the Journey: An Introduction to Catholic Moral Theology\u3c/em\u3e, London, SCM Press, 2007

Catholic moral theology is central to understanding the Christian life and its practice in the family, church and society. We are always in the midst of the challenge of finding a way to clearly speak of moral thinking. Gathered for the Journey: An Introduction to Catholic Moral Theology answers this challenge in a remarkably coherent way. It is remarkable because it brings together a number of theologians with expertise in a variety or areas. Embracing the wisdom and riches of the Catholic theological tradition, the authors address our contemporary issues and experiences, producing a horizon of Catholic moral praxis for students of theology to deepen their Christian life and faith. Particularly, the contributors set out to articulate Catholic moral theology in the light of Scripture, the Trinity, the crucified and risen Christ, the liturgy (and in particular the Eucharist), the theologies of Aquinas and Pope John Paul II as well as post-conciliar writings

Phenomenology, theology and psychosis: Towards compassion

The article argues for a phenomenological and theological perspective of psychosis. It draws especially upon Levinas’ philosophy as a way of looking at psychosis and responding with compassion. It aims to show that the world of psychosis parallels the Levinas’ negative characterisation of both ontology and the categories of objectivity, presence and Being. This suggests that the language of ontology itself holds insights into the experience of psychosis and perhaps further that the language of alterity (otherness) could be a possible response to it. Psychosis should not be understood as a ‘psychological problem’, but rather as an altered state of existence dominated by idolisation, ethical escapism, and terrifying and enthralling transcendence. Fear, horror, confusion with the good and the impossibility of death are the dominant emotions and experiences. As a result, the self, consumed by the idol of fear, must not only seek out and deceive the good, but transcend the possibility of death and thus ever deny its reality in life. If the word of God is to be heard in the face of an Other with psychosis, then there must be a compassionate response that might even one day take the form of friendship and solidarity. Like Christ entering into the depths of loneliness on Holy Saturday, so too we are called to enter into a space and time to bring both life and death together, a reality in which the Other’s fear of death and grief might be encountered and transformed into an existence of hope and grace

The Triune Drama of the Resurrection Levinas\u27 Non-Phenomenology

The article aims to develop the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas as a valuable new perspective in understanding the triune drama of the Resurrection. Firstly, the juxtaposition of Levinas’ thought and Christian theology will be argued for, followed by a development of von Balthasar’s Trinitarian theology of the Resurrection. Especially, Levinas’ non-phenomenological notion of “otherness” will be used to offer an understanding of the Risen Christ’s “Otherness” as communicating the non-phenomenality of Holy Saturday to the disciples. As a result, we discover significant theological openings towards a vision of a Biblical God free from the constraints of ontological thinking and phenomenal experience

Book Review: Practical Theology: An Introduction by Richard R. Osmer and Studying Christian Spirituality by David Perrin

The future of Christianity is a concern at the heart of being and faith. In the passivity of encountering people’s faces, dreams and hopes, we can be exposed to feelings of loneliness, failure, suffering, outrage and brokenness. And it is here, in the face of our neighbour, that we begin to appreciate the depth of the Church. The future of Christianity may remain secret, yet the extent to which we journey into another’s life, offer a welcome and benediction of peace, gives hope to envision a messianic era and a future world of ethics, prayer and love. And it is in this desire and concern for the future of Christianity that Richard Osmer and David Perrin have each written books to awake our capacities for transcendence in the world

Good Teaching, Spirituality and the Challenge of Encountering Cultural Difference in Australia

The essay aims to show that nurturing a spirituality of good teaching could provide a more committed and responsible attitude towards education and encountering cultural difference in Australia. Spirituality speaks of relationships, the search for meaning and of having a heart for another. Students demand that teachers should be many things such as passionate, engaging, intelligent, fun, challenging, fair and creative. The more we can develop meaning and a spirituality in teaching, the more we may meet these demands to attend to the students’ enthusiasm, frustration, uncertainty, impatience, fears and dreams. Part I of the essay will explore some Levinasian-inspired ways how spirituality might coincide with good teaching. From raising the question, “What makes a good teacher?”, the essay will touch upon Levinas’ ideas of otherness, encounter and passivity as a means to develop the notion of transcendental knowledge and the ethical qualities of good teaching. Part II studies the connection between lecturing and Levinas’ philosophy by way of examining misconceptions of encountering students from another culture and of developing a spirituality and response of ethics and prayer. Given the diverse cultural landscape in Australia, developing a responsible ethic and spirituality of openness towards encountering cultural difference in the classroom, can hopefully do much to inspire and re-imagine a profound sense of being Australian

Thinking otherwise: Theology, inculturation and climate change

Eco-Theology and Creation Spirituality are examples of major attempts to dialogue with science. In the process, they have journeyed through diversity. In contrast, the essay will seek to take another route to think otherwise upon ecological responsibility. First, it comments on the danger of being forgetful of the Christian narrative. This is not to deny the impact of climate change or global warming, but to argue that fear and facts should not necessarily be the starting point for addressing our present concern. The essay then brings into conversation the idea of ‘the quest’ for Jesus the Christ. The quest consists of five key stages: life, journey, discovery, transformation and transcendence. Using these stages as a guide, the essay sets out to develop a logic of faith to bring theo-logical sense and meaning to the conversation upon climate change. Rather than the totality of the presence of personal experience, the objectivity of facts and the being of competing, purely anthropocentric self-interests, there is something “otherwise”: the wisdom of God working in us in hidden ways. Through life, in the journey of faith, the self faces the opportunity to discover and discern God’s will. This may perhaps lead to transformation and transcendence where prayer and ethics concord in the passion to give of oneself for the world. In other words, a thinking otherwise of ‘what God has revealed through the Spirit’ (1 Cor 2:10), namely the person and mission of Jesus the Christ, is invoked into the conversation. For the Church, this is the logic of inculturation, that is, of witnessing the Christian truth so that others can understand and accept it. Dramatically, the spirit of truth can be revealed in a personal ‘hello’ containing a benediction, a first transcendence or an invocation to be responsible. Vigilantly, in this encounter of the proximity of the other’s face, the possibility comes to mind to hear the word of God and think otherwise upon ecological responsibility

Book Review: Into the Dark: Seeing the Sacred in the Top Films of the 21st Century. By Craig Detweiler.

The art of interpretation demands good sense and sensibility before we can arrive at meaning. There are a multitude of choices and methods available. One popular option is to draw together theory and experience. Where we come to the world of theology and ‘top films of the 21st Century,’ the synthesis of thematisation of ideas and representations of experience is a predictable choice. Following this synthetic approach yet developing it as something that can be recycled anew, the theologian and Hollywood script writer, Craig Detweiler, has produced engaging and often exciting reflections upon many top IMDb ranked films of the early 21st Century. He has particularly limited his discussion to the genre of ‘film noir’. And so ‘into the dark,’ Detweiller takes the reader as closely as possible to experience the sacred in the movie theatre. Perhaps like Noah, he creates his own ‘ark’ of reflections or, like Derrida, a personal archive of memory from the Internet Movie Database, so that we make develop an ‘archive fever’ and invite theology on a journey into the dark of a world flooded by films and ‘the play’ of stories

The (im)possibilities of Levinas for Christian Theology: the search for a language of alterity

The paper aims to show how Levinas’ philosophy opens up a style of thinking and suggests a vocabulary of expression that can serve Christian theology, especially by opening the possibility of a language of alterity, or radical “otherness”, in theology. At the very risk of falling into the language of onto-theology, the paper will make use of a number of Levinasian notions to enhance Hans Urs von Balthasar’s theological reading of John 20:19-23 and his analogy of the transcendentals. The sense of the non-phenomenality of Christ’s otherness will be pivotal to our inquiry and our hope to unite theological language and ethical transcendence together. ISBN: 978-90-429-2119-

Re-Thinking Cosmology Ethically and Theologically in the Light of Emmanuel Lévinas\u27 Phenomenology of Evil

This article uses the ethical metaphysics of the French-Jewish Philosopher and Talmudic Scholar, Emmanuel Lévinas, to advance a Judeo-Christian theological approach to Cosmology. Although Lévinas has been long noted by Christian theologians, his writings have not yet been considered by Science and, in particular, cosmology. It is argued that Lévinas\u27 phenomenology of Evil provides an important foundation for creating an ethical Judeo-Christian approach to cosmology. Constituting three moments, namely, (i) Evil as Excess, (ii) Evil as an intention and (iii) Evil as hatred of Evil, his phenomenology of evil unveils two important cosmological findings: (i) the nature of the universe as God\u27s disinterestedness and (ii) the origins of this nature as God\u27s hatred of evil